How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"This concert is a gift to you all from the professor, who is not a dirty criminal like all of you, you hear? I don't know why a important person like him wants to make a concert for kaffirs, not only kaffirs, but criminals as well." (14.34)
Why does Doc want to give a concert for the prisoners? The warden is pretty mean in his remarks introducing the piece, and the racial slurs seem to be a worse insult than calling the prisoners criminals.
Quote #8
"Whoever this Geel Piet was, we know from his name that he was an Afrikaner who is honored by this music. He was also the spirit of South Africa, the fatherland, and as Afrikaners we should all honor him and his death." (14.84)
Geel Piet, if he had lived to see the day, would have laughed till he cried at the brigadier's speech calling him an honorable Afrikaner, given that his half-breed, criminal self has been anything but honored in life.
Quote #9
"Please don't hit me, Captain. I don't understand, why you doing this to me? It was only a kaffir, a dirty stinking yellow man, why you hitting a white man over a kaffir?" (14.116)
Captain Smit is breaking the racist codes by taking up for a black man, even a half-black man, against his white co-worker, but his respect for Geel Piet and his hatred of Borman are stronger than race. This is a glimmering moment of racism subdued in the name of justice in a story otherwise ripe with cringeworthy moments of sheer hate and wrong.