Adam Small – An Icon of the People

Adam Small is treasured for his mostly-Afrikaans works that highlight the lives and oppression of the working class under the apartheid regime.

Small was lauded for his writing, which captured the despair of apartheid, though at the same time, delighted readers with his celebration of Kaaps Afrikaans.

Born in Wellington in the Western Cape on 21 December 1936, Small was raised on a farm in Goree, outside Robertson, where his father was the school principal, community leader and lay preacher to the farm labourers.

His family moved to Retreat on the Cape Flats where Small discovered the Kaaps Afrikaans that he would go on to champion and reclaim, not as the language of the oppressor, but a unique dialect as vibrant as the mix of South-east Asian, European and African immigrants from which it was borne.

After matriculating in 1953, he obtained a degree in languages and philosophy and an MA cum laude on the philosophy of Nicolai Hartmann and Friedrich Nietzsche at the University of Cape Town.

He also studied at the University of London and Oxford University in the United Kingdom.

In 1959, he spent a year lecturing philosophy at the University of Fort Hare, whereafter he returned to Cape Town as an academic founding member of the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in 1960.

At first a ‘coloured-only’ university, the institution became a beacon of resistance and helped shape many regime-changing minds, when they (students and lecturers alike) weren’t chanting “hek toe” and marching to face the Casspirs that had come to quell the revolutionary spirit of the burgeoning black consciousness and anti-apartheid movements on campus.

During the first 15 years, the board and staff were primarily whites, supporting the National Party and apartheid.

One of the few exceptions was Small, then the head of the philosophy department.

In 1973, Small was dismissed as a consequence of his involvement in the Black Consciousness Movement.

He lived in Johannesburg for some years, before returning to Cape Town in 1977. In 1983, he rejoined UWC as head of the department of social work, where he retired in 1997.

He was awarded the Hertzog Prize in 2012, for his contribution to drama. The award, though long overdue, was not without controversy as it is usually awarded to a writer for new work.

Small was revered for not just his literary work, but for his conviction and love for his people and language. Those who knew him speak of him as brilliant and captivating.

As inspiring as he was understanding and as humble as he was legendary.

Kanna is hys toe. Rus sag.

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