By OLUWATUKESI ORITSETSEMAYE

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

She received the medal at a ceremony on Thursday.

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

Chimamanda is known for her elegant storytelling and her advocacy for gender equality. She was also a speaker at the Harvard College Class Day in 2018 and was previously a Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellow between 2011 and 2012.

Other recipients of the award include Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Laverne Cox, Agnes Guns, Raymond J McGuire, Deval Patrick, and Betye Saar.

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,” it said.

The medal allows her to join the list of trailblazers like Muhammad Ali, Maya Angelou, Ava Duvernay, Dave Chappelle, Queen Latifah, Nasir “Nas” Jones, John Lewis, Steven Spielberg, athlete-activist Colin Kaepernick, and others who are past recipients of the medal.

•PHOTO: Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie receives the W.E.B Du Bois Medal, Harvard’s highest honor in the field of African and African American studies at Harvard University’s Sanders theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts on October 6, 2022. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP)

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