Nat nakasa biography

Nathaniel Ndazana Nakasa (– 14 July 1965), better known as Nat Nakasa, was a South African journalist and short story writer.
Ndazana Nathaniel (Nat) Nakasa was born on in Lusikisiki, Eastern Cape.
Nathaniel Ndazana Nakasa, better known as Nat Nakasa, was a South African journalist and short story writer.

•

Ndazana Nathaniel Nakasa (Nat Nakasa)

Ndazana Nathaniel (Nat) Nakasa was born on 12 May 1937 in Lusikisiki, Eastern Cape. Nakasa was the second of three children of Joseph Nakasa and his wife, Alvina Nakasa. As a child from a working-class family in an impoverished rural area, Nakasa was forced by poverty to leave school in 1954 without matriculating. He moved to Durban where he worked as a reporter for Ilanga newspaper, published in Zulu and English. He later moved to Johannesburg where he joined Post and later Drum magazine. He also freelanced for publications in Germany, Sweden, the USA and Britain.

Nakasa became assistant editor of Drum, and founded the Classic literary magazine and wrote a column for the Rand Daily Mail. A colleague of Nakasa at the time, well-known journalist Joe Thloloe, says while many journalists of the time were men of the bottle, Nakasa would come to the Classic shebeen where they drank, have his half nip of brandy, and leave. 'Nat was a natty dresser, he would always be neat while we smelled of booze and were unwashed,' Thloloe says. It was after

•

“A Distant Drum” brings the life of Nat Nakasa, NF ’65, to the stage

October 1, 2014

Share this article

The story of Nathaniel Nakasa has all the makings of a classic tragedy. Nakasa, a talented black journalist from South Africa, was selected to be a Nieman Fellow in the class of 1965. His country’s apartheid government would not issue him a passport though, and only allowed him to leave on a one-way exit visa. Following his fellowship year, he settled in New York City. Suffering from homesickness and feeling isolated in the new country, he died that summer after falling from a high-rise building in an apparent suicide. He was 28.

Now Nakasa’s story is coming to the stage in “A Distant Drum,” a musical theater piece about his life created by violinist Daniel Hope and his father, South African writer Christopher Hope. Their production is loosely based on Igor Stravinsky's "Soldier's Tale," about a Russian soldier who sells his soul to the devil. The show premieres in Blomfontein, South Africa on October 13, and will be performed at Carnegie Hall in New York on October 28t

•

Nat Nakasa

South African writer and journalist (1937–1965)

Nathaniel Ndazana Nakasa (12 May 1937 – 14 July 1965), better known as Nat Nakasa, was a South African journalist and short storywriter.^[1]

Early life

Nat Nakasa was born in outside Durban, South Africa, on 12 May 1937; his mother Alvina was a teacher while his father Chamberlain was a typesetter and writer.^[2]^: 43 Nakasa was one of five children. He attended the mission school, Zulu Lutheran High School in Eshowe, completing his junior certificate.^[2]^: 44

Journalism

After leaving school, aged 17, he returned to Durban and after many jobs, two friends helped him find a job a year later as a junior reporter at the Ilanga Lase Natal, a Zulu-language weekly.^[2]^: 44 After his reporting attracted the attention of Sylvester Stein of Drum magazine, Nakasa joined the magazine in 1957.^[2]^: 44 He and the other journalists writing at the Drum were influenced by