Identity Construction in Literary Texts

Identity Construction in Literary Texts

Representasie Van Kleurling Identiteit In Geselekteerde Tekste

VAN 'N KLEURLING SKRYWER

REPRESENTATION of COLOURED IDENTITY

IN SELECTED TEXTS

"If we follow the badge of color from 'African' 'Negro' to 'colored race' to 'black' to 'Afro-American' to 'African-American'

we aren't thus tracing the history not only of a signifier, a label, but also a history of its effects"

Robert E. Park (1864-1944) (as cited in Back & Solomos, 2000, p.145).

The "coloured category" identified in 1950 in South Africa constituted one of three categories: White, black (African), or colored (of mixed decent). "The coloured category included major subgroups of Indians and Asians, Monal Chokshi, Cale Carter, Deepak Gupta, and Robert Allen (1995, ¶ 3) explain in "The history of apartheid in South Africa." During this time, the Population Registration Act required all South Africans racially classified into one of the three noted categories, "based on appearance, social acceptance, and descent" (Ibid.).

The apartheid imposed policy in South Africa proved extremely effective in achieving its goal of ensuring preferential treatment for whites as it imposed severe penalties for political protest, even non-violent dissent. Fifteen years after the legislated democratization of South African society, the researcher continues to question whether the representation of the Coloured community remains identical to that depicted during the apartheid era.

The researcher's interest in securing answers to this question relating to the representation of the Coloured community inadvertently stimulated the concept for the current textual analysis which embraces the quest of researching the portrayal of Coloureds in fictional writing. As a Coloured who personally experienced the impact of being classified Coloured, and one who witnessed the transformation of the South African society, the researcher ponders whether others still view coloureds as karretjiesmense, rieldansers of the Karoo and the gangsters of the Cape Flats. The ambiguous nature of Coloured identity, coupled with the absence of recorded histories and unambiguous identification with collective cultural codes, results in the representation of "Coloured" identity becoming contested and marginal.

Although fictional writing does not always constitute an effective vehicle for the honest representation of lived experience and remembered history, fiction can reinterpret memory by accessing the emotional textures of past experiences in a more direct way. Authors of fiction create a reality that entails consequences for the characters "living" that reality. By exploring the representation of Coloured characters, the researcher reveals a sampling of the constructed reality as well as the consequences of such renditions.

The study specifically surveys the representation of Coloureds as characters in the writing of Abraham Phillips. Phillips' first novel in 1992, Die verdwaalde land. Somerset-West: Queillerie, confronted the white dominated Afrikaner literary world with the reality of true landscape of coloured Afrikaans. His literary debut exposed the horrors of apartheid and opened this vile occurrence up for public scrutiny within the white-dominated Afrikaans literary world.

The recent success of Abraham Phillip's third novel, Die Evangelis van Kaggelsberg (Tafelberg, 2009), and the 2008 awarding of the Patrick Petersen Prize largely influenced the researcher's choice of Phillips for critical appraisal. The motivation for awarding this prize to Phillips, a Coloured man who left school after only five years of formal schooling, stems from the fact he writes about apartheid, a taboo that he brings into the living rooms of white suburbia. His characters, living, feeling beings, happen to be Coloured as well.

Rationale for the Study

How does a Coloured insider, a writer, construct Coloured identity? Will the writer's rendition be stereotypical or a radical redefinition? Will the writer perceive Coloureds as social peripherals or as central to; inherent in the same new "rainbow" society of post apartheid South Africa? Will the characterizations and representations lie somewhere on those continuums?

A myriad of questions like these have encouraged the researcher's quest to investigate the representation of Coloureds by a Coloured writer. The investigation of pertinent issues in this area from an emic or epic? perspective rather than an etic or ethic? perspective with the outsider gaze on the Other, the researcher asserts, contributes to the study's value and significance. Analysis of the texts during the study reveals how a Coloured author has represented his communal history. Through constructing narratives of lived experience, hybrid communities can challenge dominant stereotypes and subvert discourses of otherness and difference.

Much research has been conducted on stereotyping in South African literature, both in English and in Afrikaans writing, nevertheless, a dearth of studies exists, relating to this study's focus with the Coloured as the object of study (references). In research focusing on the non-European in literature, the Coloured has routinely been lumped with other non-white groups, almost never portrayed as a separate grouping relating its own identity and culture (reference). Previous studies by Gerwel (1988) and Van der Ross (1979) have explored the lot of the "coloured" in Afrikaans literature; however, the researcher has not any previous work that primarily focused on the Coloured.

Where previous studies examined the stereotyping of Coloured characters, this study critically analyses numerous selected texts to explore the terrain of identity and representation of the Coloured character beyond the psychological concept of stereotyping. The study does not duplicate research using a different racial category, but uses conceptions of Colouredness to enhance the understanding of the influence writers may exert on how a particular group of people may be construed.

