Bram Fischer: a defiant Afrikaner

Abstract

Fischer set the course of South Africa's struggle history through his selfless act of standing up against the injustices of apartheid, and fighting for the end of racial discrimination. Born into a prominent Afrikaner family, he made an unlikely ally in the struggle against the apartheid state. Grandson of Abram Fischer, prime minister of the Orange Free State, and son of Percy Fischer, judge president of the Orange Free State, Bram was born into a family that advanced the Afrikaner nationalist propaganda and its associated political agenda. His family had been active in the Afrikaner struggle for independence from British colonial rule, and Fischer, a self-proclaimed Afrikaner nationalist from the age of six, was elected Nationalist prime minister of a student parliament at Grey University College, now the University of the Free State.