Poquette has a bachelor's degree in English and specializes in writing about literature. In the following essay, Poquette discusses Kohler's political and historical subtext in "Africans."

Kohler's "Africans" is actually two stories. On the surface, it is a powerful story about the betrayal of a white woman by her beloved African servant. However, for those who are familiar with the complex political history of South Africa, it yields much more. In her review of One Girl: A Novel in Stories for Library Journal, Barbara Hoffert notes: "Kohler is not explicitly political in her writing, yet implicitly, by capturing the power plays that define human relationships, she suggests the brutality of regimes like apartheid South Africa." In fact, upon further analysis, one can see that Kohler does much more than suggest the brutality of apartheid. Through the story's subtext, Kohler examines the crippling effects of apartheid through the...