Research Questions Addressed

The literature review addresses the study's primary research question: How may the characterizations and representations a "coloured" insider, a fiction writer, develops in his story influence how readers may construe a particular group of people? The following four research questions, presented at the start of the textual analysis, provide support for the primary research question and help guide the study's research efforts:

1. What is Coloured identity?

2. How is Coloured identity constructed in the texts selected for inclusion in the study?

3. a) How do the authors represent "Colouredness" represented in the selected texts?

b) Why do the authors represent "Colouredness" in this manner?

4. In what respects do the identity of the author influence his representation of the characters?

Organization of the Literature Review

The organization of the thematic literature includes the following seven sections:

1. Introduction

2. Coloured Identity

3. Conceptions of Colouredness

4. Representations of the Coloured

5. The Author's Identity and Influence

6. The Coloured's Author Continuing Portrayal

7. Conclusions

During the literature review, this researcher analyzes numerous publications by a number of Coloured authors as well as information other researchers have published. The sources of information/data the researcher accessed include:

Online Libraries

Questia

Highbeam

Web Search Engines

Google

Bing

Website

Noted in Works Cited list

Library

Noted in Works Cited list

The researcher performs an extensive review of relevant, credible literature to conduct the textual analysis, using a critical paradigm when examining the representation of the Coloured characters in the selected texts by a Coloured author.

[EXPLAIN] ? why textual analysis ? why critical theory ?which critical theory ? data collection/production techniques? process of data analysis? design limitations ? validity, reliability, trustworthiness? ethical issues

A myriad of methods have emerged from hermeneutics for analyzing texts. These methods "share a common purpose: To criticize old and new cultural practices so that those most deserving of attention can be identified and explicated and the less deserving can be dismissed" (Baran & Davis, 2008, p. 230). Committed to promoting higher culture values, contemporary critical theory includes both neo-Marxist and hermeneutic approaches. Hybrid theories combine both. (red letters not rewritten)

Some historically significant schools of critical theory include: The Frankfort School developed at the University of Frankfort during the 1930s combined Marxist critical theory with hermeneutics. Writings identified and promoted a variety of high culture forms like art, great literature and symphony music. (p. 208)

In the article, "Application of a case study methodology," W. Tellis (1997) argues that no single of information source possesses a total advantage over the others, but that they instead may complement each other and used together. Ideally a study should use as many sources as prove relevant to the study. Table 1 depicts a number of strengths and weaknesses of each type of "evidence."

Table 1: Types of Evidence (Yin, as cited in Tellis, 1997, Recommended Procedures Section).

Source of Evidence

Strengths

Weaknesses

Documentation

Stable - repeated review unobtrusive - exist prior to case study exact - names etc.

broad coverage - extended time span retrievability - difficult biased selectivity reporting bias - reflects author bias access - may be blocked

The researcher contends that representations of the Coloured character texts often depict the character as a helpless, child-like creature; pitied by his European superiors, who then become his saviours. Such prejudiced representation may lead to a general attitude of wanting to help these "helpless" creatures. Such paternalism makes it difficult to perceive Coloured characters to as independent individuals. During the literature review's next segment, the researcher relates information that addresses the first research question: What is Coloured identity?

II: Coloured Identity

Phillips' fictional writings evolved from the time of the practice of apartheid, which finally ended in 1994, when Nelson Mandela, widely accepted as South Africa's most significant black leader in was elected president. Chokshi, Carter, Gupta, and Allen (1995) report that during the critical states of emergency, ongoing intermittently until 1989, a low-level police official could detain any individual without a hearing by for up to six months. "Thousands of individuals died in custody, frequently after gruesome acts of torture" Those who were tried were sentenced to death, banished, or imprisoned for life" (Chokshi, Carter, Gupta, & Allen, ¶ 6). The enactment of apartheid laws institutionalized racial discrimination. The race laws dramatically impacted every aspect of the individual's personal, social life, and professional life. The laws prohibited marriage between non-whites and whites, and sanctioned "white-only" jobs. In regard to identity, Chokshi, Carter, Gupta, and Allen recount that during 1948 through 1994:

[a] white person was defined as in appearance obviously a white person or generally accepted as a white person. A person could not be considered white if one of his or her parents were non-white. The determination that a person was "obviously white" would take into account "his habits, education, and speech and deportment and demeanor." A black person would be of or accepted as a member of an African tribe or race, and a colored person is one that is not black or white. The Department of Home Affairs (a government bureau) was responsible for the classification of the citizenry. Non-compliance with the race laws were dealt with harshly. All blacks were required to carry "pass books" containing fingerprints, photo and information on access to non-black areas. (Chokshi, Carter, Gupta, & Allen, 1995. ¶ 6)

Die verdwaalde land (the lost country) released in 1992, the book by Abraham Phillips, the first coloured prose writer, stimulated controversy. In his book's introduction, Phillips explicitly states he would not have written this book if the political balance of power in South Africa had not shifted. Phillips frequently refers to the release of Nelson Mandela to stress this point. Die verdwaalde land constitutes an autobiographical work in which Ronny presents a factual description of his family's quest to learn the fate of it, Selula, his brother after Selula vanishes without a trace. The express aim of the booklet, to uncover the truth, extends beyond Selula's mystifying vanishing. Zuid-Afrikaanse (N.d.) states:

