Peter Abrahams
Peter Abrahams
Peter Henry Abrahams Deras, commonly known as Peter Abrahams, is a South African novelist, journalist and political commentator...
NationalitySouth African
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth3 March 1919
life perhaps race south
Perhaps life had a meaning that transcended race and colour. If it had, I could not find it in South Africa.
homes living looking money white work
My mother went to work in the homes of white folk, usually living in and looking after their children. The money was small.
dominated europeans life
All my life had been dominated by a sign, often invisible but no less real for that, which said: 'Reserved for Europeans Only.'
joseph white
Joseph and his mother come from the black kings who were before the white man.
awaits desperate familiar painful sensitive sharp violently
The familiar mood that awaits the sensitive young who are poor and dispossessed is a mood of sharp and painful inferiority, of violently angry tensions, of desperate and overwhelming longings.
african cape coloured contact early member south word
My mother was a member of the Cape Coloured community. 'Coloured' is the South African word for the half-caste community that was a by-product of the early contact between black and white.
attended dearest edition favourite john learned proudest regularly school shakespeare three
I attended school regularly for three years. I learned to read and write. 'Lamb's Tales' from Shakespeare was my favourite reading matter. I stole, by finding, Palgrave's 'Golden Treasury.' These two books, and the 'Everyman' edition of John Keats, were my proudest and dearest possessions, my greatest wealth.
blacks central instilled majority south whites
In East, South and Central Africa, the minority manipulated the majority into believing the minority was the majority, that there were more whites in the world than blacks; instilled in the blacks a sense of inferiority, inadequacy, worthlessness.
caribbean country found freedom plus similar sought south
In the Caribbean islands, especially in Jamaica, have I found a country similar to South Africa plus the racial freedom I had sought so long.
civilization component interest involved processes simplicity
Must simplicity and humanity go under in the interest of progress? What is the most important component of civilization - is it human or mechanical? Must thought processes become involved and insincere? Must the class-struggle warp those who are involved in it?
africa among attitude forever gestures life lucky meeting point reached south straight whites
For me, personally, life in South Africa had come to an end. I had been lucky in some of the whites I had met. Meeting them had made a straight 'all-blacks-are-good, all-whites-are-bad' attitude impossible. But I had reached a point where the gestures of even my friends among the whites were suspect, so I had to go or be forever lost.
calendar community events unlike
We have a comprehensive calendar of events unlike any other in the city.
built happened houses poor pours
This happened because of the poor workmanship when they built our houses - the rainwater pours in through the walls.
time long-ago magic
The words dripped on my consciousness, sank into my being, and carried me away to the magic long ago of once upon a time.