The Story of an African Farm

Content Warning: This section discusses racist stereotypes, with outdated and offensive language used to describe indigenous peoples replicated only in explanations or direct quotations.

The Story of an African Farm takes place at the height of 19th-century colonialism. From the 1880s to the 1914 outbreak of World War I, the entire continent of Africa was engulfed in the so-called “Scramble for Africa,” when competing European nations battled over control of various African territories. Both the Dutch and the British laid claims on South Africa, where the novel is set, and fought wars over their sovereignty. The novel was published only two years after the First Boer War (1880-81), when the Dutch-speaking Boers triumphed over the British; however, that victory was only temporary, as the Second Boer War (1899-1902) resulted in a victory for the British Empire. While the specific politics of colonialism are mostly obscured throughout the novel, the setting is infused with its structures and inequities. Racism and racial or ethnic divisions are inherent in the project of colonialism, and their influence on social conventions is inescapable.

For example, the household on the farm encompasses multiple languages: Otto speaks German, Tant’ Sannie and