ABSTRACT
In Adam Small, the ‘coloured’ poet and dramatist, this ambiguity towards Afrikaans culture surfaces very strongly. The poet seems to be a bit of an anomaly on the South African literary scene. Afrikaans literature has never been extremely rich in ‘coloured’ authors and after the police brutality in the ‘coloured’ townships of Bonteheuwel and Manenberg in 1976, probably never will be. Those authors who have, however, written in Afrikaans are carefully nurtured in textbooks. S. V. Petersen, the poet and novelist, has kept an eerie silence, while P. J. Philander has apparently chosen the safe confines of a Quaker school in Long Island, New York. This discussion of Adam Small will also reveal how difficult it is to maintain oneself as an artist and a human being when one’s views conflict with those held by others in the society.
