The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

“merged inextricably until 1961”. When Fischer went underground after deserting from
his trial in 1964, his preparation had included devising plans for disguises, safe houses
and “contact routines”. In a “play with images”, and amid rumours of plastic surgery,
Fischer had resorted to a false name, the evocatively chosen Douglas Black, and spent
most of his time “in solitude in an identity that wasn’t altogether his”. 214 While on the
run, his life became the stuff of rumour and legend, with fantastic suggestions of where
he had moved to, how he had been disguised, and what racial and other identities he
had adopted.
In an overall assessment, Clingman suggested that Fischer’s “greatest effects were
symbolic rather than practical”. While underground and wanted by police, Fischer had
become “the ‘Red’ equivalent” of the ‘Black Pimpernel’, the name given to Nelson
Mandela, when he had been on the run in the early 1960s. Despite “all the opportunities
and temptations of the world to which he was heir”, Fischer became known for his
demonstrated commitment and “living solidarity with the oppressed”. To Blacks,
argued Clingman, Fischer had become “a nearly mythic figure, the one white man
prepared to signal his devotion to justice with his life”. 215 Indeed, for Clingman,
Fischer’s identity had been defined by the fact that he had “obeyed the moral laws of the
gods and not of men” and by his ability to sustain identity “in circumstances which
make that no longer possible”. As a symbol, Fischer became “the reverse image of
Nelson Mandela”. Mandela was “the hero resurrected from the underworld”, the
“embodiment of renewal combining youth and age, in whom the cycle of rebirth came
through to its redemptive fulfilment”. In contrast, Fischer was “the one who had to
succumb”, taking “the burdens of his people upon him”, “paying for their sins as an
Afrikaner, dying because there was no place for him except in some non‐existent
future”. 216
214 Stephen Clingman, Bram Fischer, pp 240, 247‐8, 354‐367.
215 Stephen Clingman, Bram Fischer, pp 373, 376.
216 Stephen Clingman, Bram Fischer, pp 451, 456.
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