Waiting for the Barbarians | Chapter 1 | Summary

Summary

A local government worker known only as "the magistrate" welcomes the visiting Colonel Joll to his village. He emphasizes to all those working at the inn where Joll stays that they must make a good impression. Joll, who has arrived from the capital, has been visiting all the outlying villages to monitor "barbarian" activity. There have been rumors swirling that the barbarians are plotting an uprising against the Empire, and Joll has been sent to investigate these rumors. The next day Joll drags two prisoners, an old barbarian man and a boy, to the inn granary. The two prisoners were arrested after a livestock raid, and Joll wants to hold them for questioning. The magistrate doesn't believe these prisoners had anything to do with the raid. He wonders why the boy has been beaten, but he allows Joll to question them further.

The next day, Joll's report states that the old man became "enraged" during the questioning and attacked the guards. They protected themselves, and the man was killed when his head accidentally hit the cement wall. The magistrate questions the guard on duty and grows suspicious of Joll's claims. He investigates the old man's body and finds that the man's injuries do not match Joll's story. Clearly, the old man was tortured. He asks the granary guard to care for the boy, who will be questioned next, and pleads with the boy to tell Joll the truth. The magistrate ruminates that there seems to be an "episode of hysteria" regarding the barbarians in every generation but that peace seems to reign supreme. He wonders why this "threat" should be any different. That night the magistrate dreams of children playing in the snow and a faceless girl building a snow fort.

The next day, the magistrate visits the boy after his questioning. The boy's entire body is covered in stab wounds, and he cannot sit up. At the end of his questioning, the boy admitted to having stolen sheep and horses and that the barbarians are mounting an attack against the capital. The magistrate does not believe either admission, and he fears that the boy has been coerced. Joll plans to use the boy as a guide as he travels through barbarian territory, seeking out those planning the attack. The magistrate fears further unjust arrests and more torture as Joll conducts his investigation. The magistrate bids the boy and Joll farewell.

With quiet restored to his town, the magistrate resumes his favorite peacetime activity: excavating ancient ruins from the sand dunes in his village. The magistrate is fascinated by the old buildings and spends his spare time wondering who lived in the crumbling buildings hidden beneath the desert dunes. Thus far, the magistrate has collected a pile of 256 "wooden slips" painted in an ancient language. He studies the wooden slips in hopes of deciphering them. He wonders if the building he excavates might be an old courthouse where "a magistrate like myself ... fell in the arena of his authority, face to face at last with the barbarian."

A few days later, the first of Joll's new prisoners arrives. The magistrate fumes that Joll has imprisoned nomads who belong to a completely different tribe than the barbarians. They will not have information to offer. He arranges for the prisoners to be held in the yard until Joll returns, ensuring that they have adequate food and shelter. He monitors the prisoners' behaviors inquisitively from his apartment window. Time passes, and the baby of one of the prisoners dies. The magistrate, horrified but refusing to step in, continues to watch as the mother mourns.

Joll returns and begins questioning the prisoners. Knowing he must be using torture techniques, the magistrate tries to spend as much time away from the granary as possible. He visits friends, including a prostitute. Before long, Joll announces his departure. His investigation hasn't turned up a reason to stay. The magistrate can barely contain his happiness at Joll's departure, and he releases the prisoners immediately.

Analysis

An immediate contrast is drawn between Colonel Joll and the magistrate. Colonel Joll, in his black clothes, black carriage, and black sunglasses, represents the active violence of colonization. Joll tells the magistrate that the sunglasses "protect one's eyes against the glare of the sun" and that "you would find them useful out here in the desert." The sunglasses symbolize Joll's refusal to acknowledge the pain his colonization has caused. Joll's soul, or lack thereof, suffers no ill effects from his torture and injustice: "Look ... no wrinkles." Colonel Joll wants to showcase the Empire's power, and his personal power, through expeditions, arrests, and torture. Joll and his men represent the dark human desire for power, dominance, and control. Joll's motivations are sadistic—he gets pleasure out of torturing populations he perceives to be weaker. This attitude is seen in his decision to torture the nomads despite learning that they couldn't possibly offer him information about barbarian activity.

In contrast the magistrate represents the passive beneficiaries of colonization. The Empire's presence in barbarian land has put the magistrate in a position of power, offering him a comfortable life, which he hopes to enjoy peacefully until retirement. His loyalty to the Empire stops him from confronting Joll directly. Although he doesn't agree with Joll's tactics, he believes both he and Joll work toward the Empire's greater good. The magistrate feels intimidated by Joll and therefore doesn't step in to stop the torture. The magistrate is the judge, the literal representation of justice, but he has no authority over the treatment of his prisoners while Joll visits. The magistrate allows Joll to arrest men he believes are innocent, question them without trial, and ultimately torture them. In this way the magistrate becomes a symbol for citizens of an oppressive society who would rather go about their quiet lives than protest the mistreatment of others.

For Coetzee's readers at the time of the novel's publication, this sent a strong message to many white South Africans. They may not have been responsible for creating or carrying out the cruel apartheid-era laws, but they failed to protest the laws and enjoyed the benefit of their creation. The same message might have been sent to Germans who carried on quiet lives during the Holocaust. It also applies to white citizens during the American civil rights movement. And it references the countless other times that the majority of a society would rather ignore than acknowledge the unjust treatment of fellow humans. Even when the magistrate knows Joll tortures prisoners in his granary, he ignores the truth. He distracts himself by visiting friends, shopping, and even consorting with a prostitute. While the magistrate may not be the one to "twist the pincers or turn the screw," he is complicit in the torture through his inaction.

Chapter 1 also introduces the theme of truth. Joll claims that he tortures victims in search of the truth. This suggests Joll's belief in absolute truth—the idea that "truth" means the same thing for everyone. Before the barbarian boy's questioning, the magistrate reiterates his naive belief that Joll chases after the truth by telling the boy, "Once [Joll] is sure you are telling the truth he will not hurt you." The reality, of course, is that the boy's version of the truth will be wildly different from Joll's version of the truth. The boy's torture doesn't end until he accepts Joll's "truth." Again, this disparity highlights the destructiveness of colonization. History and truth are rewritten by those in power. Colonized populations, as represented by the boy in this chapter, are forced to accept their colonizers' history as "truth," which results in the destruction of their own cultures and histories.

This chapter also introduces the idea of time as cyclic rather than linear. The magistrate notes the cycle of "hysteria" that sweeps through his town every generation. Fear rises, but peace returns. Joll's arrival disrupts the predictable cycle of time, signaling a perspective shift to the reader (and eventually the magistrate). Joll's arrival suggests that order has been broken. Cycles of time are also referenced in the magistrate's interest in the ancient ruins. Questioning what might have happened to the imaginary "gray-haired servant of the Empire" foreshadows the magistrate's own fall "from the arena of his authority."

Finally, the magistrate's dream, which recurs throughout the novel, represents his changing views of colonization. Each time the dream recurs, it's slightly different than before, highlighting the magistrate's changing consciousness. The snow castle represents civilization, and the hooded child represents the barbarians—a symbol that becomes clearer later in the novel when the hooded child transforms into the nomadic girl the magistrate takes in. The magistrate struggles to imagine the hooded child's face, but he cannot, which represents his inability to see the human toll colonization takes. Although he's aware of Joll's torture tactics, which represent the innate violence of colonization, the magistrate hasn't yet realized his passive participation. As the dreams recur, the magistrate sees the hooded child's face and even interacts with her, highlighting his new consciousness.