The African Literature Assignment

Name: Ruchita Kankrecha 

Semester: 4

Roll No: 27

Enrollment No: 2069108420190024

Paper Name: The African Literature 

Topic: Theme of Torture 

Collage: SMT.S.B.Gardi Department of English 

“Torture has exerted a dark fascination “

According to J.M.Coetzee 

Do you think that torturing people will give you the right answer? Even after being tortured, are you sure that the answer you give is the right one? In my view, torture does not necessarily mean that a human will give the right answer. In many Movies, we see that the police believe that he can get the right answer only if he/she tortures the perpetrator. Police torture Sameer (John Abraham) in New York Movie because they want the right information and they believe that without torching him, he may not give them the right information they want. We have to think the worst forms of torture to have ever existed. The most horrifying reality of the twenties century is the wide spread existence of the state approved torture. The existence of torture in modern world raises difficult questions for writers as well as for readers particularly those from South African countries and American countries.  The question is should writers depict torture in their works and if they do than how should they portray the characters.  South African novelists, J.M. Coetzee brings these issues in his novel called Waiting for Barbarians.  

About Author:

John Maxwell Coetzee is a South African–born novelist; essayist, linguist, translator and he won the Nobel Prize in literature in 2003 and has also won the Booker Prize twice. Coetzee's first novel was Dusklands which was published in 1974. He has continued to produce novels at the rate of about one every three years. He has also written autobiographical novels, such as Boyhood, Youth and Summertime, short fiction, translations from Dutch and Afrikaans, and numerous essays and works of criticism. 

Plot summary: Waiting for the barbarians

"Pain is truth; all else is subject to doubt"

- J.M.Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians

This is Allegorical novel. The novel opens onto conversation between the Magistrate and Colonel Joll. Magistrate is the protagonist of the novel, a nameless civil servant. He is a good man. He helps people. When you go against your empire, then you will be punished. The same happens with Magistrate. He was punished because he helped one barbarian Girl. He is different from others people who are working there for the empire and doesn't support the idea of empire or barbarians. If you give your views which are against your empire's rule then you may be killed by your own empire. There are following important characters.

1. Magistrate - protagonist character of the novel

2. Colonel Joll - A powerful man or represent the empire

3. Mandel - An officer who taken Magistrate into custody because of being believed to have consorted with the barbarians

4. Barbarian girl

The empire believes that barbarians are not good. Barbarians are cruel and the Empire believes in racism. Empire judges the people by their looks. They think barbarians are cruel just because they are black or not good. Joll is invited in the empire because of one message that Barbarians are coming. Magistrate is not denied anything but he is doing his own investigation. The Barbarian girl stand for National Allegory and also stands for her nation Africa. Bruisers believe that barbarians are cruel but the real barbarians are Bruisers because they are doing violence or more cruel. Magistrate lives with a Barbarian girl but he knows his limitations. Magistrate had a physical relationship with a barbarian girl in the third chapter. In the end of the novel Joll feels isolated.

Let me give a brief introduction of the characters: 

1. Magistrate : 

Magistrate is a civil servant of the Empire who’s looking forward to retiring soon. The magistrate is the narrator and protagonist of Waiting for the Barbarians and when Colonel Joll comes at the settlement under the magistrate’s jurisdiction, the disappearance of quietude and stability in the magistrate’s life begins. He is very different from others. He knows that barbarians are not cruel as his empire is believed. He helps a barbarian girl. His attraction to the barbarian girl baffles and frustrates him. Further, in the novel, the barbarian girl’s poor vision makes the magistrate more self-conscious about his body, even though she can barely see it, and therefore his sexuality as a whole. 

2.                Colonel Joll :

Joll visits the Empire’s frontier settlements in order to interrogate any barbarians who have been taken prisoner, hoping to gain information about the barbarians’ raiding plans. Joll believes that barbarians are not good and try to attack the empire and he is not able to find what is true or false. We can see him in chapter one and in the last chapter. In the last chapter, Joll feels isolated. 

