Naomt* Naomt* Milchtson R *OR FRIC the Stonýv Fisch-,El LIFA for APIUCA a LIFE for AFRICA the Story of Bram Fischer NAOMI MITCH
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Naomt* Naomt* milchtson r *OR FRIC the stonýv Fisch-,el LIFA FOR APIUCA A LIFE FOR AFRICA The Story of Bram Fischer NAOMI MITCHISON London MERLIN PRESS kfdrlin Prøss Lin-dted PITMY SQUAIXX, LONDØN W. COPVRX01,1T OC 1973 DY NA0h11 1,11T01-1180N PRtNT)$D M ORD-AT DRITAM BY Clarkø, Doblø & Br#ndon Ltd. PILYMOUTti To the Afrikaner Nation I dedicate this hook On one of the noblest of her sons Cont en ts 1. AniîKANEIOM ANI) Tim.~ ArRicA.Ns 13 2. GRowwNc ui, 25 3. ViEsW IFROM OXVORD 39 4. Ti-n CLOSED) DOOR 5 0 5. FEAR 64 6. ANOTHER WAY 83 7, Tin SPEAR IIEAP 9114 8. RIVONIA 103 9. Tim NioxT S-Tkirm 117 10, Tim W110LE INrOLBRABLE SrSTEu 132 11. A MA1E OV IIONOOR 14.11 12. 1 MUST ThEFREVORV, 1XPLAIN 150 13. AN A-RXIKANPR KEEps FAiont 175 POSTSGRIPT 189 Afrikanerdorn and the Africans T HEa wAs a great gramss plain, scarcely broken by hills, but with little rocky outcrops randomnly here and there, tufted with wild bushes. Here one might find small game, snakes and lizards aid rock rabbits, or even a leopard waiting to spring on beast or man. Most of the lions which would pull down and eat a full-grc)wn ox had been killed off, but you could never be sure. When the rains cane the grass grew, waving and rippling. There was plenty of grazing, not only for the oxen, but for buck and zebra, dti moving herds of hartebeeste and wildebeeste arid dancing antelopes, all busily eating the farmers grass, but good eating themselves. Most years, though, it was dry for months on end. Water came from deep wells; everything depended on having water, If the rains were good the Orange Free State prospered, the maize grew high, the nicalie cobs swelled; everyone was in good spirits and praised de Lord for his mercies. But in a bad year with little rain die maize plants died back; there was only millet and beans and a few water melons, The fat went off the oxen and their iibs showed. Calving was poor. And the kaffirs, too, looked thin and tired; there was no getting hard work out of them; they almost forgot to ing. For every fari had a kraat of kaflirs on it, remains perhaps of te tribe which had lived there once before the 13 A Life for Africa coming of the white men with the guns, or wanderers from other tribes, speaking a different language, though the ien at least had learnt the command words in Afrikaans. The kaffirs lived in a cluster of thatched huts, but tie farm itself, the white man's home, would crouch under the shade of a few trees, one storeyed, small windowed, in a straggle of garden. Lately, people had started planting the Australian gum-trees, which grew quickly and gave good, straight timber. All round the farm lay the great plain and on the edge of far horizons a few trees, or maybe a windmill, until you got near to Bloemfontein, and there would e the squat, simple roofs or shar) Calvinist spires of the Dutch Reformed Churches, pointing up into the hot nervil blue, high above the single storey houses and stores along tile wide streets, where men might ride their horses at ease between the slow, eight-spar ox wagons. They were proud men, Afrikaners, descendants, sonme, of the first Dutch families to settle at the Cape, or of the voortrekkers who built up the independent Boer Republics and whose Transvaal neighbours, allied with the Orange Free Staters, had held the British army at bay through the grim war years at the beginning of the twentieth century, only fifteen thousand Boers against a quarter of a million English: matter for pride indeed I The fact that the British had won in the end and made a generous peace, partly because of pressure from their own Liberals, did not outweigh the deaths of Boer women, and children in the concentration camps, Ah, that I Riding into Bloemfontein you could not but see the monument to those dead, faithful Afrikaners all, and hate of the Brithsh who had done such things to the family, woke Mi you again. Nor were the Afrikanerdorn and the Africans farmers entirely happy about the discovery of gold and diamonds on the Reef; the first diamonds had been found in 1867 and the gold fields were opened up between 1884 and 1887. The British South Africa Compamy was founded in 1888 and Rhodes c,ne to power with his enornious imperial drcan which was not the dream of the Afrikaners, and in his wake not only British but other aliens, whose God was somewhat differently considered from their God. Yet on the whole they had acquiesced in the imnensely conciliatory legislative union of South Africa under the British Crown. There was much