Said to be an allegory of power relations between individuals in a colonial setting, the major themes of this story by Sheila Kohler are oppression and betrayal. An Afrikaner betrays his family through a combination of physical assaults, homosexual encounters, and inappropriate touching of his son’s classmates. His wife betrays him with an overseas affair, and her son and his classmates by not reporting his paedophilic tendencies to the police. Lastly, the wife’s “loyal” African servant since childhood betrays her in a moment of need. Other themes include family, gender roles, sexuality, domestic violence, fear, loyalty vs. duty.
Domestic oppression (Skatie being followed by her husband and having to be home every day for lunch) is self-evident in the story. However, the theme of colonial oppression is presented rather subtly through the contrast between the description of the noble Zulu warrior attributes in the opening paragraph, and the images of John on his knees scrubbing out a cupboard that smells Zulu, or constantly polishing the family silver with a toothbrush.
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