Adam Small

(1936-) Poet, dramatist, and professor of philosophy and social work. Regarded by many as one of South Africa's leading poets and playwrights in Afrikaans.

Biography

He was born on 21 Desember 1936 in Wellington. His father's family was Calvinist, while his mother’s family belonged to the Islamic faith. In 1937 the family moved to Goree, a missions station on the Vink River outside Robertson, where his father was a teacher in a one-man school for farm workers. At the end of 1944 they moved to Retreat, where he was introduced to the Cape Flats vernacular, later called Kaaps, that he uses so skilfully in his writings.

In December 1959 he married Julia Anne Elizabeth Engelbrecht and they had two sons, Jannie and Leon. Divorced in 1968, he married Rosalie Joan Daniels in 1969. They had two children as well, Zaidee and Peter John.

Education

He went to St Columba Christian Brothers' College in Athlone, finishing in 1953. In 1954 he began studying medicine but after a year switched to a BA course in languages and philosophy, under teachers such as the poet/playwright D.J. Opperman, the poet/storyteller "Boerneef" en the Catholic philosopher Marthinus Versfeld. In 1956 he obtained a BA-degree with distingtion in ethics, logic and metaphysics. In 1957 he completed his B.A. Honours degree with distinction, followed by an M.A. (Cum Laude) in Philosophy in 1962.

He also had two spells of advanced study in England, at the London School of Economics under Karl R. Popper in 1958 and University of Oxford (1963-65).

Career as educationist

Appointed lecturer in philosophy at the University of Fort Hare in 1959, and in 1960 moved to the University of Western Cape. In the seventies he became involved with the Black Consciousness Movement and the student organisation SASO, leading protests that eventually led to his forced resignation. He now moved to Johannesburg to work in the buro for student services at the University of the Witwatersrand, In 1977 he returned to Cape Town and in 1983 became head of the department of social services at the UWC. He retired there in 1997.

His artistic contribution

Perhaps the most prominent so-called "coloured" writer of the 1960-1970 period, and an early icon of the cultural resistance movement, he would later reject the label, in the 1980s associating himself with the ideals of black consciousness and referring to himself as a black writer of Afrikaans. For a while he even turned to writing solely in English, but by the 1990s he had returned to writing in Afrikaans as well.

Poetry

His first collection of poetry, Verse vir die liefde ("Verses of Love") appeared in 1957 and Klein simbool ("Little Symbol") followed in 1958, but it was with the Afrikaans collection called Kitaar my kruis ("Guitar my Cross", 1961) that his name was truly made. A number of other poetic works followed, including Sê Sjibbolet ("Say Shibboleth", 1963) and the English Bronze is Beautiful (1975).

Work in Theatre

As a dramatist he wrote (and directed) a number of works for the Drama Society of the University of the Western Cape (DRAMSOC). The first was Gone Canada, written in 196*, later rewritten to become one of the most famous and influential of Afrikaans plays: Kanna, hy kô Hystoe ("Kanna Comes Home" - 1965, English 1990), which he orignally directed himself with the [Drama Society of the University of the Western Cape]] (DRAMSOC). Small was involved in founding the Cape Flats Players in 197* and the Peninsula Theatre in 198*. Small’s later works include Joanie Galant-hulle ("Joanie Galant and her people" - published 1978), The Orange Earth (1978), Die Krismis van Map Jacobs ("The Christmas of Map Jacobs" - A Nederburg commission for the Performing Arts Council of the Orange Free State, published 1983), What about the lô? (a programme of his poetry), Die Vyfde Evangelie ("The Fifth Gospel" - 19*) and ****. SMALL, Adam. His Kanna, hy kô Hystoe was staged at the Alexander in 1974. Wilna Snyman starred in this play for which she received a best actress award. His first play in English, The Orange Earth was directed by Jo Dunstan and staged at Upstairs at the Market in 1978.

Virtually all Small’s writing is focused on the plight of oppressed people under the apartheid system. Besides his published plays his highly regarded poetry has been published in [Verse van die Liefde, Culumborg (1957), Klein Simbool: Prosaverse (1958), Kitaar My Kruis (1961), Sê Sjibbolet, Perskor (1963), Oos Wes Tuis Bes: Distrik Ses (1973) (with photography by Chris Jansen) and Black Bronze Beautiful: quatrains (1975).

He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of the Western Cape in 2012 and - controversially and very belatedly - a Hertzogprys vir (Hertzog Prize for Drama) by the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns in the same year.

Sources

'n Saluut vir 'Kanna' in Die Burger, 12 September 2012 (Aktueel page 11).

Tucker, 1997

Celebration of Adam Small at Fugard Theatre - 26/01/2011 - Artslink.co.za News

Erika Terblanche in LitNet 2008-03-12

Return to

Return to ESAT Personalities S

Return to South African Theatre Personalities

Return to The ESAT Entries

Return to Main Page