The story makes clear that the prison in general, and Hannetjie in particular, are engaged in an effort to dehumanize the prisoners, to make them feel and believe that they are inferior to white people, and in so doing to make them more pliable prisoners. Why don’t you say Baas, hey?” During apartheid, black and colored South Africans were forced to use “Baas” when addressing white people as a sign of respect. In the same interchange, Hannetjie also attempts to establish his racial superiority and degrade the inmates by insisting that Brille call him by his title: “Why don’t you say Baas. Hannetjie’s use of it here is clearly intended to degrade Brille, as allowed and encouraged by the racist hierarchy of the time. Equivalent to the n-word in the United States, it is often referred to as the k-word. You don’t know what kind of kaffir you think you are.” The word Hannetjie uses is a racist pejorative used in South Africa to describe a black person. Hannetjie replies: “Look ‘ere, I don’t take orders from a kaffir. After dropping the cabbage, Brille challenges the justice of Hannetjie’s punishing the entire Span. The prisoners are also degraded psychologically through racial epithets and pejoratives that were commonly used in South Africa during the apartheid era. Later in the story, an elderly prisoner is punished with a week in solitary confinement for stealing grapes-all the prisoners, not just those of Span One, are routinely punished far beyond the extent of any “crime” they may have committed. Brille apologizes to the Span, and his fellows reply, “What happens to one of us, happens to all of us.” This statement expresses group solidarity, but also demonstrates their resignation to the harsh punishments inflicted. At one point, Hannetjie notices that Brille has dropped a cabbage while working on the prison farm, and uses this error as a way to punish all of Span One by withholding three meals from them. A specific example of such violence occurs after Brille talks back to Hannetjie, challenging the warder’s authority: “Hannetjie whipped out a knobkerrie and gave Brille several blows about the head.” Other non-physical punishments inflicted are similarly harsh. All the prisoners are subjected to brutal physical violence and harsh punishments: “it was the kind of prison where men got knocked out cold with a blow at the back of the head from an iron bar.” The imagery of the “iron bar” both describes a literal implement of violence and suggests the cold, hard, unyielding nature of the state power behind it. Violence and strict discipline are accepted as normal in the prison camp. But the story also shows the way that such behavior also dehumanizes the oppressors. Through its portrayal of the conflict between Hannetjie and Span One, the story demonstrates the way that oppressive authorities seek to use physical and psychological violence to break down and dehumanize those who are oppressed until they accept that oppression. “The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses” was published in 1973 at the height of apartheid’s sway, and focuses on a bespectacled political prisoner named Brille who is a part of a group of black political prisoners called Span One that is relatively successful in resisting the prison’s authority until a new, brutal guard named Hannetjie is brought in specifically to subdue them.
This brutal and racist system incited much opposition, and the South African government frequently jailed political protestors.
Instituted after World War II, apartheid mandated strict classification and separation of the races according to a hierarchy of white, colored (mixed race), and black.
“The Prisoner Who Wore Glasses” is set in a South African prison camp during the era when the system of apartheid was the law of the land in South Africa.