Race and Identity Theme Analysis

Fiela’s Child centers around one young man’s struggle to figure out his identity. He wonders whether he’s truly Benjamin Komoetie, the adopted son of the “Coloured” (multiracial) farmer Fiela, or whether he is Lukas van Rooyen, the lost son of Elias and Barta who wandered off as a young child and was originally presumed dead. The novel takes place on the Western Cape of South Africa in the 1800s. Institutional racism and white supremacy are prevalent, with Afrikaners (the white descendants of Dutch settlers) having much more political, social, and economic power than the mixed race Coloured people of the area. Benjamin’s situation is unique—after spending his formative years with Coloured Komoetie family, a magistrate’s decision suddenly makes him part of the white van Rooyen family. Being white himself, Benjamin looks like the van Rooyens on the outside, yet the formative years he spent with Fiela as his mother continue to shape who he is on the inside.

When some census-takers stop by the Komoetie farm and happen to notice the white Benjamin there, they set in motion the series of events that will end with Benjamin being forced to live with his new family. Benjamin’s behavior disturbs many of the white people he meets along the way, particular his tendency to refer to them as “master” (a common form of address that Coloured people use when speaking to white people). Perhaps Benjamin’s behavior is so alarming to people like the census-takers and the magistrate because it challenges the very premise of a society based on racial segregation. If a white boy like Benjamin can learn to act “Coloured,” it suggests that racial differences may not be so rigid after all. The people at the magistrate’s office as well as Elias and Barta try to teach Benjamin to act as a white person ought to act, telling him to stop saying “master” and “missus” and to cut ties with his old adopted family for good. Rather than allowing Benjamin’s unique upbringing to challenge their preconceived ideas about white and Coloured, they instead try to force Benjamin to conform to their rigid ideas about race. And so, while Fiela’s Child shows the profound impact that a person’s race can have on their identity and ultimately on the course of their life, it also shows how race is partly a social construction—something that is taught and enforced rather than inherent.