Die verdwaalde land describes the impact of apartheid on the coloured community and how it affects the lives of ordinary people: the powerlessness and humiliation felt by the man-in-the-street, his suffering and anguish but also his courage and tenacity in the face of the brutality and impunity with which the forces of law and order go about their business. Phillips interpretes the events from a Christian perspective. Die verdwaalde land ends with a plea for forgiveness: "Die bruin en swart mense sal moet vergewe om moreel reg aan hul geskiedenis te laat geskied. Dis ook nie net ter wille van die nageslag nie, maar dis die enigste manier om wit mense te laat besef dat wat hul voorvaders gedoen het, die verkeerdste ding was wat ooit kon gebeur het." (the brown and black people will have to forgive in order to morally do justice to their history. It is not for the sake of their descendants, but it is the only way to impress on the white people that what their ancestors did was the worst thing that could have happened.) & #8230;the power of Phillips's testimony lies in its documentary nature and its disarming simplicity. His tale comes straight from the heart and is told without embellishment or literary pretense. It makes this little book into a very powerful and touching document humain. (Zuid-Afrikaanse, N.d., a political and social agenda, Section, ¶ 1)

Table 1 portrays issues that those who were not "obviously white" had to routinely contend with during the South African Apartheid, concerns Phillips wrote about in his works.

Table 1: Disproportionate Treatment of Blacks/Whites (Chokshi, Carter, Gupta, & Allen, 1995, Figure 1).

Blacks

Whites

Population

19 million

4.5 million

Land Allocation

13%

87%

Share of National Income

< 20%

75%

Ratio of Average Earnings

1

14

Minimum Taxable Income

360 rands

750 rands

Doctors/Population

1/44,000

1/400

Infant Mortality Rate

20% (urban)

40% (rule)

2.7%

Annual Expenditure on Education per Pupil

$45

$696

Teacher/Pupil Ratio

1/60

1/22

Even though years have passed since the birth of democracy in South Africa, the Coloured identity in South Africa still requires qualification. Gino Fransman (2005), University of the Western Cape, asserts in the article, "Negotiating Coloured Identity through Encounters with Performance," that one does not need any no qualification, to claim: "I am Black,' or 'I am White.' Yet, Coloured identity is mired in questions of, amongst others, belonging, status, and power" (p. 19). Richard van der Ross, who established a Coloured or "Bush" College in 1960, states that at the beginning of reform in South Africa, those who were referred to as Coloured were also referred to as "people from the Cape."

As the people of South Africa became more educated, Van der Ross explained, those referred to as Coloured started to shake off feelings of oppression and began feeling less inferior. Fransman (2005) explains: the Coloured "base their claims [or identify] on the long line of descent taking them back, in some cases, to the original inhabitants of the land of their birth… the new group which has emerged has been known by many names" (p. 19). Coloured in South Africa, as Fransman points out, does not necessarily refer to the individual being black.

In South Africa, the name Coloured merits a unique definition. Mohamed Adhikari (2002) asserts in the journal article, "From Narratives of Miscegenation to Post-Modernist Re-Imaginings: Comparing Perceptions of Coloured Identity in South Africa," that Coloured "instead refers to a phenol typically varied social group of highly diverse social and geographical origins" (p. 1). Kole Omotoso, a reportedly well-know literary critic, describes skin color of Coloured people as being charcoal black to bread crust brown, yellow or jaundiced, and also off-white individuals who want to pass for being white.

Most Coloured people of South Africa, from the Cape, lived as slaves in the late nineteenth century. As less than 10% of the entire population in this area, the Coloured slaves were routinely oppressed and had no economic or political power. Mohamed Adhikari (1991) reports in the book review, Between Black and White: The History of Coloured Politics in South Africa, the history of coloured politics required much compromise; experienced numeours failures. The Responsible Government in charge of the Cape Colony in 1872 insisted upon virtually complete segregation of coloureds under Apartheid. Adhikari explains that "in the face of racial discrimination, coloured political organizations adopted non-racist programmes, but found in practice that they had little option but to mobilize by appealing to coloured identity" (p. 106). Coloured political behavior during this time primarily consisted of dramatic reactions of whites aimed toward ensuring that South Africa remained segregated. Discrimination against coloured people ruthless ruled the region.

The coloured people of Zimbabwe assumed that biology determines whether one is Coloured. James Muzondidya (2005) contends in the book, Walking a tightrope: Towards a social history of the Coloured community of Zimbabwe, that in regard to determining the identity or Coloured. "much of the problem lies in that, as with other aspects of Coloured history, historians have not yet committed themselves to a serious investigation of the evolution of Coloured social and political identities" (p. 22). Mandaza and Seirlis were the only two individuals, according to Muzondidya, with work contrary to this charge. Mandaza proposed that coloured identity simply constitutes white-imposed categorization. Seirlis, on the other hand, argued that both the state and the coloured people themselves created the coloured identity

III: Conceptions of Colouredness

Artifacts, paintings and ceremonies, according to Fransman (2005), may portray a particular culture. A culture may also be communicated, however through literature. Cultural performances, which differ from the "artistic performances" of dance, theatre, other artistic forms, as cultural performances constitute a kind of cultural "memory," or means for recording ways "communities reproduce and recreate themselves" (Fransman, p. 7). Literature itself may also help establish a nation's identity, in the New South Africa.

