Wole Soyinka, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Nelson Mandela and 7 Other Africans that Received the Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prize is an international prize awarded annually since 1901 for achievements in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace.
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The prize has been awarded 597 times to 950 people and organisations. Africa is home to 27 recipients of this prestigious award.
Briefly News presents 10 out of the 27 Africans that have received the Nobel Prize.
1. Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian playwright, poet, essayist, and novelist, who won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, becoming the first Black African to win in this category, Aljazeera reports.
Wole Soyinka is the author of many books which include The Interpreters, Season of Anomy, The Trials of Brother Jero, Samarkand and Other Markets I Have Known, amongst others.
Source: Getty Images
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2. Nelson Mandela
South Africa's first black president Nelson Mandela was jointly awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize for Peace for his work in ending the country's apartheid system.
Mandela, who served as president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, shared the prize with Frederik Willem de Klerk, South Africa’s last white president whose negotiations with Mandela in the early 1990s helped end apartheid.
Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, and died on December 5, 2013.
Source: Getty Images
3. Max Theiler
Max Theiler, a South African-born US microbiologist, was the first White African to win the Nobel Prize.
The microbiologist won the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for developing a vaccine against yellow fever.
He succeeded in passing the virus to mice, which later allowed him to obtain a variant that became a human vaccine.
Theiler, who was born in Pretoria in 1899, died in 1972 in New Haven, US.
Source: Getty Images
4. Albert Camus
Algerian-born French author Albert Camus was the first White African to win a Nobel Prize in Literature.
Camus, who was born on November 7, 1913, won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature. His most famous novels include The Stranger, The Plague, and The Fall.
He died on January 4, 1960.
Source: Getty Images
5. Albert Luthuli
Albert Luthuli of South Africa was the first Black African to win a Nobel Prize. He was awarded the 1960 Nobel Prize for Peace.
Luthuli was recognised for his role in the non-violent struggle against apartheid.
He was born in 1898 and died on July 21, 1967.
Source: Getty Images
6. Nadine Gordimer
South African author Nadine Gordimer received the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature. She was the first White African woman to win a Nobel Prize
She was born on November 20, 1923, and died on July 13, 2014.
Source: Getty Images
7. Wangari Maathai
Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize for Peace, becoming the first Black African woman to win the prestigious award.
She won the prize “for her tireless contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace”.
Maathai was born on April 1, 1940, and died on September 25, 2011.
Source: Getty Images
8. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
The first female head of state in Africa and ex-president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, won the Nobel Prize in 2011 for her “non-violent struggle for the safety of women”, along with her compatriot Leymah Gbowee and Yemen’s Karman.
She was born on October 29, 1938.
Source: Getty Images
9. Leymah Gbowee
Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee was one of three recipients, along with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Yemeni journalist and activist Tawakkul Karman, of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Peace.
Gbowee was given the prize at the age of 39. Among her accomplishments was mobilising Liberian women from “across ethnic and religious dividing lines” to help end Liberia’s brutal civil war in 2003.
Source: Getty Images
10. Abdulrazak Gurnah
Abdulrazak Gurnah is a Tanzanian novelist who was awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature for his “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism”, The Guardian reports.
The Nobel laureate, who was born in the Sultanate of Zanzibar on December 20, 1948, moved to the United Kingdom in the 1960s as a refugee during the Zanzibar Revolution.
Source: Getty Images
SA healthcare workers to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by DA
In other news, Briefly News reported that instead of the Cuban Medical Brigade, the DA has announced that it will nominate South African healthcare workers for the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize.
South Africans were divided after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the team of medical experts from Cuba would be nominated by the South African government.
This, however, was seen as a slap in the face of South African health workers who fought on the frontlines against Covid-19.
Source: Briefly News
Kelly Lippke (Senior Editor) Kelly Lippke is a copy editor/proofreader who started her career at the Northern-Natal Courier with a BA in Communication Science/Psychology (Unisa, 2007). Kelly has worked for several Caxton publications, including the Highway Mail and Northglen News. Kelly’s unique editing perspective stems from an additional major in Linguistics. Kelly joined Briefly News in 2018 and she has 14 years of experience. Kelly has also passed a set of trainings by Google News Initiative. You can reach her at kelly.lippke@briefly.co.za.
Lebogang Mashego (Current Affairs HOD) Lebogang Mashego runs the Current Affairs desk. She joined the Briefly News team in 2021. She has 6 years of experience in the journalism field. Her journalism career started while studying at Rhodes University, where she worked for the Oppidan Press for 3 years. She worked as a lifestyle writer and editor at W24 and Opera News. She graduated with a BA degree majoring in Journalism and Media Studies in 2017. She's a recipient of the INMA Elevate Scholarship. Email: lebogang.mashego@briefly.co.za
