Henry Nxumalo

Henry Nxumalo, (1917 – 1957) also known as Henry "Mr Drum" Nxumalo was a South African journalist.

Overview

He was born in 1917 in Margate, Natal, South Africa and attended the Fascadale Mission School. Showing early promise as a writer, he submitted various samples of his work to publications and as a result was offered by a job by the Post newspaper in Johannesburg who had published some of his earlier contributions. He enlisted in the South African Army when World War II broke out and was sent to Egypt where the South African forces were involved in the Western Desert. He became frustrated upon his return to South Africa. There were few opportunities for black journalists due to the restrictions of apartheid. Most Black-focused publications were controlled by white business interests and none of them offered scope for the kind of investigative exposes that Nxumalo had in mind. In 1951, the publisher Jim Bailey established the legendary Drum magazine with Anthony Sampson as editor and asked Henry Nxumalo to become the assistant editor. Henry specialised in investigative journalism.

He obtained employment on the potato farms and exposed the squalid conditions (almost slave-like) experienced by Black labourers. Worried about the lawlessness in Johannesburg "the square mile of sin", he agitated for clean-up and appealed for support from the police. He managed to get arrested and was sent to Johannesburg central prison. The resulting article describing the ward conditions and the degrading naked search was an international scoop . He got work on a farm where an African labourer was beaten to death with a section of hose-pipe. His investigation into whether the church "supported" apartheid showed the difference between prejudice and the gospel of "brotherly love". Cite web|url=http://home.worldonline.co.za/~afribeat/archiveafrica.html|title=Drum Magazine|accessdate=2007-02-23|publisher=Worldonline|author=Struan Douglas] In 1957, Henry was investigating an abortion racket when he was murdered by unknown assailants.

In 2004, "Goch Street" in Johannesburg's cultural hub, Newtown was changed to "Henry Nxumalo Street". Cite web|url=http://www.joburg.org.za/2004/oct/oct19_streets.stm|title=The word on the street is change|accessdate=2007-02-23|publisher=Johannesburg News Agency |year=2004|author=Ndaba Dlamini ]

Awards

* South African "The Order of Ikhamanga in Silver" for excellence in South African journalism (Posthumous). cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Profile of Henry "Mr Drum" Nxumalo | date= | publisher=S A National Orders | url =http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/orders_list.asp?show=72 | work = | pages = | accessdate = 2007-04-26 | language = ]

ee also

* "Good-looking Corpse: World of Drum - Jazz and Gangsters, Hope and Defiance in the Townships of South Africa", Mike Nicol, Secker & Warburg, 1991, ISBN 0-43-630986-6

* "Writing from South Africa", edited by Anthony Adams & Ken Durham, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-52-143572-2 contains "The Birth of a Tsotsi: Henry Nxumalo"

External links

* [http://www.info.gov.za/aboutgovt/orders/2005/nxumalo.htm Henry Nxumalo’s profile for National Orders]

References