In the theatre drama, Marc Lottering, a Coloured from Cape Town, created, "From the Cape Flats with Love," Lottering depicts s a Coloured neighbor, as one of six Coloured characters in the drama. The neighbor pointedly, profusely professes thoughts about class, life, love, race and everyone else's business in the neighborhood. The neighbor reflects ten diverse stereotypes; which allows the audience to relate to their own neighborhoods. Fransman (2005) points out: "It is hard not to recognise the universality of this character, but the characterisation seems to be marked as belonging to the Coloured group through affecting or taking on certain traits and mannerisms attributed stereotypically to the group" (p. 11). This allows the audience to have their own interpretation of the prejudice that the character feels.

Lottering proved popular not only on stage, but on television as well. In his play "Crash," Lottering, who considers himself a Coloured celebrith, depicts a character as a Coloured celebrity character being arrested for drunk driving, a true experience for Lottering, and also shows the negative ensuring consequences. "Lottering offers varied views about how people from different groups reacted to his sudden fame, as well as the sudden negative publicity surrounding the accident" (Fransman, 2005, p. 11). Through the course of "Crash,"Lot tering, deconstructs the depicted, typical stereotype with opposite stereotypes. Lottering, who considers himself chiefly a comedian, uses characters in his plays to portray coloured individuals and the fact that being Coloured sometimes requires the individual to make many costume changes.

In the play "Joe Barber," based on incidents in an actual barbershop, David Isaacs, one of three Coloured writers of the play, also an actor plays the part of a barber and actually interacts with audience members. During performances, the set transitions into a functioning barber shop where the two "acting" barbers (Isaacs and Petersen, another actor/writer) interact with audience members. Participating audience members sit on the barber seats; receiving a "trim," or sweep the shop's floor (Fransman, 2005).

Isaacs and Peterson also co-authored the play, "Suip," their only non-comic performance. In "Suip," which portray the homeless individuals in Cape Town, race and class issues "are foregrounded as being part of a cycle" (Fransman, 2005, p. 12). Characters in this play experience challenges that Coloureds in real life not only experienced from the past and typical challenges that certain individuals, such as Coloured, and others with "given" identities continue to struggle to overcome.

Zenzile Khoisan's article, "Crime hits Coloureds hardest- Study," relates a number of quotes from Phil Leggett's 2004 study relating to social issues in South Africa. Findings from the study by Leggett indicated "that Coloured people were twice as likely to be involved in, or be the victims of, violent crime as compared to other South Africans" (Khoisan, as cited in Fransman, 2005, p. 25). Though Leggett's study not widely read by many Coloured individuals in South Africa, this newspaper article rated a robust readership. Many of the Coloured, reportedly infuriated by Khoisan's article, refused to acknowledge the study's statistics. Fransman contends that by choosing not to accept the Leggett's findings reflects the Coloured's desire to no longer be portrayed as victims they had been for so many years in the past.

The newspaper, Cape Argus, which published Khoisan's article, experienced backlash for weeks after the story's release. Many Coloureds reported they did not feel angry about the article, but instead about the way the Coloured, as a group of people, were wrongly portrayed. Chief Joseph D. Little wrote to the Coloured in response to the controversy, "If you truly want to take this matter of your identity seriously, as some of us have, then you will stop calling yourself a coloured. You will call yourself what our first nation indigenous ancestors called themselves: Khoi-Khoi or Khoi-San" (Little, as cited in Fransman, 2005, p. 26). Although Little's response contributed to the continuing controversy, it also stimulated many Coloured people to consider their identity and how they wanted to be perceived.

Richard Van der Ross, the books Myths and Attitudes and the Coloured people could not find these books

The Story of Strawberry Lane

In his book, the Story of Strawberry Lane, Van der Ross, a prominent, respected educator, also Coloured, portrays the unique, true account of the daughter of a freed Cape citizen. Martha, the daughter married Harry Grey, an Englishman who had been exiled from his country by his aristocratic family. Harry experienced problems with alcohol and reportedly associated with women beneath his high social class. When Harry initially moved to the Cape, he had no idea he would one day marry a woman like Martha, a woman with exceptional determination and enterprise. Mitchell (2008) stresses: "It perhaps needs to be… [emphasized] that Dr. van der Ross seeks neither to… [romanticize] his subjects, nor… [emphasize] Martha's solid, practical virtues in contrast to Harry's fecklessness" (¶ 7). Van der Ross, however, does emphasize how snobby he perceived the Cape Settlers in the Cape.

