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List of African Nobel laureates

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Nobel Prize is an international prize awarded annually since 1901 for achievements in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace. An associated prize in Economic Sciences has been awarded since 1969.[1] Nobel Prizes have been awarded to over 800 individuals.[2]

Africans have received awards in all five of the Nobel prize categories: Peace, Physics, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Chemistry. The first Black African recipient, Albert Luthuli, was awarded the Peace Prize in 1960 and the first White African who received the prize was Max Theiler in 1951 for Physiology or Medicine. The most recent recipient, Abdulrazak Gurnah, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021.

A notable recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize is Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) the first democratically elected president of South Africa, who played a key role in the repeal of apartheid laws. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 alongside President F.W. de Klerk.[3]

Two African laureates, Anwar Sadat of Egypt in 1978 and F.W. de Klerk of South Africa in 1993, were presidents of their countries at the time they were awarded the Nobel Prize. Sadat was honored along with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin for their efforts to reach a peace agreement between their two countries. DeKlerk was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Nelson Mandela, who led the ANC but was not president of South Africa until 1994.

Laureates

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Year Image Name Country Category Comment
1951
Max Theiler  South Africa Physiology or Medicine First White African to win a Nobel Prize
1957
Albert Camus  France (born in Algeria) Literature First White African to win a Nobel Prize in Literature
1960
Albert Luthuli  South Africa Peace First Black African to win a Nobel Prize
1978
Anwar El Sadat  Egypt First Egyptian and North African to win a Nobel Prize
1979
Allan M. Cormack  South Africa Physiology or Medicine
1982
Aaron Klug Chemistry
1984
Desmond Tutu Peace
1985
Claude Simon  France (born in Madagascar) Literature
1986
Wole Soyinka  Nigeria First Black African person to win the Nobel Prize for Literature[4]
1988
Naguib Mahfouz  Egypt First Egyptian and North African to win a Nobel Prize in Literature
1991
Nadine Gordimer  South Africa First White African woman to win a Nobel Prize
1993
Nelson Mandela Peace
1993
F. W. de Klerk
1997
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji  France (born in Algeria) Physics
1999
Ahmed Zewail  Egypt Chemistry First Egyptian and North African to win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
2001
Kofi Annan  Ghana Peace
2002
Sydney Brenner  South Africa Physiology or Medicine
2003
J. M. Coetzee Literature
2004
Wangari Maathai  Kenya Peace First Black African woman to win a Nobel Prize
2005
Mohamed ElBaradei  Egypt
2007
Doris Lessing  Zimbabwe (born in Iran) Literature
2008
J. M. G. Le Clézio  Mauritius (born in France) Literature
2011
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf  Liberia Peace
2011
Leymah Gbowee
2012
Serge Haroche  France (born in Morocco) Physics
2013
Michael Levitt  South Africa Chemistry
2015
Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet  Tunisia Peace
2018
Denis Mukwege  Democratic Republic of the Congo
2019
Abiy Ahmed  Ethiopia Peace
2021
Abdulrazak Gurnah  Tanzania Literature

References

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  1. ^ "Nobel Prize" (2007), in Encyclopædia Britannica, accessed 14 November 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online:

    An additional award, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was established in 1968 by the Bank of Sweden and was first awarded in 1969

  2. ^ "All Nobel Laureates". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
  3. ^ "Biography of Nelson Mandela". Nelson Mandela Foundation. Archived from the original on 3 April 2016. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  4. ^ "Wole Soyinka Biography". Nobelprize.org.