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Afrikaner Revolutionary Revisited: Bram Fischer in our Times

Bram Fischer was born in 1908 in South Africa to an eminent Afrikaner nationalist family. Like his father and grandfather before him, Bram became a lawyer and seemed destined for eminence as a future Prime Minister or Chief Justice. His path, however, took a different turn. Emerging from the nationalism of his family, he took up a Rhodes Scholarship in the early 1930s, travelling on the Continent and witnessing the rise of Hitler; he also travelled to the Soviet Union. Some time after his return to South Africa, he joined the Communist Party. Thereafter, his life was synonymous with the struggle against apartheid as he worked on key political trials and collaborated closely with leading figures in the liberation movement. In 1964 he led the defence of Nelson Mandela and the other accused at the Rivonia Trial. Then, after a series of dramatic developments in which he went underground in disguise, he was captured and sentenced to life imprisonment. Ultimately, he died of cancer as a prisoner in 1975. Fischer’s is a story of commitment, suffering and heroism, and it is why we remember him today. Yet it may seem as if his time and place were very different from ours. Many of the things he believed in have crumbled; some of the things he fought against have sadly endured. Ours is an era of displacement, of refugees, of authoritarianism, populism, climate change. Still, Fischer’s life serves as a template for us now, not only in a South African context but in the global arena. His underlying codes regarding identity and responsibility, dwelling and home, refuge and hospitality are central to our life on the planet. This is the relevance of Bram Fischer in our times. What follows is the text of the Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture, presented at the University of Oxford, 24 October 2019. The lecture was dedicated to the memory of Arthur Chaskalson and Lorraine Chaskalson.