3.                Barbarian girl :

The nameless barbarian girl comes to play a central role in the magistrate’s life. After the magistrate discovers her begging on the street, he takes her under his wing, employing her as a cook and maid.  But the professional relationship quickly turns sexual. The barbarian girl therefore exposes a distance between herself and the magistrate. Even though she’s blind, the girl makes the magistrate feel more exposed and visible. Magistrate sees his reflection in the barbarians' eyes.

Coetzee describes waiting for barbarians as “about the impact of the torture chamber on the life of a man of Conscience”. This man of conscience, known only as the Magistrate, is chief administrator of a small village.  Magistrate is more conscious and he also knows why he is here or who he is. As I mentioned above, Magistrate is different from others. Novel opens as Colonel Joll arrives to investigate the rumored attack of the Barbarians upon the Empire. As Colonel interrogates and also tortures Barbarian prisoners. 

“The discs are dark, they look opaque from the outside, but he can see through them.”

Here we can also see the symbol of Dark Glasses, Symbol of hiding something.  Maybe Joll wants to hide something.  Barbarians are coming, that's why Joll is here. It is said that to communicate with others, Eye contact is necessary. When you don’t do this at that time people will believe that you are nervous or you are hiding something.  Eye gives you vision. We also have to think what Magistrate achieves in his life and other characters in the novel.  

Original lines: 

“When I see Colonel Joll again, when he has the leisure, I bring the conversation around to torture.

"What if your prisoner is telling the truth," I ask, "yet finds he is not believed? Is that not a terrible position?

Imagine: to be prepared to yield, to yield, to have nothing more to yield, to be broken, yet to be pressed to yield more! And what a responsibility for the interrogator! How do you ever know when a man has told you the truth?"

"There is a certain tone," Joll says. "A certain tone enters the voice of a man who is telling the truth. Training and experience teach us to recognize that tone."

"The tone of truth! Can you pick up this tone in everyday speech? Can you hear whether I am telling the truth?"

So here we can see that Colonel Joll believes that without giving pain or without torturing them, they will not tell the truth. Magistrate once said that if your prisoners are telling the truth at that time colonel there is a certain tone. But the question is how he comes to know that this is the right tone or the person is telling him the truth? In the novel there is one incident. In the prison, there is one boy and his father. Colonel believes that they are barbarians.  Colonel tortured the boy a lot and eventually the boy said that he was the culprit or he was a barbarian.  So here we can see that how you can torture someone and how boy lied to him. Boy was not a Barbarian but he said this. So Joll is not right because he believes that if you torture than you get right information but here we can see example. 

Original lines: 

”I hold the lantern over the boy. He has not stirred; but when I bend to touch his cheek he flinches and begins to tremble in long ripples that run up and down his body. "Listen to me, boy," I say, "I am not going to harm you." He rolls on his back and brings his bound hands up before his face. They are puffy and purple. I fumble at the bonds. All my gestures in relation to this boy are awkward. "Listen: you must tell the officer the truth. That is all he wants to hear from you--the truth. Once he is sure you are telling the truth he will not hurt you. But you must tell him everything you know. You must answer every question he asks you truthfully. If there is pain, do not lose heart." Picking at the knot I have at last loosened the rope. "Rub your hands together till the blood begins to flow." I chafe his hands between mine. 

I take those lines because here we can see the character of the Magistrate and his way of getting information.  He believes that you can simply talk with prisoners and they will definitely tell you the truth. You don’t have to torture them. The magistrate becomes increasingly sympathetic towards the victims. When the Joll leaves the outpost, the magistrate takes a Barbarian woman, Crippled as a result of her torture, into his house bed. Later, he makes an arduous journey across the desert to restore her to her people. 

Conclusion: 

So, here we can see two different characters and their ways of getting information. Colonel Joll is wrong. Yes it is true that sometimes you have to be a torture to get the right information. but you can talk and get the right information as well. 

Works Cited

Coetzee, J.M. Waiting For The Barbarians. Secker & Warburg, 1980. March 2020.

Gallagher, Susan Van Zanten. "Torture and the Novel: Waiting For The Barbarians." Contemporary Literature 29.2 (1988): 277-285. web. March 2020. <https://www.jstor.org/stable/1208441>.