Fiela’s Child: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

Fiela sees some bad omens but only recognizes them as bad in hindsight. With her husband, Selling Komoetie, she watches her children, including Benjamin, as they herd an ostrich back home with thorny branches. Fiela and her whole family are “Coloured” (multiracial, and what would be considered Black in most other parts of the world today) except for Benjamin, who is white. Fiela discovered Benjamin abandoned when he was about three years old. It has been a hot summer, and Kloof gets little relief from it, with ostriches being one of the few things that live there. Ostriches often die when young, but Fiela has a male one named Kicker that survived. The ostrich her children are leading now is a hen that Fiela bought and hopes to mate with Kicker.

When Benjamin gets back with the other children and the ostrich, the first thing he does is check on his boats, which he carves out of pieces of wood. Just then, two men in black hats and suits approach Fiela. They look like either preachers or peddlers. Fiela is suspicious of strangers. The men explain that they’re census-takers there from the government. Fiela hopes that Benjamin goes far away with the boats so the men don’t see him. The men ask if anyone here can read and write, and Fiela says she can. She begins giving the census-takers information for Selling and then for herself, including approximately when they were born and when they got married (1859).

Fiela worries again about Benjamin when the census-takers begin asking questions about her children. Kittie, their first child was born in 1856, then Dawid in 1857, Tollie in 1858, and Emma in 1860. Finally, after hesitating Fiela says Benjamin, who is about 12 years old, was born in 1862. The men get suspicious when Fiela says there’s no one else in the house, noting that in this area, “hangers on” often live with families, but Fiela says there’s no room at her place for anyone who can’t work.

All of a sudden, while Fiela is answering questions for the census-takers, Benjamin comes back from his boats. The census-takers instantly notice that unlike the rest of Fiela’s family, Benjamin is white. The men get suspicious and ask where Fiela found Benjamin. She says she found him right where they are sitting, about nine years ago. Fiela guesses that Benjamin’s mother abandoned him. The men remember a child that disappeared around that time in Kom’s Bush. Fiela protests that while Kom’s Bush may seem close, there are steep mountains around Kloof, and it’s impossible a three-year-old child made his way over them, especially nine years ago when there were no roads. She believes Benjamin looked too clean to have come from far away.

The census-takers accuse Fiela of lying to them. She admits she doesn’t know when Benjamin was born but that everyone in town knows he’s her son. The one man goes over to Benjamin and begins talking to him about boats. Eventually, the two men get ready to leave, but they say that they are going to inquire about the other missing child.