Chimamanda Adichie receives highest Harvard varsity honour

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

This was contained in a statement issued on Friday by the professor of the university and director of the Hutchins centre, Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr.

The statement noted that Adichie received the medal at a ceremony held on Thursday.

Others awarded on Thursday included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Laverne Cox, Agnes Guns, Raymond J McGuire, Deval Patrick, and Betye Saar.

The W.E.B Du Bois medal, which had not been awarded to anyone since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, is the highest honor given by Harvard in the field of African and African American studies.

“Whether they have 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,” it said.

Adichie was a speaker at the Harvard College Class Day in 2018.

She was previously a Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow between 2011 and 2012.

Other past recipients of the award are Muhammad Ali, Maya Angelou, Ava Duvernay, Dave Chappelle, Queen Latifah, Nasir “Nas” Jones, John Lewis, Steven Spielberg, athlete-activist Colin Kaepernick.

The Star