Chimamanda Adichie, a writer from Nigeria, has been awarded the W. E. B. Du Bois Medal, Harvard University’s highest honor.
Thursday’s event was where she was awarded the medal.
Since the start of the COVID 19 epidemic, no one had received the W.E.B. Du Bois medal. In the discipline of African and African American studies, it is the highest prize bestowed by Harvard.
Chimamanda Adichie is renowned for both her activism for gender equality and her exquisite storytelling. She previously served as a Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow from 2011 to 2012 and spoke at the 2018 Harvard College Class Day.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Laverne Cox, Agnes Guns, Raymond J. McGuire, Deval Patrick, and Betye Saar are among the other honorees.
The medal enables her to join the list of trailblazing figures who have previously received it, including athlete-activist Colin Kaepernick, Maya Angelou, Nasir “Nas” Jones, Queen Latifah, Ava Duvernay, Dave Chappelle, John Lewis, and Steven Spielberg.
A professor of the university and director of the Hutchins center said in a statement that,
“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”.
