Waiting for the Barbarians A Guide to Understanding Barbarians

Waiting for the Barbarians is a novel written by J.M Coetzee. Under the strict regulations of the dominant culture of The Empire, people known as the barbarians must follow the laws and abide by the people who make up The Empire. The Barbarians are often seen as a lower class of people. In comparison The Empire is much more high class of people whose distinct way of life suggests a greater degree of “civilization”  than the barbarians. According to Bill Ashcroft’s Key Concepts the meaning of colonialism is, “employed to create the idea of the inferiority of the colonial subject." The barbarians are the subjects while The Empire imposes its ideology and proves those subjects to be inferior.  In Waiting for the Barbarians the real barbarians are not the inferior race of people but the The Empire. It is the Empire because its leaders impose torture on the barbarians while they themselves do nothing to Empire. The conspiracy in the novel that the Barbarians are such bad people is often disguised because The Empire are making most of the judgments and create most of the conspiracies against the Barbarians.

In the novel, the barbarians are seen as people who cause disruption and The Empire believes it must impose order and protect itself from danger, however, with news being released from the capital it is hard to decipher what is really true and what is really false. The novel’s description of the barbarians stems from the capital. The magistrate states of the account,“ last year stories began to reach us from the capital of unrest among the barbarians…The barbarian tribes were arming the rumor went; the Empire should take precautionary measures.” The novel describes the horrible way the Empire plays the victim. The magistrate identifies that it is a rumor that comes from the Capital. Barbarians may not even exist yet the capital describes them as tribal people who are going against the Empire. The news they receive is most likely propaganda. There is no real evidence that so called barbarian tribes want war. The distinction between the two groups of people is constructed to show that the Empire must remain powerful. They must seem powerful in order to continue implementing the laws and regulating the society.

There is no relation or proof that barbarians are actually in the novel itself. We never see this deception. In fact, the Magistrate often questions the word barbarians. He doesn’t believe that these people are really barbarians. The Magistrate says, “we speak of the barbarians…Are you sure they were barbarians?” The novel often talks about tribal people. He questions whether these people are even real barbarians because the lack of communication the Empire has with the people is fantasy, rumor and evident in these lines. We often see that this concept of barbarians is often a mix up between reality. If the people are not barbarians, then they must be normal people living in this place as the Magistrate.

However, we see this concept of the barbarian arises when the Magistrate is with the barbarian girl. She is a barbarian and we can see that there is a difference between gender roles in the novel. Most importantly we see that being a barbarian girl is significant to the Magistrate. She was the one who initiates sex. The Magistrate states, “ I feel her hand groping under my clothes, her tongue licking my ear…With a heave I am upon her she is warm, swollen, ready for me.” The Magistrate notices details of the Barbarian girl. She is the one he loves the most in the novel. Her attitude towards him is open even though she is a prisoner of the Empire. The girl is passionate towards him in this scene. There are no rules between the Barbarian girl and the Magistrate. It is almost as if there love for each other unites both people. One example of torture the Empire inflicts on the barbarians is in the novel the barbarian girl has scars on her face. The Magistrate notices these scars and asks the girl if they have done this to her and she replies yes. The Magistrate says, “It has been growing more and more clear to me that until the marks on this girl’s body are deciphered and understood I cannot let go of her.” The significance of the quote is that the Magistrate is the only person that is sympathetic towards the barbarian girl; who has been inflicted with torture.

Maria Boletsi’s article Barbaric Encounters: Rethinking Barbarism in C.R Cavafy’s and J.M Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians explains the meaning of the word barbarian. “The term ‘barbarian’ is used to designate members of the underclass of the newly urbanized European peasants, but it is also employed for other marginal figures.” Barbarians throughout history were never thought of as important people. Lunatics actually describes the Empire because they are so fascinated with the barbarians themselves that they become angry and crazy in believing in them. Boletsi also explains how the term sets up opposition: “reading them today cannot bypass their striking pertinence to the contemporary world in which strict oppositional thinking in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them,’ ‘civilization’ and ‘barbarism’ is staging a comeback in political rhetoric and everyday discourse” (Boletsi 94). If civilization has to include barbarians then they must be of some significance in Waiting for the Barbarians. Civilization has been using the term “us” and “them” and the distinction as we see in the novel, is a thin line.

