The Orange Earth

By Adam Small

This drama, a lyrical and dreamy but at the same time searingly painful piece about reminiscence and injustice, was written in 1978, in the heyday of apartheid and two years after the Soweto uprising. It has been staged several times, but this is the first time it has been published. It is essentially a piece of resistance theatre, but its artistic strength and lasting relevance lie in the way it demonstrates how painfully intimate resistance and loyalty are entangled.

The Orange Earth is regarded as Small’s most personal literary work; he himself described it as a fictionalised autobiography. The title of the text is in fact the name of the hamlet near Robertson where Small grew up. The drama tells the story of a coloured man who plants a bomb in a supermarket and is then prosecuted and jailed for this deed of terror. During the trial and in his prison cell he has an ongoing conversation through flashbacks with the past, specifically the key moments that determined his identity and his resistance. The climax of the drama is a conversation – a confrontation – in the prison cell in which the detainee, his wife and his father, as well as the Afrikaans warden, participate. This climax revolves around the perception that the captive and warden are separated but also joined by that which determines their respective identities. What is at stake is our language, our church, our land. It is therefore very significant that this drama, originally written in English, is now being published in Afrikaans. The writer’s protest against his subjugation by his language compatriots hereby becomes confirmation of a fundamental loyalty.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tafelberg
• Release date: Sep 20, 2013
• ISBN: 9780624065401

Adam Small

Adam Small is op 21 Desember 1936 op Wellington gebore. In 1953 matrikuleer hy aan die St Columba-skool van die Christian Brothers in Athlone op die Kaapse Vlakte. Daarna studeer hy aan die Universiteit van Kaapstad vir ’n graad in Tale en Filosofie en voltooi in 1963 ’n MA cum laude oor die filosofie van Nicolai Hartmann en Friedrich Nietzsche. In hierdie tyd studeer hy ook aan die Universiteite van Londen en Oxford. In 1959 word Adam dosent in filosofie aan die Universiteit van Fort Hare, en in 1960 word hy een van die akademiese grondleggers van die Universiteit van Wes-Kaapland (UWK) toe hy as die eerste hoof van die Departement Filosofie aangestel word. Hy raak in die vroeë sewentigs betrokke by die Swartbewussynsbeweging. In 1973 bedank hy onder druk by die UWK. Hy woon daarna in Johannesburg, waar hy die hoof is van die Universiteit van die Witwatersrand se studentegemeenskapsdienste. In 1977 vestig hy hom weer in die Kaap en is tot 1983 werksaam as direkteur van die Wes-Kaaplandse Stigting vir Gemeenskapswerk. Hy keer in 1984 terug na die UWK as hoof van die Departement Maatskaplike Werk. Einde 1997 tree hy uit diens. Adam Small het in 1957 met Verse van die liefde gedebuteer. Van sy ander bekende digbundels sluit in Kitaar my kruis (1961) en Sê Sjibbolet (1963). Sy bekendste toneelstuk is Kanna hy kô hystoe (1965).