ACCEPTING an honorary membership award by the SA Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns for her late husband Adam Small, Rosalie Small said he appreciated the tremendous acknowledgement and would have loved to be present to collect it himself.
Adam was posthumously awarded an honorary membership by the Akademie, a multi-disciplinary organisation that promotes science, technology and literature in Afrikaans in Stellenbosch last Friday.
Adam was 79 when he died in Kingsbury Hospital in Claremont after a complication during vein bypass surgery in June.
As an academic, poet and playwright, he shifted the boundaries of literature and pioneered writing in Kaaps – a language mostly spoken by coloured people in Cape Town.
His poetry collections include Kitaar my Kruis(1961), Sê Sjibbolet(1963) and Oos Wes Tuis Bes Distrik Ses(1973).
Adam wrote about apartheid South Africa and proved himself to be a revolutionary thinker.
“I am of course very proud, very happy and it is an honour to receive (the award), but also very sad.
"I would have much rather liked him to have been here, but it's a great honour because this is the highest award that the Akademie can bestow on anyone,” Rosalie said.
Her late husband was aware of the award months prior and was excited, and wanted to be present to collect it himself, she said.
Akademie head Dionē Prinsloo said: “We are very proud of what he has done for Afrikaans and what he has done for literature.
"It was incredible and we are very sorry that he is unable to be here tonight. I saw him earlier this year and he was very excited about this.
"He said he was looking forward to tonight, so it is with great sorrow that we didn’t have him here.”
The Akademie would be proud in future to refer to him as a leader in Afrikaans literature, she added.
“Everything was significant about his work. It was wonderful, the new voice he was in South Africa and that he gave voice to such a lot of people that didn’t have a voice previously.
"After 50 years Kanna Hy Kô Hystoe is still so relevant,” Prinsloo said.
Last month, the Dagbreek Trust, for which Adam was a patron and where he made his last public appearance, honoured him and handed a personalised runner to Rosalie in remembrance of her late husband.