Fiela's Child

Set in nineteenth-century rural Africa, Fiela's Child by Dalene Matthee tells the gripping story of Fiela Komoetie ,a black woman, and a white three-year old child, Benjamin, whom she finds crying on her doorstep. For nine years, Fiela raises Benjamin as one of her own children. When census takers discover Benjamin, they send him to an illiterate white family of woodcutters who claim him as their son. What follows is Benjamin's search for his identity and the major changes affecting the white and black families who claim him. Matthee is constantly comparing different relationships throughout the novel. The positive and negative relationships he experienced through the two families helped him find his true identity.
Benjamin’s search for his
Matthee uses foil to show the difference between the parents of the two families. The first way she shows this is the difference of the love, treatment, parenting skills, and views on family between Elias and Fiela. Elias’s family is patriarchal meaning he is the father and ruler of the family. He feels that he could do anything he wanted with the child. Enjoy the fruits of his labor, abuse him, etc.“Once he had grown out of his nonsense, he would be a useful son... He would haul out so many beams to Deep Walls, they would hardly fit on one wagon.” [Matthee 155] Exemplifies that father took the disciplinary role in the family. Evident when Elias beats Lukas after he tried to run away. “He would beat it out of him if it was the last thing he did… I’ll beat [Lukas] dead.” [Matthee 158] “So he tied him up with the ox rein and left just enough slack round his legs to allow him to take small steps at a time.”[Matthee 159] Emphasizes Lukas being trapped with the Van Rooyens and how Elias expects him to provide for the family and act like his son. With the treatment he bared from Elias he thought that everyone listened to the father, children earned their living, and families were independent in producing what they needed to
It is something that is easy to understand because Matthee shows how racial disparity tore families apart and how it was one of the main obstacles seen in the novel. It messed around with the reasoning of the magistrate. It also didn’t let Fiela see Benjamin for a long time after they separated and interfered with an important outcome that affected Selling’s life. Gender roles and social customs/ racial disparity created cultural and geographical differences between the Van Rooyens and Komoeties. The important righteousness and primary duty of respect, obedience, and care for one's parents and elderly family members is an important element of the story. The expectations Elias had for his children made him a unlikeable character. With all these experiences Benjamin decided his identity. He was not Lukas van Rooyen he was Benjamin