The title, “Six Feet of the Country,” is bitterly ironic. The narrator owns six miles of the country—land he uses for profit. Petrus’s family asks for only six feet of it—a grave. The state denies even that. In a deeper sense, the country does not belong to Johannes or Petrus. Their real home is the “reserves,” the impoverished, overcrowded Bantustans to which the apartheid state confined black people. The story argues that for a black South African, the entire country is a foreign land, except for the six feet of ancestral soil in which one hopes to be buried.
A funeral is held, but when the coffin is opened at the graveside, the family discovers it contains the body of a stranger . The health authorities have made a clerical error, burying Petrus’s brother in a pauper’s grave elsewhere and giving them someone else’s relative. six feet of the country by nadine gordimer summary
"Six Feet of the Country" is a rich and nuanced story that explores several themes and motifs, including: The title, “Six Feet of the Country,” is bitterly ironic
The narrator and his wife are outraged by the inhumanity and impersonality of this bureaucratic cruelty. They try to intervene, using their white privilege to demand the body so the family can give it a proper burial according to custom. They go through official channels, speak to clerks and minor officials, and even contact a lawyer. The state denies even that