Renowned Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and others were awarded an honorary degree from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
Back in March, President Vincent E. Price of Duke University confirmed that the Americanah Author is on the list of recipients.
Adichie received the award alongside Mary Barra, Chairman of General Motors, Phil Freelon, lead architect for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture; former Durham Mayor William Bell; Dr. William Kaelin, professor of medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; and Russell M. Robinson II, attorney, community leader and philanthropist.
Adichie , who earned a Bachelor’s Degree summa cum laude from Eastern Connecticut State University in 2001, A Master’s Degree in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins in 2004 and a Master’s Degree in African Studies from Yale in 2008, is truly one of Africa’s best writers and even, in the World at large. She is the author of three novels – “Purple Hibiscus” (2003), “Half of a Yellow Sun” (2006) and “Americanah” (2013).

Adichie was one of the 6 conferred with the degree at the ceremony, as they were all described as people who have changed the world in extensive ways. Adichie has been recognized as a voice of both contemporary African and global Anglophone fiction. “Americanah” won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and was named one of The New York Times’ Ten Best Books of the Year. Americanah” was also selected as the first-year summer reading assignment for Duke’s Class of 2018.