Van der Ross once spoke at St. Paul's Hall about Strawberry Lane. Lois Harley (2009) states in the journal article, "The Story of Strawberry Lane." As he spoke Van der Ross entertained and emotionally moved the audience as he recounted the Coloured community that lived on Strawberry Lane until the provisions of the Group Areas Act in the late 1960s dispersed the region and scattered those who live there. In speeches, as in his book, Van der Ross recounted a few of the many memories he had about the Coloured people who lived on Strawberry Lane, where he had once lived with his father. Strawberry Lane comprised: "The land [that] had once been part of a grant to Simon van der Stel, governor at the Cape, of a large estate in the Constantia Valley" (Harley, 2009, ¶ 2). Over time, the government divided this area, well-known for farming and for viticulture into smaller pieces. "The laborers on these farms were largely people descended from slaves and free blacks, a rich mixture of many ethnic groups and it was some of these people who settled in the area later known as Strawberry Lane" (Harley, 2009, ¶ 3). Some of those laborers later purchased parcels of the land.

In the Story of Strawberry Lane, Van der Ross recounts that the people living in Strawberry Lane considered family to be their most valuable "possession." Most of these people had large families, Harley (2009) states. "The Christian families would start the day as early as five o'clock with a prayer and a bible reading before Father departed for work. This was repeated in the evening before bed" (Harley, ¶ 6). Harley elaborates about Strawberry Lane:

The plots had good soil and access to water from the Spaanschemat River and families supplemented their small wages by growing flowers and vegetables and raising chickens and pigs. Many of them had a horse or a donkey to use to get to their places of work.

The women would walk as far as Cape Town to sell their flowers until Mr. Petersen bought a lorry and they were transported by him to the flower markets.

Hadje Taliep later bought a bus and ran a bus service which greatly helped people. His one daughter was the driver and the other the conductor.

The family was the most important unit in this community and most had large families. (Harley, ¶ 7-8).

The mother in the family, responsible for caring for the children, ensured they performed well in school. At this time, most families regularly attended church together. Both Christian and Moslem children attended the small school the Dutch Reform Mission Church built in Strawberry Lane until the fifth grade. If a child wanted to study further, he had to walk four kilometers to Battswood School in Wynberg. Van der Ross recounts that his father walked that journey to further his education, while his mother regularly walked to Wynberg, carrying a basket of fresh vegetables and eggs to sell to attain money to purchase the school books his father needed.

In the Story of Strawberry Lane, Martha not only envisioned but established a school at an early age in Strawberry Lane. She attributed this vision to her mother, Rebecca, a slave in the Cape. On page 86 of this book, when Martha refers to the Second Anglo-Boer War in a letter she wrote she used the word "Syces." Van der Ross explains he thinks Martha may have meant to use the word "Sikhs" instead. A Syce depicts an Indian name for a stable hand or groom who worked for the British forces in the Second Anglo-Boer war. Some, according to Harley (2009), think a number of inaccurate accounts of pedigrees or blood lines of the characters may be depicted in the story. One particular inaccuracy reports that John Grey of Enville Hall married his own granddaughter.

IV: REPRESENTATIONS of the COLOURED

In the book, Minnie's Sacrifice, written during the late 1960s, Frances E. Harper, like Julia C. Collins, author of the books, the Curse of Caste and the Slave Bride, portrayed characters of enslaved families. Leslie W. Lewis (2006), Associate Professor of English at the College of Saint Rose, explains in the article, "Biracial Promist and the New South in Minnie's Sacrifice: A Protocol for Reading," that in their writings, both Harper and Collins presented "a story line focused on a child or children whose father is a slave master and whose mother, at least initially, is enslaved; protagonists whose physical appearance includes skin color so light that they can pass for white" (p. 755). The characters in these stories, well-educated, typically teachers, generally lived either in New Orleans or somewhere near the "Crescent City."

Although a number of distinctions exist between the books Minnie's Sacrifice and the Curse of Caste, many of the characters are similarly biracial. "Both novels demonstrate that 19th century women writers present 'mulatto' possibility rather than tragedy, and focus on the progeny resulting from master/female slave relations as a powerful force in the context on an American family dynamic and/or American society at large" (Lewis, 2006, p. 755). Particular details in Minnie's Sacrifice, Lewis stresses, allow individuals to critique a white supremacist society, and how they could be reformed.

Harper stated that she wrote both of her books for African-Americans (Lewis, 2006).

Frances Smith Foster cautions that misreadings of Minnie's Sacrifice and Harper's later novel Iola Leroy (1892) spring from… [one's] misunderstanding of African-American literacy and audience in the nineteenth century, and that scholarly disregard for the Afro-Protestant press has distorted even & #8230; [one's] sense of African-American literary history. (Lewis, 2006, p. 755).

Vernon February could not find any books on him

Born in Somerset West South Africa, Vernon February began living in exile in 1963. In the journal article, "A Long Way from Home: Reflections of Three Black Writers -- Henry Dumas (1934-1968), Dobru (Robin Ravales, 1935-1983), Nat Nakasa (1937-1965)," February (1988), reports that as a faculty member of the Afrika Studiecentrum at Leiden Universtiy, Holland, he "lectured on African, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-American literature" (p. 255). Vernon has written several books; two include: Kultuur in verdrukking en verzet and Mind your Colour. Both these books focus on the Coloured people of South Africa and ways they are stereotyped in most of South African literature.

