List of African Nobel laureates

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

Year	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	Peace	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		Peace
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	South Africa	Literature
2004	Wangari Maathai	Kenya	Peace	First Black African woman to win a Nobel Prize
2005	Mohamed ElBaradei	Egypt	Peace
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	Liberia	Peace
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	Peace
2019	Abiy Ahmed	Ethiopia	Peace
2021	Abdulrazak Gurnah	Tanzania	Literature

References

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

[Britannica1-1] "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.

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