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Outside Nelson Mandela’s residence in Houghton, Johannesburg. Photo by Nadia TrompThe trumpet cries, fading into nothingness, then strong again, as the crowd heaves and sways to the sounds of “Nkosi…

Richard Steyn, NF ’86, editor of The Star, was granted a one-on-one interview with Nelson Mandela during his first trip back to Robben Island after his release from prison. Photo…

Nearly 26 years separated my first and second encounter with Nelson Mandela.The first time, the African National Congress leader was in the dock in Pretoria facing a strong chance of…

I met with Nelson Mandela many times after his release from prison, both as a journalist and a friend, but two occasions stand out as illustrative of what I regard…

Students at the Melpark Primary School in Johannesburg sing “Happy Birthday” as they celebrate former president Nelson Mandela’s 95th birthday. Photo by Denis Farrell/The Associated PressNelson Mandela, the first black…

“Writing the Book: How to Craft Narratives, from Concept to Content”  is an in-depth exploration of how journalists can become authors, told by writers of memoirs, novels, and nonfiction narratives.…

In 2002, Panama became the first country in Latin America to put a law on the books guaranteeing open access to government records. Yet a law on the books is…

During a discussion with 2014 Nieman Fellow Anna Fifield, right, at the Nieman Foundation, Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Errol Morris said that Donald Rumsfeld, the subject of his new film…

Novelist and poet Mircea Cartarescu came of age in Romania during the Communist regime of the 1970s, but even under democratic rule he has found his voice silenced by those…

A ballpark, a boat, and a freezing, windswept ramp outside the old Boston Garden: things in threes, as the nuns used to say. I started my career as a reporter…