Act 1, Scene 2:The Rain of my blood.

The brutality and ill treatment of farm labourers at Altena Farm continues unabated. The girl in Scene 1is viciously pushed onto the stage by the cruel foreman Bulala who accuses her of sleeping while other labourers are working. The girl makes a counter accusation to the foreman that he wanted to sleep with her. However, the foreman denies the accusation. The white man Jeffries appears to ignore the accusation levelled against his foreman. Jeffries instructs the foreman to dock $5 from the girl’s monthly pay. He further instructs the foreman to sjambok the girl. Through stage directions, we see the foreman grovelling to the White master. The foreman’s lies are exposed when he lies that the girl was sleeping at 10 o’clock when it had not yet chimed 10 o’clock. Jeffries, the white master jots down the girl’s name Keresencia Janhi.

Stage directions further tell us about a group of farm labourers whose faces are drenched in their sweat, trotting and carrying bags of shelled maize. The foreman is brandishing a whip following closely behind them. The picture is very pitiful and gloomy. Another group of farm labourers follows. Within the group is an old woman who is behind the rest. She is pushed by the foreman and she staggers and falls. This shows the foreman is unfeeling. She is commanded to rise up by the foreman. Jeffries sees her and decides that she is too old to continue working at the farm. He instructs the foreman to find a replacement from the nearby reserves bcoz the woman is too old to continue working. She is just discarded just like a tissue or pumper, without any pension to go and die. The scene serves to show the uncaring nature of the whites on white owned farms during the colonial era. This is one of the reasons that pushed blacks to join the liberation struggle to fight the exploitative colonial regime.