Minnie Lewis could not find anything on her

Abraham Phillips

Prem Poddar, Rajeev S. Patke, and Lars Jensen (2009) report that in the 1990s, Phillips' Die verdwaalde land, published in 1992, initiated an upsurge of prose by colored writers. "This novel gives expression to the powerlessness and humiliation inflicted by apartheid on the coloured community" (p. 387). Following works by Karel Benjamin with Staan uit die water uit! In 1996 and Pastoor Scholl's trek sy toga uit in 1999, Poddar, Patke and Jensen explain: "[Serve as] examples which reflect the experiences of the coloured community sleeping in Cape Town's Goodwood in District Six" (Ibid.). Zuid-Afrikaanse (N.d.) reports the following regarding other works Phillips published:

In his second book Erfenis van die noodlot (Inheritance of fate) (1993) apartheid is pushed into the background. Saartjie Steenberg lives with her grandparents in the coloured community of Biesiesvlei. When Karel and Omers, two happy-go-lucky characters, come and live in a shack in their yard Saartjie is thrilled. Karel and Omers are always up to something; life is never dull when they are around. One day they push their luck too far and unintentionally kill the local Jewish shopkeeper. They are convicted of murder and executed. To Saartjie this comes as a tremendous shock. After the death of her grandparents she moves to Cape Town to start a new life. Erfenis van die noodlot is about the good, the bad and the ugly in a small community. However, as the characterisation is too flat and the story-line too thin, it fails to be entirely convincing.

Die Messiasbende (the Messiah gang) (1997) is Abraham Phillips's third prose work. This story about a group of homeless people who are addicted to methylated spirits, is a plea for understanding and compassion. These down-and-outers are human beings after all. Too much attention to the anecdotal and the melodramatic leaves too little space for the exploration of the tragic side of these withered lives. In spite of Phillips's obvious empathy and the worthiness of his cause the syrupy packaging puts an all too melodramatic gloss (Zuid-Afrikaanse, N.d., a political and social agenda, Section, ¶2-3)

In 1994, a great transition in the Majority South African Government occurred. Since that time, the "Afrikaans" no longer possessed particular pertinent privileges they claimed in the past. Luc Renders (N.d.), Limburg University Center, asserts in the journal article, "The prose writers of brown in the nineties,"Sinds de overgang naar een meerderheidsregering in 1994 bevindt het Afrikaans zich niet langer in een gepriviligieerde positie. Voor de doemprofeten lijkt de toekomst ervan gehypotheceerd; ze voorspellen dat het Engels de lingua franca zal worden. "for the doom prophets gehypotheceerd it seems the future, they predict that English will be the lingua franca" (p. 1). Hun vrees wordt echter grotendeels bezworen door de creatieve kracht en de vernieuwende impulsen die van de Afrikaanse literatuur uitgaan. The creative and innovative power of the entertainment of South African literature reportedly prevented this particular fear from raging.

Although Phillips first proved be controversial, it also revealed the Coloured's courage and strength as well as ways they persevered when faced with hatred and brutality. Terwijl het uitdrukkelijke doel van het boek is om de waarheid te ontdekken, omvat het veel meer dan Selula's verdwijning. Die verdwaalde land beschrijft de impact van de apartheid op de kleurlinggemeenschap en op het leven van gewone mensen: de machteloosheid en vernedering die gevoeld worden door de man in de straat, zijn lijden en vrees, maar ook zijn moed en doorzettingsvermogen wanneer hij geconfronteerd wordt met de brutaliteit en de straffeloosheid waarmee de ordemachten te werk gaan. "The lost land describes the impact of apartheid on the colored community and the lives of ordinary people" (Render, N.d., p. 2). It also depicts how powerless the Coloured felt and the humiliation they endured.

In Phillip's second book, in zijn tweede boek Erfenis van die noodlot (1993) verdwijnt de apartheid naar de achtergrond.Legacy of the Fate, published in 1993, some contend the apartheid overshadows Coloured literature. Saartjie Steenberg, one prominent characters, lives in the coloured community, Biesiesvlei, with her grandparents. "When Charles and Omers, two carefree souls, who in a loft in their backyard to live, is very excited Saartjie. Omers With Charles and nearby there is always something to do. Op een dag keert het geluk zich tegen Karel en Omers. On one days the luck turns against Charles and Omers. Ze brengen, onopzettelijk, de plaatselijke joodse handelaar om. They do, inadvertently, to the local Jewish merchant. Ze worden schuldig bevonden aan moord en ter dood veroordeeld. Voor Saartjie is dit een geweldige schok. Na de dood van haar grootouders verhuist ze naar Kaapstad om er een nieuw leven te beginnen. Erfenis van die noodlot handelt over het goede, het slechte en het lelijke in een kleine gemeenschap. They are found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Saartjie for this is a great shock. After the death of her grandparents she moved to Cape Town to a new life. Legacy of fate that is about the good, the bad and the ugly in a small community. Omdat de karakteruitbeelding niet indringend genoeg is en de verhaallijn te mager uitvalt, kan het boek niet helemaal overtuigen. Because the character portrayal is not penetrating enough and the storyline fails to thin, the book can not quite convince (Renders, N.d., p. 2). This is translation from Dutch; however, it cannot be right, but do not have access to any other way to translate.

