Peekay and Geel Piet (Chapter 11)

Peekay and Geel Piet are very similar. Both are persecuted due to race. Peekay was persecuted at boarding school because he was English, and Geel Piet is persecuted by society because he is half black and half white. They also differ from their peers in boxing technique. While most people Peekay fought were aggressive, “fighters”, Geel Piet taught Peekay to be a, “boxer”, focusing more on defense and footwork. This aligned with what Hoppie taught Peekay about boxing. Both have to earn Lieutenant Smit’s respect. Peekay does this by working for months to get to a point where Lieutenant Smit will let him box. Geel Piet had to slowly display his knowledge of boxing, until Lieutenant Smit let him teach kids. Through this, their shared passion of boxing is expressed. The problems of racial discrimination was much worse for Geel Piet than it was for Peekay. This is because Peekay was only persecuted at the boarding school, while Geel Piet was persecuted everywhere. Like Peekay, Geel Piet figured out how to survive the system. If Geel Piet went free, he would have to figure out how to deal with the new forms of discrimination against him. Staying in prison is safer because Geel Piet knows how to get himself in the least amount of trouble possible. This understanding is partly why Peekay agrees to bring Geel Piet tobacco, and later sugar and salt. Peekay understands that resisting oppression in even the smallest ways, like refusing to cry when the Judge bullied, makes surviving under that oppression easier.