Elleke Boehmer (cf. Cullhed, 2006: 79) writes, "Nationalism, like patriarchy, favours singleness—one identity, one growth pattern, one birth and blood for all ... will promote specifically unitary or 'one-eyed' forms of consciousness". The first problem any student of South African literature is confronted with, is the diversity of the literary systems. Gerrit Olivier notes, "While it is not unusual to hear academics and politicians talk about a 'South African literature', the situation at round level is characterised by diversity and even fragmentation". Robert Mossman adds that "One of the enduring and saddest legacies of the apartheid system may be that no one – White, Black, Coloured (meaning of mixed-race in South Africa), or Asian – can ever speak as a "South African." The problem, however, pre-dates Apartheid significantly, as South Africa is a country made up of communities that have always been linguistically and culturally diverse. These cultures have all retained autonomy to some extent, making a compilation such as the controversial "Southern African Literatures" by Michael Chapman, difficult. Chapman raises the question: