The Promise

While all the Swart family members left alive after Rachel’s death bear some responsibility for not fulfilling the promise to give Salome ownership of her house, Manie bears the most responsibility. He fails to keep the promise and lies about ever having made it in the first place, setting an example to his children that the promise is unreasonable and unimportant. Although Manie performs labor on his farm and at his reptile park, he has inherited wealth from his father and therefore does not understand the life of a Black South African like Salome, who labors just as hard—if not harder—but has very little to show for it.

While Manie thinks himself a wise and discerning person, his relationship with Reverend Simmers proves that he does not possess these qualities as much as he would like to believe. While he wants to reform his behavior after almost losing Amor when she gets struck by lightning, he takes only limited responsibility for his own reformation, depending on Simmers’s suggestions and judgment.