Chimamanda Adichie Receives Harvard’s Highest Honour

Renowned Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has received the highest honour of Harvard University, the W. E. B. Du Bois Medal.

She received the medal at a ceremony in the university on Thursday.

The W. E. B. Du Bois Medal is Harvard’s highest honour in the field of African and African American studies.

 It is awarded to individuals in the United States and across the globe in recognition of their contributions to African and African American culture and the life of the mind.

The Hutchins Center for African and African American Research had stated that the medal was for people “who embody the values of commitment and resolve that are fundamental to the Black experience in America”.

Other recipients include Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Laverne Cox, Agnes Guns, Raymond J McGuire, Deval Patrick and Betye Saar.

Director of the Hutchins Center, Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., in an official statement, had said that the 2022 honourees represent “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.”

Dubois was the first African-American to earn a Harvard Ph.D. in 1895. Past recipients of the medal have included scholars, artists, writers, journalists, philanthropists, and public servants.