How did Fatima Meer change the world?

 A close friend of Nelson Mandela, Professor Meer was imprisoned and twice banned by the apartheid government. Over her life she worked tirelessly to improve race relations, and promote justice, reconciliation, and nonviolent action.

“Reading Meer’s correspondence with the university gave me new insights into how sexism and racism work inside academia. She constantly faced tests of her worthiness to be there, simply because she was a woman and she was black.”

Meer’s understanding of how categories of identity are constructed was also illuminating.

In fact, this biography of a historical figure couldn’t be more timely.

“Many parts of the world are confronting what happens when people cross borders and boundaries. What does it mean to be part of a society?” Hassim asks.

“Meer was part of an immigrant family, superficially designated ‘Indian’ in the apartheid system of racial categorization. In fact, it was only by coming to South Africa that her family became ‘Indian’ in ways distinctive to the South African experience. She herself chose to be designated ‘black,’ to signify the oppression of Indian people and align herself with the majority of South Africans.

“But one can read her story as one of successful immigration,” Hassim continues, “in which people learned to live together and imagined themselves to be South African, even when the state tried to push them into categories. And Meer herself was core in that transformation.”

Her remarkable life is recounted in Voices of Liberation: Fatima Meer, written by Shiren Hasim, Carleton University’s Canada 150 Research Chair in Gender and African Politics, and published by South Africa’s HSRC Press as one of a series highlighting luminaries including Steve Biko and Patrice Lumumba who fought apartheid and colonialism in Africa.

“Meer didn’t suffer fools,” says Hassim.

“She spoke her mind and she had no time for anyone who didn’t get on with things. Those are the people who make history happen.”

The book also presents a selection of Meer’s academic writing, curated by Hassim.

“Meer was part of the inner circle around Nelson Mandela and she is best known for her activism,” states Hassim. “But she also crafted scholarly ideas and theories on race and gender, seeking to integrate structural analysis with a consideration of the impact of apartheid and capitalism on the inner lives of black people. Her work provides a unique account of the history of race in South Africa, and I hope that people will go and read it and engage with it.”