Post-Colonial Studies: The Key Concepts gives a definition of race that, “intersects in important ways with the cultural implications of colonial domination." It shows that race often separates people. As long there is race in society, the dominant race rules the cultural norms and the lower race often has to submit to the dominant culture. In other words the Magistrate is dominant but when it comes to love the Barbarian girl is the most dominant character.  In Waiting for the Barbarians race is often challenged as we see that the Magistrate can be with the Barbarian girl and she is allowed to be with him. So race identifies both individuals because they are two people with different backgrounds yet their society and culture has brought them together because of love.

The article, Into the Dark Chamber: The Ovelist and South Africa, gives an insightful definition of torture. According to Coetzee, “in the torture room unlimited force is exerted upon the physical being of an individual…destroying the kernel of resistance within him.” ( 61). When much of the torture is being done by the Empire. Their acts of crime hurts not only the barbarians but the Magistrate as well. While physical pain is being done to the Barbarian girl, the Magistrate  feels emotional pain. Torture not only causes physical pain but also impacts both the Empire and the so called barbarians. Most of all, the one under the most emotional pain is the Magistrate because he observes the indecency of the Empire. While he is not the one to be held responsible for the actions of the Empire, he still notices that he is trapped because he has feelings for the barbarian girl.

The so called barbarians and the people of the Empire create a great deal of conflict. While there is no proof of an actual fight between the two races of people, the Empire still manages to inflict their power over the barbarians by physical force.What causes the most pain to the Magistrate is not the physical abuse but emotional abuse. The Magistrate is tortured by the emotional shame the Empire has caused him. The Magistrate says, “I wanted to live outside the history that Empire imposes on its subjects…I never wished it for the barbarians that they should have the history of Empire laid upon them. How can I believe that that is cause for shame?” It shows how much the Magistrate hates the Empire for inflicting so much pain onto these people who are innocent people. He feels ashamed of the Empire. It is possible that the Empire is just a symbol of the barbarians because without the barbarians there would be no Empire.

So called Barbarians are discussed throughout of the novel. They are often talked about aside from The Empire. Is is just faith or a coincidence that the Magistrate has feelings for the Barbarian girl. She in many ways represents what it means to be a Barbarian as colonial powers define them. Likewise the Magistrate represents what it  means to be under the law of the Empire. While Barbarians were never seen as civilized people throughout history, Waiting for the Barbarians, they are an important group of people whose story is one of endurance, pain, and love.

Waiting for the Barbarians is a novel that depicts the essence of what it means to be the Magistrate. The book deals with a lot of interesting concepts of barbarians. The significance of the Barbarian girl is the love between her and the Magistrate. The Empire symbolizes order, law, and colonialism. The Empire’s downfall is not the lack of structure but too much structure. In the end of the book we can understand the Magistrate’s oblivious outlook.

--Ashley Ramjattan

References 

Boletsi, Maria. Barbaric Encounters: Rethinking Barbarism in C.P. Cavafy’s and J.M Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians. Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 44, No. 1/2, Don Quixote and 400 Years of World literature. 2007. 67-96.

Coetzee, J.M. Into the Dark Chamber: The Ovelist and South Africa.Guides for Essays The New York Times , 12 January 1986, Section 7 Page 13, Column 1.

Coetzee, J.M. Waiting for the Barbarians. Penguin Group. 1982. pages 1-156.

“Colonialism.” Postcolonial Studies: Key Concepts, Edited by Bill Ashcroft et al, Routledge, 2000.

“Race.” Postcolonial Studies: Key Concepts, Edited by Bill Ashcroft et al, Routledge, 2000.