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Summary of "Waiting for the Barbarians"
Coetzee often writes about rasism and apartheid. This book is no exception. It is a story about a distant settlement at an unknown time. The settlement is being run by the Magistrate. They have for years lived a peaceful life in harmony with the surrounding natives. One day Colonel Joll from the Third Bureau arrives to the settlement with orders from the Empire. The natives - known as barbarians to the Empire - are recognized as a threat. Colonel Joll and his men have come to distinguish that threat. Joll's interrogation methods are cruel and the natives living close to the settlement are imprisoned and tortured. The people living in the settlement are becoming increasingly convinced that the barbarians are in fact a threat, and that there is a war that has to be fought. They start living in fear and they feel that it is no longer safe to leave the settlement. The one person who feels sympathy for the barbarians and objects to how they are being treated is the Magistrate. He is soon seen as a traitor when he helps a young woman back to her native people and is himself thrown in jail.
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