The Oxonian Who Saved Mandela
by Yvonne Malan, founder of the Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture
18 July 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nelson Mandela. He was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Oxford in 1996. In 2002 he gave a lecture at Oxford on the occasion of a lecture theatre at the Said Business School being named in his honour. But Madiba — as he is affectionately known — also has another connection to Oxford: Bram Fischer, who led his defence team during the Rivonia trial and who Mandela himself credited with saving his life, was a Rhodes Scholar at New College. Fischer, Mandela declared, ‘Showed a level of courage and sacrifice that was in a class by itself. I fought only against injustice, not my own people.’
Bram Fischer was born on 23 April 1908 into a prominent Afrikaner family. Intelligent and charismatic, Fischer was regarded as a future Prime Minister. Yet Fischer’s life would turn out very differently, in large part because of his keen sense of justice and fairness and a worldview that were profoundly influenced by his time at Oxford.
Fischer received a Rhodes scholarship in 1931. He was a popular member of the Rhodes House and New College communities. He read for a degree in law, followed by a diploma in economics. He represented New College in tennis and rugby. He was a member of the Oxford Union and elected as President of the Raleigh Club. He travelled through Europe, read widely and attended numerous public debates and lectures. Fischer’s biographer Stephen Clingman says that Fischer’s Oxford days were ‘absolutely foundational’. His worldview, his sense of justice and identity were ‘enhanced during his Oxford period, [it] never left him.’ Fischer arrived in Oxford as an Afrikaner nationalist, but he returned to South Africa 1934 an enlightened human being.
Fischer was admitted as an advocate (barrister) in 1935. He became increasingly involved in political trials, none more famous than the Rivonia Trial in 1963 where Nelson Mandela and co-accused, charged with treason, were on trial for the lives. It was only luck that prevented Fischer from finding himself among the accused. He took an enormous risk leading the defence team: His handwriting was on a number of documents submitted as evidence against the accused. His role in liberation struggle could have been exposed at any moment. In June 1964 the accused were found guilty, as expected, but sentenced to life imprisonment. Fischer had saved them from the gallows.
After the trial, the net closed around Fischer. He was arrested in 1964 and charged under the Suppression of Communism Act. He was allowed to leave South Africa briefly to argue a case in England. One of the last places he visited as a free man was New College.
During his trial Fischer gave a statement from the dock. It is an eloquent and moving explanation of his reasons for opposing apartheid. With his sense of justice and identity, so deeply shaped by his Oxford days, he saw his allegiance as being to all South Africans. He declared:
‘I owed it to the political prisoners, to the banished, to the silenced …not to remain a spectator, but to act. I knew what they expected of me, and I did it. I felt responsible, not to those who are indifferent to the sufferings of others, but to those who are concerned. I knew that by valuing above all their judgment, I would be condemned by people who are content to see themselves as respectable and loyal citizens. I cannot regret any such condemnation that may follow me.’
Fischer, Statement from Dock, paragraph 65
In 1966 Bram Fischer was sentenced to life imprisonment. He died, still a prisoner, on 8 May 1975. His ashes were confiscated after the funeral. His image and words remained banned until South Africa’s transition to democracy.
In 1994 Nelson Mandela became the first democratically elected president of South Africa. Gradually, Fischer’s name was mentioned more often. In 1998 Stephen Clingman’s award-winning Bram Fischer: Afrikaner Revolutionary was published. A documentary Love, Communism, Revolution and Rivonia: Bram Fischer’s Story was widely acclaimed. A play and a feature film about his life would follow in 2015 and 2017. Roads and an airport have been named after him.
It has been said that the arc of the moral universe is long, but that it bends toward justice. Perhaps. But if it does, it is not the result of natural momentum or destiny. It happens because of people like Bram Fischer and Nelson Mandela. We know the meaning of moral courage because of people like them. They stood for justice when the consequences could be fatal. So however dark and dangerous the world becomes, we cannot say there were not those who did have the courage to spark a light, to lead the way.
It is therefore fitting that Oxford has honoured both Nelson Mandela and Bram Fischer. In 2007 the Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture was founded at New College. The popularity of the lecture led to the need for a larger venue and since 2011 it has been held at Rhodes House. Past speakers include George Bizos (member of the Rivonia defence team), Denis Goldberg (one of the last surviving Rivonia trialists), and Ruth Rice and Ilse Wilson (Fischer’s surviving children).
The Weston Library holds a number of Fischer’s papers, ranging from personal letters to court documents relating to the Rivonia trial and his own trial, including his statement from the dock. Since 2015 I have been involved in project to translate and expand the existing archive, with the help of Lucy McCann (Senior Archivist). This will provide a valuable resource for researchers interested in Bram Fischer’s life, the Rivonia trial and South African politics during the 1960s. But more than that, the archive serves to instruct us in the realities moral courage in dark times. In this, it is an invaluable resource to all of us.
Yvonne Malan was educated at New College, University of Oxford. She is the founder of the Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture and a patron of The Spitfire Society.
Archive queries: bramfischerarchive@gmail.com
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