The 2005 Order of Ikhamanga in Silver

Awarded to Henry "Mr Drum" Nxumalo (1917 - 1957 ) for

Excellence in South African journalism

Profile of Henry "Mr Drum" Nxumalo

Henry Nxumalo was born in 1917 at Mvutshini, Margate , in what was then Natal Province , the first child of Lazarus and Josephine Nxumalo. He attended the Fascadale Mission School , where he showed such promise that the missionaries arranged for him to board in Durban so that he could further his education.

He began submitting his writings to various newspapers while still at school. Although opportunities for black journalists were very limited, the Post newspaper in Johannesburg , a regular user of his contributions, offered him a job.

When World War II broke out, Nxumalo – then 22 and already an experienced journalist who counted many highly respected African intellectuals and writers among his friends and acquaintances – saw an opportunity to go abroad, and he duly enlisted in the South African Army.

This took him to Egypt , where South African forces were heavily involved in combat. He somehow managed to visit London , where he had made contact with many people whose views and friendship were to stand him in good stead. According to one of them, Peter Abrahams, Nxumalo had the sense that great things were about to happen in Africa and that a responsible and independent press would play a very important role in the process of change.

The early post-war years were lean ones for black writers and journalists like Nxumalo. Mainstream newspapers, consistent with the policies of racism and apartheid, offered few opportunities for black reporters, while black newspapers were either very small or controlled by white business interests – and often trivial and sensational. Independent investigative journalism of the type that Nxumalo envisaged simply did not exist at the time.

Then in 1951, the millionaire Jim Bailey established Drum Magazine under the editorship of Anthony Sampson and invited Nxumalo to become assistant editor. Drum was the antithesis of the entire South African press of that time, and was eventually read all over Africa . It provided a racy and irreverent blend of humour, sentiment, fiction, sport, scandal, weighty commentaries on continental affairs by renowned thinkers and devastating exposés of labour abuses and political and systemic injustice.

Nxumalo was directly or indirectly responsible for much of the magazine's sparkling content. He persuaded the intelligentsia to contribute, directed the efforts of the staff members and wrote many of the feature articles himself, often literally risking his life in ventures into the type of investigative journalism that, he believed, was desperately needed in Africa . A number of Drum's writers were to become household names in South Africa, but they would all agree that the magazine's most brilliant star was Nxumalo himself, whose nickname was “Mr Drum’.

On New Year's Eve of 1957, six years after helping to found Drum, Henry Nxumalo was engaged in investigating an abortion racket run by a well-known doctor when he was murdered by unknown assailants. His legacy lives on in the free and independent South African press of today.

The award was collected by Henry Nxumalo Jnr  (Son)

Source: http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/orders_list.asp?show=72

The 2006 Order of Ikhamanga in Silver

Awarded to Canodoise Daniel Themba  (1942 - 1968 ) for

EXCELLENT ACHIEVEMENT IN LITERATURE, CONTRIBUTING TO THE FIELD OF JOURNALISM AND STRIVING FOR A JUST AND DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Profile of Canodoise Daniel Themba

Legendary journalist and master story-teller Canodoise Daniel Themba was born in Marabastad, Pretoria, in 1942. His ambition, in keeping with the limited career options open to Africans then, was to be a teacher. He prepared himself for this vocation, acquiring both a teaching diploma and a degree in English - in first class - from the then Fort Hare University College. Shortly after completing his tertiary studies, he moved to Johannesburg, settling in the then Sophiatown, a melting pot of ideas where professionals such as doctors and journalists mixed freely with politicians, musicians and gangsters.

Themba relished the social life of the vibrant Sophiatown, where he quickly formed long-lasting and enriching friendships. Drum magazine was running a short-story competition at the time and the courier who came knocking on Themba's door, bearing the winner's 50-pounds prize, met a 28-year-old teacher who introduced himself as Canodoise Daniel Themba.

The name Can Themba would soon become a household name. Themba endeared himself to the readers as one of the Drum Boys, as this pioneering group of journalists came to be known. He also worked for other titles, like Golden City Post. Themba was destined to tickle and entertain through the pages of Drum as he dealt with issues of the day: police raids for illicit brew, gang violence, music at such establishments as his haunt 'Back o' the Moon', and the general turbulence of an African man caught up in a racially charged social environment.

Even those who socialised and worked with him never quite understood this literary giant among whose works, The Suit, a short story since adapted for stage, still wows audiences.

Themba was an avid reader whose 'House of Truth', the name he gave to his own dwelling in Sophiatown, attracted as much reading matter as it did visitors and intelligent conversation.

Though a large part of this penman' s life remains untold, all are in agreement that Can Themba, or better still, Dorsey, had a way with words.

Can Themba left Drum after nine years of dedicated service, moving to Swaziland where he took up a teaching post. When the apartheid forces razed Sophiatown down to the ground in forced removals in 1955, killing the sprit of many of its residents, Themba, like many of his contemporaries, was left devastated.

The pain of 'Kofifi's' death, the streetwise name Sophiatown was known by, remains etched in the beautiful writing of Themba and his contemporaries, among them Lewis Nkosi, Nat Nakasa, Bloke Modisane and Zeke Mphahlele.

Themba bequeathed to posterity his collection of short stories, published posthumously: The Will to Die (1972) and The World of Can Themba (1985). It is through these gems of the written word that many of his admirers would be so bold as to say, particularly overwhelmed by the mastery of “The Suit” [later adapted as an award-winning play] that Themba was among the greatest in our nation.

Many think such riveting pieces as “The Bottom of The Bottle,” written at the height of his alcohol dependence, were autobiographical.

Can Themba's ingenious pen, sharp mind and acute political consciousness about the racist environment in which he was born and raised, make him one of the finest as a journalist, teacher, thinker and socio-political critic. He left posterity a rich legacy that ranks among the most illustrious in the history of South African literature.

Having been declared a statutory communist and his work banned in his home country, Canodoise Daniel Themba died a broken man in Swaziland in 1968.

Source: http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/orders_list.asp?show=335

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