.Leadership, Activism and Justice: Reclaiming Professor Fatima Meer’s Legacy Today
As we prepare for the 2025 Professor Fatima Meer Memorial Lecture, themed Leadership, Activism and Justice, we are called to reflect not only on the life of an extraordinary South African but on the enduring relevance of her contributions to public sociology.
Professor Fatima Meer was an academic of distinction, a committed activist, a pioneering feminist and a fearless critic of injustice, both during apartheid and in the democratic era. Her life’s work offers vital insights into the contemporary challenges facing South Africa as the nation continues to confront deep-seated inequality, political disillusionment and the erosion of public trust.
Long before ‘intersectionality’ became common academic language, Professor Meer practised a form of sociology that recognised the interconnectedness of race, gender and class in shaping lived experience. She paid particular attention to the realities of poor Black women, advocating for an inclusive and intersectional vision of liberation. Her commitment to social justice and community-rooted scholarship resonated with the pedagogical principles of Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire (1970), who envisioned education as a process of liberation rather than transmission. For Professor Meer, the University was not a refuge from politics it was a site of struggle.
A Sociologist of Beginnings
Professor Meer can rightly be called a sociologist of beginnings. Her theoretical perspectives emerged from and responded to the lived experiences of communities fragmented by apartheid’s racial and spatial ideologies. She challenged the state’s systematic privileging of White citizens while the majority of people lived in subjugation. Yet her intellectual and activist legacy transcends her historical moment. Her work continues to inspire new generations seeking to confront the contradictions and injustices of a post-apartheid, post-postmodernist society.
Her lifelong efforts as a scholar-activist fostered a school of thought grounded in international solidarity. She opened eyes to new ways of seeing the world and rethinking the relationship between knowledge and justice. In this light, the annual Memorial Lecture serves as more than remembrance; it is a mechanism for future-facing innovation in citizen scholarship, responding concretely to young people’s demands for a decolonised education.
Feminism, Faith and Freedom
As an Islamic, Indian and South African woman, Professor Meer broke barriers of gender, religion and race, modelling a unique form of inclusive, faith-informed activism. She helped shape global understandings of Muslim women’s leadership, offering a progressive model that challenged both patriarchy and Islamophobia. Her relationship with Nelson Mandela and his family further underscored her significance in South African political life. She was close to Mandela’s first wife, Evelyn, and grew particularly close to Winnie Mandela during Nelson Mandela’s imprisonment, offering both support and solidarity.
In 1990, she authored the first authorised biography, Higher Than Hope: A Biography of Nelson Mandela, written while Mandela was imprisoned. The book traced his political legacy and offered intimate insight into his daughters’ emotional struggles and their mother’s repeated banning orders. It remains a powerful combination of personal narrative and political critique.
The Politics of Appearance
Professor Meer’s feminism was not only theoretical; it was deeply lived. She often dressed in a sari, which she used as a symbol of cultural resistance and unity, rather than division. While traditionally associated with Hindu identity, the sari in South Africa became a broader emblem of non-Western femininity and resistance to colonial cultural norms. Meer’s sartorial choices signalled pride in her South Asian heritage while also resisting the apartheid regime’s attempt to erase or stereotype cultural difference. The sari, worn unapologetically in academic and public spaces, functioned as a bridge across religions, cultures and social worlds. Professor Meer’s appearance, like her scholarship, conveyed a message that one could be feminist, faithful and free without subscribing to Western dress norms or religious orthodoxy.
Enduring Activism Beyond Symbolism
Professor Meer’s activism was neither episodic nor symbolic, it was sustained and often undertaken at great personal cost. She faced banning orders, imprisonment and marginalisation, yet remained unwavering in her commitment to justice. Her support of Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness Movement, through her involvement with the South African Students’ Organisation (SASO), underscored her belief in youth as agents of transformation. She invested deeply in nurturing the political consciousness of the next generation.
Meer understood that justice extended beyond legal equality. She called for wealth redistribution, land reform, equitable housing and the dismantling of epistemic hierarchies and warned that political freedom without social justice would lead to disillusionment and betrayal. Her critique has proven prescient.
The events of Marikana, the #FeesMustFall movement, and the ongoing failure of public institutions to deliver on the promise of transformation, echo her concerns. These are what Ugandan academic and author Mahmood Mamdani (1996) described as the limits of legalistic justice absent in structural change.
A Framework for Now
The theme of the 2025 Lecture - Leadership, Activism and Justice - demands a critical engagement with the realities of our time. Leadership today often masquerades as populism; activism risks becoming performative; and justice is reduced to procedure, detached from people’s lived realities. Honouring Professor Fatima Meer’s legacy requires more than symbolic recognition, it demands ethical reflection, curriculum transformation and institutional change. Her work must not be confined to memory; it must serve as a framework for contemporary struggle.
The Professor Fatima Meer Memorial Lecture Committee continues to safeguard her legacy, but the time has come for South African and Global South universities and institutions to embed Meer’s thoughts and contributions into core curricula. Her life offers a model of leadership grounded in service, activism based on moral clarity and justice rooted in the everyday experiences of marginalised communities.
Let the 2025 Memorial Lecture be more than a tribute. Let it renew our shared responsibility to pursue equity, justice and meaningful transformation, boldly and in Professor Meer’s name.
The Lecture takes place at the Howard College Theatre on the Howard College campus in Durban on Saturday, 30 August between 14h00 and16h00.
RSVP here to attend or watch the Livestream here.
Professor Mariam Seedat-Khan is a clinical sociologist within the School of Social Sciences and Dr Jayanathan Govender is a senior lecturer in Industrial, Organisational and Labour Studies in the School of Social Sciences
*The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of KwaZulu-Natal.