Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, an award-winning writer will be awarded the prestigious W.E.B. Du Bois Medal on October 6, 2022, by Harvard University. This will make it her third award from the institution. She was first, Harvard College Class Day Speaker in 2018, and was a Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow (2011-2012).
The W.E.B. Du Bois Medal, given as the highest honour to deserving honourees has had impactful recipients in the past, including Chinua Achebe, Oprah Winfrey, Maya Angelou, Muhammad Ali, Steven Spielberg, and Ava Duvernay.
The award will be given to Chimamanda alongside six others who have been described as people “who embody the values of commitment and resolve that are fundamental to the Black experience in America.” They include Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Laverne Cox, Agnes Gund, Raymond J. McGuire, Deval Patrick, and Betye Saar.
Chimamanda’s works, which have been translated into more than thirty languages have earned her global commendation. She is the recipient of numerous national and international awards and prizes.
Chimamanda’s first novel, Purple Hibiscus (2003), won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and her second, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), won the Orange Prize for Fiction – the world’s most prestigious annual book award for fiction written by a woman. Half of a Yellow Sun subsequently received Bailey’s ‘Best of the Best award out of the 10 winners of the prize during its second decade. In 2018, Chimamanda was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize, named after Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter.” This prize is given annually to a writer of “outstanding literary merit who shows a fierce intellectual determination.”
Chimamanda is also a fashion icon who constantly promotes Nigerian designers through her “Wear Nigerian” initiative. She was selected as the face of beauty brand Boots No7, and has been featured in numerous style publications including Vanity Fair’s “International Best-Dressed List”.
We celebrate Chimamanda ahead of her award and for her contributions to black culture.
