TODAY IN HISTORY

|Nathaniel Nakasa, South African Journalist And Writer, Dies In Exile|

On this day in 1965, Ndazana Nathaniel Nakasa, a South African journalist and writer committed suicide by jumping from a high-rise building in New York.

In 1964, Ndazana Nathaniel Nakasa had received The Niemann Fellowship to study journalism at Harvard University in the US. However, the apartheid government in South Africa rejected his application for a passport, and the young man was forced to leave the country on an exit permit, thus preventing him from ever returning to South Africa.

It is believed that while in America, Nakasa became lonely and homesick, and knowing that he could never return home, he decided to take away his life. An annual award for courageous journalism has been named after him.