‘Farmer and Servant’ : H. I. E. Dhlomo’s Conception of Modern Slavery

Even though slavery had been formally abolished in 1807 in the territories of the British Empire, the native population of South Africa continued to be harsh exploited by white South Africans. The short story by the prolific native writer H.I.E. Dhlomo, written in the thirties but published only in 1985, focuses on farm labour in particular. My aim in discussing this paper is to show how racial categories have been used in South Africa to legitimise slavery, even before the institutionalisation of apartheid. Dhlomo's fictional account of the plight of rural blacks in Boers' farms poignantly adheres to the conventions of verisimilitude. The short story, for instance, interestingly pinpoints the structural differences in the hierarchy of labourers, from the so-called "indunas" to recruited labourers. Apart from its engaging use of realism, "Farmer and Servant" further deserves scholarly attention. Indeed, it can be considered the fictional counterpart - and forerunner - of the journalistic reports on slave labour of the fifties - and particularly those by Henry Nxumalo. Thus, Dhlomo's piece of short fiction can be considered a valid example of artistic representations on a peculiar form of slavery in the African continent, namely farm labour in South Africa in the midst of the twentieth century.