Conflicts+-+The+Second+Hut

One of the main themes in this story is the conflict between the three groups: The British, The Boers, and the Natives. Especially the conflict between the Natives and Van Heerden (the boer) is a big issue in the story. Through the story we see how the tension, between the parties involved, grows more and more up to the climax. Where Van Heerden hits the native workers and as response they burn his hut. The conflict between Van Heerden and the Natives has deeper roots. Since white Europeans (the Boers) for the first time settled in Africa there has been animosity between the two parties. The Boers used the Natives as slaves on their farms and even after slavery was abolished they still treated the Natives like slaves. Later the mostly more educated British came, they established new rules and banished the Boers into the north, where the Boers made great massacres among the natives. So also between the British and the Boers is a natural animosity but Van Heerden and Carruthers manage to conquer it. On both sides is a need of the other so they bury their animosity and work together.