Former Drum magazine editor Anthony Sampson has died at his Wiltshire cottage in Britain on Saturday night, his family said on Sunday. A family friend said Sampson, who was born in 1926, died of a heart attack. Sampson came to South Africa in 1951 to become editor of Drum magazine, a position he held until 1955.
He met former president Nelson Mandela at a shebeen in Soweto in 1951 as Mandela was preparing for a defiance campaign, which Drum covered extensively.
In 1956, Sampson published his first book, Drum: An African Adventure.
Subsequently, he wrote a book about the treason trial in 1958, and reported Mandela’s trial before Mandela was imprisoned for life in 1964.
Mandela said in a statement on Sunday: ”We were greatly saddened at the news of the passing away of Anthony Sampson, a man who had been very close to us ever since he came to South Africa in the 1950s.
”Anthony was in many ways so English and in many ways so African. He came to edit Drum magazine as a young Englishman just out of Oxford University, and those years remained imprinted on his mind and permanently influenced his thinking.”
In London, Sampson worked for the Observer for six years before publishing another book, Anatomy of Britain, in 1962.
The book was updated several times with the most recent one being this year’s Who runs this place: The anatomy of Britain inthe 21st Century.
Sampson wrote Mandela’s authorised biography, Mandela, in 1999 and was a close friend of author Nadine Gordimer.
Mandela said: ”He helped make Africa a world issue through the pages of The Observer in London. He cared about Africa in a way that is rare among those from the developed world, and he never stopped caring.
”Because of his intimate involvement, both as observer and sympathiser with our cause, I had no hesitation in agreeing to him writing my authorised biography. I knew that in his hands our cause would be reported justly.
”Sampson wrote several major books about international business, including The Seven Sister, The Arms Bazaar, Black and Gold (an account of the relations between business and apartheid) and Company Man.
He was the chairperson of the Society of Authors, and a member of the Scott Trust which owns the Guardian and Observer newspapers.
Sampson was also a board member of Independent Newspapers.
Before coming to South Africa, Sampson studied at Oxford and had a spell as a navy officer. ‒ Sapa