Character Analysis
As children, the Judge and his group of lackeys are Peekay's worst nightmare. Jaapie Botha comes up with horrific torture sessions for Peekay just because he's from an English family. He is pretty much all that is wrong with the racist, ignorant world that causes so much trouble for people in South Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries, all wrapped up into a pre-adolescent, tattooed package.
The Judge's idea of justice against the English, who had oppressed his people, the Boers, in the 19th century, is to ally himself with Hitler and the Nazis. He shows up at school with a swastika tattooed on his upper arm, and kills Granpa Chook, Peekay's beloved pet chicken. This kid is seriously out of control; someone call Super Nanny.
That tattoo will end up being the Judge's undoing. Many years later, when the boys grow up, they meet again in the copper mines of Northern Rhodesia. Peekay will take his revenge on the Judge, cutting an English flag and his initials into the tattoo.
When he finishes mutilating the tattoo, Peekay realizes:
There was nothing more to say. The slate was wiped clean. The hate was gone. Poor bastard. (24.103)
Peekay has been harboring resentment against the Judge all of his life, and that hatred has fueled him to win fight after fight. By beating the Judge, it's like he finally avenges Granpa Chook's death, and clears some space in his heart for something besides hatred and revenge.