The Value of the Nieman Fellows' Experience

Fifty years ago, two journalists from South Africa, Aubrey Sussens, the white editor of The Rand Daily Mail, and Lewis Nkosi, from a young generation of black writers giving voice to the yearning for freedom, were in the final weeks of their Nieman fellowship year. Their journey to Cambridge in the fall of 1960 began a remarkable tradition that has linked journalists in the US and South Africa ever since. This cooperative undertaking began to form in 1958 through the US-South African Leader Exchange Program where representatives of religious, philanthropic, educational and cultural organizations from both countries laid out a mission to build a "bridge of understanding and cooperation by means of private, nongovernmental efforts. Giles discusses the 50th celebration of this partnership, the value of the Nieman Fellows's experience, and offers a vivid reminder of how South African journalists, especially black Africans, prepared for their journalistic roles in the long struggle to end apartheid.