Rhodes House Portraits

Lucy Banda-Sichone (Zambia & Somerville 1978) grew up in Zambia (then known as Northern Rhodesia). She was Zambia’s first female Rhodes Scholar and studied PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics). She returned to Zambia to practise as a lawyer and often represented Zambians in court pro bono, challenging repressive legislation. She went on to serve for a time as Secretary for Legal, Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs in the United National Independence Party (then Zambia’s ruling party). In 1993, Banda-Sichone established the Zambian Civic Education Association to provide civic education and legal aid. Her weekly newspaper columns were often strongly critical of government corruption, and she was prosecuted by the state and forced into hiding for a period. The portrait of Lucy Banda-Sichone was the first portrait of a female Rhodes Scholar to hang in the main hall at Rhodes House. When the portrait was unveiled, fellow Rhodes Scholar Sishuwa Sishuwa (Zambia & St Antony’s 2010) said: ‘Lucy was not an imposing figure, but she had an imposing mind. As a Zambian, I feel the gap left by Lucy Sichone to this day and her life is a challenge to my own… Lucy’s was a life well-lived and in the service of others.’

William Jefferson ‘Bill’ Clinton (Arkansas & University 1968) served as the President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as Governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and from 1983 to 1992. Clinton studied at Georgetown University before coming to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He went on to take a law degree from Yale and he taught law at the University of Arkansas before entering politics. In the years since leaving office, Clinton has led global initiatives through his William J. Clinton Foundation, focusing on programmes of community service, drug acquisition for HIV/AIDS treatment, and fighting childhood obesity in the US. The Clinton Global Initiative draws together the expertise of leaders from around the world to address global issues. Speaking at the Rhodes Trust’s 120th anniversary celebrations, President Clinton told fellow Rhodes Scholars: ‘The young people today may feel like there are so many hopeless things going on in the world, but there are a lot of good things too. Our job is to take what we’ve been given here and go and make the world a better place.’ 

Abraham ‘Bram’ Fischer (Orange Free State & New College 1931) was a South African lawyer and anti-apartheid activist. The son and grandson of Afrikaner leadership figures, Fischer was driven by a passion for social justice. He joined the Communist Party of South Africa, the only party in South Africa at that time which refused to accept any colour bar. 

He appeared in the 1956 Treason Trial and after three years the defence team secured the acquittal of all the accused including Nelson Mandela. Later, in the 1963 and 1964 Rivonia Trial, he led the defence team that was instrumental in saving the lives of Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and other leaders of the liberation movement, at great risk to himself. Fischer’s commitment to the anti-apartheid cause held firm even when the government banned the African National Congress (ANC) and other opposition groups. He continued to represent political prisoners and other anti-apartheid activists and was eventually arrested in 1965 for his involvement in the Communist Party of South Africa. Despite the severity of the charges against him, Fischer refused to compromise his principles and in 1966, he was sentenced to life in prison. He was diagnosed with cancer while in prison. The South African Prisons Act was extended to include his brother’s house in Bloemfontein where Fischer died two months after his diagnosis. Nelson Mandela later said of Fischer: ‘Bram was a courageous man who followed the most difficult course any person could choose to follow. He challenged his own people because he felt that what they were doing was morally wrong. As an Afrikaner whose conscience forced him to reject his own heritage and be ostracised by his own people, he showed a level of courage and sacrifice that was in a class by itself.’

Towards the end of each year, the Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture is held, in celebration of the life and commitment to justice shown by Bram Fischer. The lecture was founded in its current form in 2007 and has been hosted at Rhodes House since 2011. Previously, from 1989, it was hosted by New College, Oxford, where Fischer studied as a Rhodes Scholar.

Chrystia Freeland (Prairies & St Antony’s 1991) studied at Harvard before coming to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. After Oxford, she began her career in journalism as a Ukraine-based freelance reporter for the Financial Times, The Washington Post and The Economist, going on to serve as deputy editor of The Globe and Mail and United States managing editor of the Financial Times. She worked as managing director of Thomson Reuters before returning to Canada and entering politics in 2013. She was re-elected to Parliament at successive elections and was Deputy Prime Minister between 2019 and 2024. She has served as Canada’s Minister of International Trade, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Minister of Finance and Minister of Transport and Internal Trade.

