What the Magistrate Learned.

1. Like I mentioned at the end of class on Friday, I think one of the most interesting lessons the Magistrate learned in the novel is about his own morality and humanity. Upon being captured as he returns to the town from his trip in the desert, he acts smug and feels confident in his ability to work his way to freedom through the legal system. "There is a spring in my walk as I am marched away to confinement between my two guards.... I am aware of the source of my elation: my alliance with the guardians of the Empire is over, I have set myself in opposition, the bond is broken." After months (maybe longer) of solitary confinement, the Magistrate realizes that his confinement is nothing noble about his struggle. Instead it is dehumanizing and deprives him of his morality: "in my suffering there is nothing ennobling.... What I am made to undergo is subjection to the most rudimentary needs of my body.... I wondered how much pain a plump comfortable old man would be able to endure in the name of his eccentric notions of how the Empire should conduct itself.... They [my torturers] were interested only in demonstrating to me what it meant to live in a body, as a body, a body which can entertain notions of justice only as long  as it is whole and well." Similar to Heart of Darkness, we see how ideas and feelings change when they are subject to "uncivilized" conditions.

2. The second lesson I would say the Magistrates learns is about the nature of empires and his place in them. Empires survive through continual progress and expansion. And to keep this gravy train going, they often also thrive on fear and the subject of other peoples. By being part of the empire, no matter if he agrees or doesn't agree with what is going on, he is supporting a system that ultimately does this.

South Africa

During the Xhosa Wars (also known as the Cape Frontier Wars) from the late 1700s to the late 1800s the newly established Dutch (Afrikaans) in Cape Town attempted to force the native African populations (most notably the Xhosa in these altercations) out of their land. We see a similar thing take place in Waiting for Barbarians where the Empire has both taken and plans to push the native "Barbarians" even farther away from their land.

Also, similar to how the Magistrate in the novel was imprisoned for having differing views from the Empire, both the Dutch and then the British imprisoned countless activists or politicians that didn't agree with what was going on.

http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/governence-projects/frontier_wars/frontier_wars.htm