The University of the Free State is pleased to present the fourth Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture, which will be delivered by distinguished Tanzanian human rights scholar Prof Issa Shivji, one of Africa’s most influential voices in law, human rights, and development. Prof Tshepo Madlingozi, South African academic and Commissioner at the South African Human Rights Commission, will provide a formal response.  

The lecture commemorates the life and legacy of Bram Fischer, born in Bloemfontein in 1908, who devoted his life to justice and liberation in South Africa. Despite being sentenced to life imprisonment for his political convictions, Fischer’s courage and ideals remain an enduring inspiration.

About the speakers  

Prof Issa Shivji is Professor Emeritus at the University of Dar es Salaam and the inaugural holder of the Julius Nyerere Professorial Chair in Pan-African Studies. He has published extensively, including The Concept of Human Rights in Africa and the three-volume biography Development as Rebellion. He also chaired the landmark 1991 Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Land Matters in Tanzania. 

Prof Tshepo Madlingozi is a leading South African scholar and activist in jurisprudence, critical race theory, and decolonial legal studies. Appointed as Commissioner of the South African Human Rights Commission in 2024, he oversees the portfolios of Anti-racism, Education, and Equality. He is a former Director of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand and an advocate for victims and survivors of apartheid. 

Event details

 RSVP: Click here to RSVP before 6 October 2025

For further information, contact Alicia Pienaar at PienaarAN1@ufs.ac.za