By Cynthia Akande
Award-winning Nigerian writer- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will receive Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Medal on October 6th, 2022.
This marks another return to Harvard for Chimamanda, who was the Harvard College Class Day Speaker in 2018, and was previously a Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow (2011-2012).
The W.E.B Du Bois medal which has not been awarded to anyone since the beginning of the pandemic is the highest honour given by Harvard in the field of African and African American studies.
Harvard made the announcement via their Twitter handle. Fellow recipients of the award include activist and basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, award-winning actress Laverne Cox, Patron of Arts and Education Agnes Gund.
Chimamanda is known for her elegant story telling and her advocacy on gender equality. She was also a speaker at the Harvard College Class Day in 2018 and was previously a Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow between 2011 and 2012.
The professor of the university and director of the Hutchins centre said in a statement:
“Whether they’ve distinguished themselves in the arts, civic life, education, athletics, activism, or any combination of the above, these medalists show in all that they do their unyielding commitment to pushing the boundaries of representation and creating opportunities for advancement and participation for people who have been too often shut out from the great promise of our times.”
The medal allows her to join the list of trailblazers like Muhammad Ali, Maya Angelou, Ava Duvernay, Dave Chappelle, Queen Latifah, Nasir “Nas” Jones, John Lewis, Steven Spielberg, athlete-activist Colin Kaepernick, and others who are past recipients of the medal.