to be gained from it, including higher standards of living and education and wider possibilities for the coming generation. In many households English would be spoken as a second language and English books would be read. And yet-and yet- The Fischer farm was large; there were thousands of acres of crops and pasture. A hundred years back that ws the way of it; but now land, especially near Bloemfontein, was getting scarcer. The farm would have had mndst ne and brick- built barns and stores and out-buildings, rThere would have been flowers in the garden, behind the fence of prickly pear, straggling roses perhaps, but also the charning bright annuals that come up with the rain, marigolds, zinnias, nasturtiums and the African daisies that open for the sun. The house would have none of the architectural beauty of the Cape houses; it would be an uncoipr,,unking stretch of plain rooms behind a wooden stoop for shade and. shelter. But inside, although the furniture night be phiron, there would be books, Dutch, English and perhap a few in the new language, Afrikaans, which was beginning to develop a literature. There would be china and silver, the 15 A Life for Africa means for music at home. There would be lamps in e evening and candles to go to bed by. Here there were five children, first Abram--Bran, as he was always called-then Paul and then sister Ada, and two younger brothers, Gustav and Peter. Their father, J. P. Fischer, was a Judge President of the Orange Free State, following on from his own father Abram, after whom the eldest grandson was called. This grandfather, himself descended, far back, from an official of the Dutch East India Company, had been principal adviser to President M. T. Steyn, the last President of the Orange Free State. lie had been the chief delegate of a three-menmber team which went to Europe during the Boer War to try and arouw- interest in and sympathy for the Republic. He was leader of the Orange Union after the war, when Prime , inister of the Orange River Colony and of the Orange Free State in the four years before Union-1907 to 1910. Then for three years he was Minister of Lands and Irrigation, and Minister of the Interior until his deafh in 1913. The fathe'r, Judge President Fischer, looks, in his photograph, very like Braini, a gentle, determnined man with an open gaze. The dcildren's mother, Ella Fischer, had also come from a dliti igukhed Afrikaner family; before her marriage she had secrely helped the Boers during the war. That was perhaps put history by the time the children were old enough to hear her stories, but the tradition of doing something which you considered right and just, however much it was forbidden, must have meant something powerful. Government officiA might say no, but they were in their nature temprd, while one's conscience was in eternity. In this atmosphere of public service and couragnus devo16 Afrikanerdom and the Africans tion, a young boy might have dreamed of one day being caught and araigned by the forces of injustice and tyranny (but perhaps in the dream they would be English) and making a great speech in Court which would echo round the world. H-e would scarcely have dreamed that the end of this would be life imprisonment in Pretoria Jail, clowly guarded, without news of the world he worked for, while most of that world slowly forgets the great speech and condones that particular injustice along with may others, Or does the world wholly forget? Not quite. Not all of it. Not those who still recognize injustice and want to fight it. Not those who remember Brain, So, what kind of world was it that he grew up into? Ie was born in 1908. Slowly the breach between Afrikaanqspeaking and English-speaking Afrikaners wws healing, through tactful and careful handling both by British poXliticians and, in South Africa, by men like Botha and Smuts and those who went with them. But the Britilsh, intent on recreating good relationships with their late: adveraories, conveniently forgot the Aficans--som,, of whom had helped them. And genuine friendships amnong the educated did little to stop the historic dislike and suspicion at a lower level. There were constant problems in the gold and diamond mines, problems of engineering and geology, but alo scxial and economic. Bram would have been too young to know much about World War I and the rebellion, understandable enough, of the old Boer War Generals, De Wet, Beyers and Maritz, when Botha, defeating them, wept on the battlefield, Yet he did remember how, as a six year old, he had iat on his father's shoulder while a pro-Britslh mob burnt and looted shops in Bloemfontein, including wme with the A Life for Africa name Fischer.