Menaka Guruswamy (India & University 1998) studied at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore and worked with the then Attorney General of India before coming to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar to read for the BCL. She went on to study at Harvard and returned to Oxford, taking her DPhil in 2015. She is known especially for her role in landmark cases reforming India’s bureaucracy and championing constitutional rights. In 2018, alongside fellow litigator Arundhati Katju, Guruswamy won a landmark case before India’s Supreme Court, overturning a 157-year-old law that had rendered gay sex punishable by law. Guruswamy was designated Senior Advocate by the Supreme Court of India in 2019. Alongside her legal practice, Guruswamy’s academic career has seen her hold posts at Columbia Law School, Yale Law School, University of Toronto Faculty of Law and New York University School of Law, and she has also acted as an adviser to the United Nations Development Fund and the United Nations Children’s Fund on international human rights law.

The Honourable Bob Hawke (Western Australia & University 1953) was Australia’s 23rd Prime Minister, serving from 1983 to 1991. He studied at the University of Western Australia before coming to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar to read for a second undergraduate degree in PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics). Hawke returned to Australia to take up doctoral studies in law at the Australian National University in Canberra. There, he was recruited as a research officer by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and he was later elected President of the ACTU in 1969. He held office as leader of the Australian Labour Party (ALP) and president of the Labour Party national executive and entered parliamentary politics in 1980. Hawke led his party to a landslide election victory in 1983 and to three subsequent election victories. As Prime Minister, he was known for his government’s close co-operation with both business and the trade unions, for spearheading widespread deregulation, and for the introduction of universal healthcare under Medicare. He also oversaw the passage of the Australia Act that removed all remaining jurisdiction over Australia by the United Kingdom. Bob Hawke remains his party’s longest serving Prime Minister and the third longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia. After leaving office, he established a successful international consultancy business and also continued to campaign for an Australian republic. 

Nelson Mandela was a Black nationalist and the first Black President of South Africa (serving from 1994 to 1999). He studied and qualified as a lawyer. In 1944, he joined the African National Congress (ANC) and worked through the ANC to oppose South Africa’s apartheid system of racial segregation. He took a nonviolent stance until the Sharpeville massacre of unarmed Black South Africans by police forces in 1960 when he began to advocate acts of sabotage against the ruling regime. In 1964 he was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment, subsequently refusing offers of release that were made on the condition that he renounce violence. He was released in 1990. He led the ANC’s negotiations with then president of South Africa F.W. de Klerk. In 1993, Mandela shared the Nobel Peace Prize with F.W. de Klerk in recognition of their efforts to end South Africa’s apartheid system. Mandela became President of South Africa in 1994 and established the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission which investigated human rights violations under apartheid. He also oversaw the establishment of a new democratic constitution for South Africa in 1996. He did not seek a second term as President. In 1999, he established he Nelson Mandela Foundation. In 2003, he set up The Mandela Rhodes Foundation in partnership with the Rhodes Trust, to offer support and development opportunities to young African leaders. In the same year, he participated in London in the celebration of the centenary of the Rhodes Scholarships. When visiting Rhodes House, Mandela sat for his portrait in a green chair with Cecil Rhodes’s initials (CJR) carved into the back. He is said to have remarked, as he sat for his portrait, ‘Isn’t it an irony of history that I’m here, in Rhodes House, sitting on Cecil Rhodes’s chair?’

John McCall MacBain O.C. (Québec & Wadham 1980) studied at McGill University before going to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar to read for a second undergraduate degree in law. From Oxford, he went to Harvard Business School. After buying AUTO Hebdo magazine in Montreal, Canada, McCall MacBain formed Trader Classified Media, the world’s leading classified advertising company. In 2007, John and Marcy McCall MacBain founded the McCall MacBain Foundation which has made philanthropic grants of approximately $500 million across the areas of education and scholarships, climate change and the environment, and youth mental health. Dr Marcy McCall MacBain is the founder and chair of the McCall MacBain Scholarships at McGill University and vice-chair of the McCall MacBain Foundation. She is also a senior research fellow at the Centre for Evidence-based Medicine and the Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford. In 2013, the McCall MacBain Foundation donated $120 million to the Rhodes Trust, allowing the Trust to fund the Scholarships in perpetuity while also catalysing significant expansion of the Scholarship’s numbers and global reach. McCall MacBain is recognised as one of the Rhodes Trust’s Second Century Founders.

Susan Rice (Maryland & DC & New College 1986) is a former US diplomat and policy advisor. She studied at Stanford University before coming to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar to read for an MPhil and DPhil in International Relations. After Oxford, she began her career in management consultancy and worked at the Brookings Institution as a Senior Fellow before going into public service. Rice served on President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council staff and then as Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Affairs at the State Department, the youngest person to have served as a regional assistant secretary of state. Under President Barack Obama, she served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations and then as United States National Security Advisor. From 2021 to 2023, Rice served as Director of the Domestic Policy Council of the United States under President Joe Biden. She has held visiting fellowships at institutions including the Harvard Kennedy School and American University, Washington, DC. Her published works include Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For.