Nathaniel Ndazana Nakasa (b. 1937 d. 1965) better known as Nat Nakasa was a South African short story writer and journalist.

He was born in Durban but moved to Johannesburg to work as a journalist for Drum magazine. He also worked for the Golden City Post and was the first black journalist to work at the Rand Daily Mail where he provided a black perspective for the newspaper’s predominantly white readership. 

In the Sixties, freedom of the press was an anathema in South Africa. Angry black voices were heard in the townships and in shebeens... but never in print. Government-controlled white newspapers freely regurgitated propaganda on a daily basis. Today, the written word has a platform without restriction - and to celebrate media integrity in South Africa, the Nat Nakasa Award is awarded on an annual basis by the Print Media SA, the SA National Editors' Forum and the Nieman Society.

If he were alive today in the new South Africa, perhaps he would have been a diplomat or politician, perhaps a prominent editor, a major publisher?