Phillip's third book, Die Messiasbende (1997) is Abraham Phillips' derde prozawerkje. Messiah Die Gang, published in 1997, centers on of group of homeless coloured meth addicts. In Phillip's eyes, the story portrays a plea for people to be more compassionate and understanding. Renders, however, argues that in this particular book, Dit verhaal over een groepje dakloze zwervers, die aan brandspiritus verslaafd zijn, is een pleidooi voor begrip en medeleven. "Deze verschoppelingen zijn ook mensen.Te veel aandacht voor het anekdotische en het melodramatische laat te weinig ruimte voor de ontginning van de tragische kant van deze verschrompelde levens.Too much attention to the anecdotal and leaves little room for the exploitation of the tragic side of these withered lives" (Renders, N.d., p. 2). Ondanks de doorvoelde empathie van Phillips en de merite van het onderwerp, wordt door de al te sentimentele verpakking een te zoetsappige aankleding aan dit onderwerp gegeven. The individuals portrayed in this book, some argue, are outcasts, not because they are Coloured, but because of their addictions, which for some, makes it difficult to feel compassion for the characters in the book.

Vatmarr

AH.M. Scholtz's 1995 novel, Vatmaar, set in the early 1920s reportedly earned the title as "the ultimate book of the coloured people." Gerhard Stilz (2002) explains that Vatmarr may be translated as "For the taking" or "you can have it." In this novel, a "brown" man describes the origins of the contemporary South African community and its cultural variety during the period after the Anglo-Boar War, ending in 1902. The "brown" man focuses on "the position of the so-called 'coloured' people as an interface between the white and black communities, highlighting problems which have come a long way and are still prevalent today" (p. 157). The themes prevailing in Vatmaar include:

1. Those in power typically write history. The official history of a country like South Africa reflects historical events as well as relates the attitudes various individuals ruling the country at different times present. Typically, when government and those in power change, a new way of perceiving previous events in the present also change. Each government as well as its "official" and loyal historians match and relate the country's stories to fit their personal narrative or and/or their preferred set of values.

2. Historiography portrays the official and "canonized" account of major and decisive events in a country and does not principally focus on presenting personal or individual experiences. The literature, albeit, depicts individual versions of history and the way historical events influence and impact the lives ordinary individuals. Individual experiences maybe can be reflected in a number of implicit and/or explicit ways; in diverse degrees. Literature may also depict small narratives of individuals, regardless of their race or social standing and simultaneously serve as a specific means to represent the history of particular attitudes and dispositions individuals in a certain country process.

3. Language in history and in literature may also act as a vessel of historical events and movements as language takes in or shapes words and notion sand perceptions that refer to or depict attitudes and events. A country's languages may be viewed as a sort of radar concurrently receiving and sending signals depicting ways the languages reflect and form the community as well as its history (Stilz, 2002)

Stilz (2002) reports that Scholtz, a brown man, belongs to the group "also called 'coloured'" (p. 159). These individuals evolved from contact "between Europeans, the various indigenous peoples of Southern Africa and slaves from the east" (Ibid.). The brown communities in South Africa, repeatedly marginalized continue to experience being in between, not actually part of either the black or the white communities. The majority of these individuals, primarily Christians, with the exception of the Malay community in Cape Town, and even though they speak the Afrikaans' language, they have not been accepted by the Afrikaner community and reportedly have been perceived to be socially inferior.

Nevertheless, these brown communities possess a rich heritage of old songs as well as a treasury of folk tales, and rhymes. A number of prominent Afrikaans poets incorporated elements from Vatmaar, about the British soldier who remained behind after the Boer War and "marries a Tswana wife, a German woman from German Southwest Africa (now Namibia), Griqua people, a man from Lesotho, Indian people and others" (Stilz, 2002, p. 160). Stilz recounts:

The story tells how these people build a community from nothing -- they take what is left over by others, they use lands which nobody really needs or wants and out of the scraps (which are there to be taken, "wat maar gevat kan word" = vatmaar) they start constructing a new life. They develop a system of helping one another to buy a small plot of land, the build a church and later a medical clinic. With a little they have, they help those in need, taking in those who have nowhere to go, with been rejected either by their families were the establishment. In fact the evolution of the material, spiritual and psychological components of a community of truce fellowship is described. (Ibid, p. 162)

Stilz (2002) relates one simple poignant scene which depicts how oom Fip lip and Bet, his future wife, begin their relationship. They usually meet under one particular tree, the place where Bet goes which wants to be alone to think. In her special place, Bet sit on a huge stone under the tree. When Bet senses that Fillip likes her, however, and wants to talk her about himself, she wants to hear what he has to say.

Bet got from the stone and said: Sit down Flippus. She sat down across from him and folded their arms over her knees.

Bana! Said oom Flip. You know what? This girl wants to know everything about me. (49)

At a subsequent meeting Flip realizes that something is bothering Bet, and the roles are reversed.

