Slavery In Fiela's Child

The treatment of slaves in America was cruel and unjust. Many men, women, and children have been torn from their homes and brought across the sea to work for strangers in exchange for very little. They were considered property and stripped of what made them unique citizens. In certain aspects, the characteristics of slavery is very similar to the unjust treatment the children of the Komoetie and Van Rooyen families face in Fiela’s Child. While trying to find his identity Benjamin is sent to live with the Van Rooyen’s, who were glad the quest of their son, Lukas who happened to go missing around the same time Benjamin Komoetie appeared on Fiela’s doorstep was finally over. In Fiela’s child, the children being silenced within the story symbolizes …show more content…
He takes Nina’s hair and “cuts it the way you cut corn with a knife” (163). He also ties both Nina and Lukas to the ox reins and whip them, “he tied him up with the ox reins” (159). “Before the first stroke hit her, she started screaming while trying to get away.” (162). Elias’ violent tendencies is similar to those of the slave masters around the same time the book takes place. “For every answer he gave him a lash.” (159) is an example of Elias’ dominance over the kids and how they are viewed as property compared to him. Whenever Lukas replied with the answer Elias didn’t want to hear, he got whipped, the same way disobedient slaves would be taken care of by their slave …show more content…
Lukas losing his possessions without his consent in comparison to slaves who were left with nothing, the only thing Lukas had left to remind him of his family in Wolwekraal was the five-shilling coin he kept “sometimes in his pocket, sometimes in my mouth’” (127). Nina confessed to pa looking into Lukas “stuff in his box to see if there was any money” (127). They invaded his personal space despite having him back into their family as their son. If they loved Lukas the way they claim to, then they wouldn’t have looked through his stuff. They should respect him as a human being unlike the way African slaves were.
The silencing of the children in Fiela’s Child, by Dalene Matthee is similar to the treatment of Africans brought to America as well as in South Africa. Lukas and Nina both underwent unjust treatment by the hand of their father similar to the way Africans were treated under the hand of white slave owners while slavery was legal. The whipping of the children revealed the lack of power, and identity the children were exposed to while living with Elias who characteristics line up with one of a slave