Johanna Brandt

Born Johanna van Warmelo in Heidelberg, Transvaal, on November 18, 1876, she became known as Johanna Brandt after marriage. During the South African War, she was involved in Boer intelligence work and later wrote about the conflict, drawing on firsthand experience and strong Afrikaner nationalist beliefs.

She went on to publish books that ranged from political writing and memoir to religious and prophetic work. She is also remembered for promoting the so-called grape cure, a health regimen that brought her wide attention but has been treated as pseudoscientific and controversial.

Brandt died in Cape Town on January 23, 1964. Today she is remembered as a vivid and unusual figure in South African literary and political history: a writer shaped by war, faith, and a determination to persuade her readers.