This time Sis Bet found oom Flip waiting under the tree. Good day, Bet, he said. He stood up and pointed to the stone. (51). (Stilz, 2002, p. 164)

Scholtz portrays those people in Vatmaar with compassion and empathy. The story's narrator, nevertheless, it depicts the characters' bad characteristics. "The people are neither absolutely good nor completely bad. There's an essential honesty in the novel that keeps it from being over-idealistic and sentimental" (Stilz, 2002, p. 165). As the story betrays the individuals in their humanness, it reveals the falseness of the colonial hierarchies. In the story:

The grandchildren of Lance Corporal Lewis, who become oom Lewies in Vatmaaar, consider themselves superior to the Tswana and Griqua people even though they have a Tswana grandmother. A fair complexion is coveted by all and is a common topic among them. In this manner, the novel breeze an air of integrity, of simplicity and unaffectedness. But artlessness should be seen in the right perspective here. Behind a simple surface of the text lies an archetyp. 165 pal sensitivity for human dignity and an appreciation and respect for the variety of lifestyles and perspectives which are present in every human community. (Stilz, 2002, p. 165)

Stilz (2002) reports that Elsbree identifies the following five archetypal actions, which he perceives to be at the core of the plots of the world's greatest works of literature:

1. Establishing and concentrating a home;

2. Engaging in a contest are fighting a battle;

3. Taking a journey;

4. Enduring suffering; and

5. Pursuing consummation. (Stilz, 2002, p. 166)

Vatmaar meets all of Elsbree's criteria, as the following depict.

1. As a people build houses and the church, the allocation and distribution of the land; consider the pivotal point in the history of the Coloureds, provides a sense of belonging for the individuals living in the small new community. They feel this place belongs to them.

2. Vatmaar relates several stories about war torn individuals who come to Vatmaar to find rest from their struggles and fights against oppressive circumstances. They become engaged in a new struggle here to begin to fight for their own dignity. The story also reveals conflict that occurs within the community, for example, Wonnie and her daughters struggle as they have to fight false accusations and injustices.

3. Some of the journeys numerous inhabitants of the town have taken to settle here include some arriving of their own accord, while others were forced to leave where they came from. The town "comes into being by acting as container catching up all those drifting, travels train people, in accepting them without prejudice" (Stilz, 2002, p. 166).

4. Each of the inhabitants, either in their past or in the time of the story, had experience suffering.

5. In Vatmaar, love drives in numerous ways. Nevertheless, the lovers experience challenges and obstacles and they must overcome. Numerous individuals in this story transcend the handicaps their circumstances present and ultimately realize their dreams (Ibid.).

Clive Smiths Bly te kenne, Braam (1997) en SP Benjamins Die reuk van steenkool (1997) staan kwalitatief op een veel hoger vlak.Clive Smith, another coloured writer, wrote the book Bly to Manifest, Braam in 1997. Smith as well as S.P. Benjamin, author of the book, That smell of Coal, in 1997, are perceived as quality Coloured writers. Both these child-narrated books discuss first sexual experiences . Opnieuw draait alles om familieproblemen.When the narrators' heroes fall from their pedestals, they become full of skepticism and distrust about. In Die reuk van steenkool, waarin realistische scenes naadloos in surrealistische overgaan, geldt dit wantrouwen ook voor de toekomstige zwarte regering. In the Smell of Coal, this distrust reportedly depicts the future black government. Geen verbetering in de levensstandaard van de kleurlingen kan ervan verwacht worden. The prominent message the book relates is that no improvement in the living standards of people of color will likely occur (Renders, N.d.).

All of the De meeste kleurlingschrijvers die hierboven besproken werden, beschrijven in hun werken het rauwe leven van de kleurlingen.Coloured writers above describe their work to others as the raw life of the Coloureds. De volwassenen zijn nauwelijks in staat de slagen van het noodlot af te weren. "Zelfs kinderen zijn genadeloos overgeleverd aan de grillen van het leven. Het individu slaagt er niet in zijn zwakheden te overwinnen en zijn situatie te verbeteren.Even children are mercilessly exposed to the vagaries of life. The individual fails to overcome his weaknesses and his situation" (Renders, N.d., p. 5). The allover work of the aforementioned authors deals more with the civil side of the Coloureds rather than the political. Aan de apartheid wordt voor deze gang van zaken niet alle schuld gegeven ondanks het feit dat de erbarmelijke toestand in de kleurlingbuurten er grotendeels aan toe te schrijven is.

Sam Raditlhalo questioned, "Who am I?" In his PhD dissertation, which focuses on South African autobiographical writing in the twentieth century. Margriet van der Waal and Helen Wilcox (2004), both with the Department of English, University of Groningen, the Netherlands, assert in the journal article, "Experience and Identity in Recent South African Literature," "this question underlies his wide-ranging inquiry into the construction of identity during a complex and difficult period of South African history" (p. 5). Despite the transformation of the South African government bring about the end of oppression, Raditlhalo's probing personal question I grew to encompass many hearts.