Benjamin Komoetie

Benjamin is the protagonist of the story which weaves and turns as he attempts to discover who he is and which family and larger racial community he belongs in. As a three-year-old, Benjamin is discovered abandoned on the doorstep of Fiela Komoetie, a black woman living in the Long Kloof community. She raises him as her adopted child alongside her four biological children and husband, Selling. Benjamin never questions why he is white and the rest of his family is black until the arrival of two government census takers sends Fiela into a true panic. They have come to take him away, believing him to be Lukas van Rooyen, the long lost son of Elias and Barta van Rooyen. Benjamin is returned to Elias and Barta and begins helping Elias with his work building wood beams in their small forest community. Benjamin resists forming relationships with his...