Nigerian writer and novelist Ngozi Chimamanda Adichie is set to receive yet another honorary degree from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium on April 22, 2022.
This announcement was made via the official Twitter page of the university where it was stated that she alongside two others would be receiving honorary PhD degrees. The link attached to the tweet contained an official statement which read:
“On Thursday 28 April 2022, UCLouvain will award its highest distinction, an honorary doctorate, to three outstanding individuals: the writer and activist Chimamanda Adichie, the journalist and author Florence Aubenas and the climatologist and geophysicist Michael E. Mann.
“Our university always takes great pride in gathering the UCLouvain community around an inspiring meeting with individuals who have had and will have a lasting impact on our perception of the world.”
The theme of this year’s edition is “The fragility of truth”. Through their actions, investigations and stories based on facts, our three soon-to-be honorary doctors help us to keep our eyes open at a time when the truth has never been so fragile.”
This would be one of the several honorary degrees received by the writer. She has previously received honorary degrees from several world-acclaimed universities.
Other honorary degrees
- In 2016, she was conferred an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, by Johns Hopkins University.
- In 2017, she was conferred honorary degrees, Doctor of Humane letters, honoris causa, by Haverford College and by The University of Edinburgh in the same year.
- In 2018, she received an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, from Amherst College.
- Also, in 2019 she received an honorary degree, doctor honoris causa, from the Université de Fribourg, Switzerland. She also received a honorary degree from Yale University on the 20th of May of the same year.
The author has published several books such as Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun (which was adapted into a movie), Americana, The Thing Around Your Neck, Dear IjeAwele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, in addition to other short stories, articles and publications all published in several international publications.
Awards and recognitions
She has also won several awards within and outside Africa for her works; In 2002 she won BBC measuring competition for her work “That Harmattan morning”.
- In 2002 she won The David T Wong International Short story Price (PEN American Center Award) for her novel “Half of A Yellow Sun”, and in the same year, she won the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award and the O.Henry Prize for her work “The American Embassy”.
- In 2005, she won two Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Best First novel Africa and Overall) for her novel “Purple Hibiscus”.
- Later in 2007, she won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, Orange Broadband Prize, PEN Beyond Margins Award for “Half of a Yellow sun”.
- In 2013, she won Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award for her novel “Americanah”
She has also won so many personal awards for her contributions, ranging from the Future Award Nigeria, Young Person of the Year category and the International Nonino Prize, PEN Pinter Prize, and the MacArthur Foundation Grant.
