Chimamanda Adichie conferred with honorary degree from Haverford College and Williams College

Nigerian novelist and feminist advocate, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was recently conferred with an honorary degree by Haverford College, an institution in Pennsylvania, United States. In a press release on the college’s website it read:

Each year, at Commencement, Haverford College awards honorary degrees to men and women who have distinguished themselves in letters, the sciences, or the arts, or who have devoted their lives to service and the betterment of humanity. At this year’s May 13 ceremony, the College will award honorary degrees to acclaimed writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard.

Adichie, whose novel Americanah was the winner of the One Book, One New York campaign, was in recent conversation with Trevor Noah and Chris Jackson in a PEN America event sponsored by Penguin Random House.

Read: Trans-women are trans-women and women are women says Chimamanda Adichie

Haverford College further stated in their press release:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of the most prominent African writers of her generation. Her Purple Hibiscus (2003) won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for first work. Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) won the Orange Prize, the world’s top prize for female writers. Americanah(2013) received numerous accolades, including the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was named one of The New York Times Top Ten Best Books of the Year. Her most recent book, Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, was published in March 2017. Adichie’s work has been translated into over 30 languages.

File picture: Dr Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Photo: hub.jhu.edu/ Will Kirk/ Homewood Photography

At age 19, Adichie left her native Nigeria for the United States, first to Philadelphia and Drexel University to begin her undergraduate work, which she then completed at Eastern Connecticut State University. She went on to earn a master’s in creative writing from Johns Hopkins, followed by a master’s in African Studies from Yale. Adichie’s prodigious writing earned her fellowships at Princeton and Harvard as well as a MacArthur Genius Award. An internationally renowned speaker, Adichie’s TED talks, including 2012’s notable “We Should All Be Feminists,” are among the most-viewed of all time.

Read: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie promotes Nigerian fashion on Instagram

Almost a month later, Adichie would receive another honorary degree from Williams College. Williams College announced that the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, will be the principal speaker at Williams College’s 228th Commencement Exercise on Sunday, June 4.

The Nigerian novelist has over the years been giving commencement speeches in American universities and has also been awarded a number of honorary degrees over time. Her latest book Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions has been well received.