Johan Fourie

Stellenbosch

Writer at Our Long Walk

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Articles

The Huguenot refugee

6 days ago | ourlongwalk.com | Johan Fourie

Almost every morning, as I sit at my desk, I watch the sky turn from dark blue to bright yellow over Joubertspiek, the gable-shaped rocky hill next to Simonsberg. Yet I’ve never thought much about the origin of the name Joubertspiek – Joubert’s Peak. That changed over the Christmas break last year, when I found myself in search of some holiday reading. I’m an economic historian. Most of my research focuses on the early Cape Colony.
Agterstories – Ideesmouse - LitNet

1 week ago | litnet.co.za | Johan Fourie

Agterstories is Johan Fourie se maandelikse rubriek oor die ekonomie van die alledaagse. ......... Dit bring ons by ’n ongemaklike laaste vraag: Wie is vandag se voorste Afrikaanse publieke intellektueles? Wie waag dit steeds om hul stem te laat hoor in die hedendaagse mark van idees, en met watter doelwitte? En watter hedendaagse platforms bevorder die soort intellektuele, openbare debat waarvoor iemand soos De Vos gepleit het? .........
The battle for Botmaskop

1 week ago | ourlongwalk.com | Johan Fourie

Every morning in 2024, as I walked from my front door to the car, my toddler would gaze up at Botmaskop. The mountain was alive with bulldozers, diggers and tipper trucks, and he loved naming each one. I joined his fascination, wondering what new homes might soon rise from those terraces carved into the slopes. Who would occupy such spectacular vantage points, and what kind of lives would they build there? Then, suddenly, early in 2025, the construction vehicles vanished.
Feudal America

1 week ago | ourlongwalk.com | Johan Fourie

The modern state has many enemies. Some want to loot it. Others want to shrink it. And a few may want to rule it like a fief. Distinguishing clearly between these different threats is vital. South Africa’s recent past, marked by a political phenomenon widely known as ‘state capture’, provides one particularly stark example. But the United States today faces a different challenge, one that is, I will argue below, an older one.
The elephant

2 weeks ago | ourlongwalk.com | Johan Fourie

The elephant was always there. Not at first in shape or sound, but in the slight pressure she placed on the air, the quiet rearrangement of shadows, the way the earth shifted faintly beneath her tread. You could walk beside her for miles before noticing. That was her gift, and perhaps her burden too. They moved as a trio beneath the brittle sky, shadows thin and slow across the pale tar.
Johan Fourie | Why rigid hiring quotas can backfire in the battle for scarce skills

2 weeks ago | brnw.ch | Johan Fourie

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Macro mistakes

2 weeks ago | ourlongwalk.com | Johan Fourie

In Homer’s Odyssey, the Greek hero Odysseus encounters the Sirens – mythical creatures whose enchanting songs lure sailors to their doom on the rocks. Forewarned, he plugs his crew’s ears with wax and binds himself to the mast, resisting their temptation. Today, South Africa faces its own kind of Siren song: the seductive idea that a financial reconfiguration – what some call Monetary Architecture (MA) – can unlock economic transformation without consequence.
What did Mandela leave behind?

3 weeks ago | ourlongwalk.com | Johan Fourie

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -1:00Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. What if history is not only what we are told, but also what we choose to remember? What if the stories of apartheid are not just tales of villainy and victimhood, but of complexity, contradiction and…Listen to this episode with a 7-day free trialSubscribe to Our Long Walk to listen to this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
The age of orality

3 weeks ago | ourlongwalk.com | Johan Fourie

In an Egyptian palace long ago, the god Theuth presented his groundbreaking invention – writing – to King Thamus. Theuth believed it would enhance memory and wisdom. Unexpectedly, the king rejected it. Writing, he argued, would weaken people’s memory. Plato captured the tension well: technological leaps empower us, but they also make once-essential skills obsolete. Writing – now fundamental to civilisation – was once seen as a threat to human thought.
Engineering nation

3 weeks ago | ourlongwalk.com | Johan Fourie

On 11 November 1955, beneath a scorching Free State sun, three men stood beside their cars, watching as the first litres of synthetic fuel flowed through a pipe.1 The cars belonged to Sasol’s directors – Frans du Toit, Hendrik van Eck and Etienne Rousseau – and those drops of fuel represented far more than a technical milestone. They were proof could build industries from the ground up.