Every Black Nobel Prize Winner And What They Did To Get It

Their impact is still visible and palpable.

It's only been a few weeks since the Nobel Prizes were awarded for 2022. Here is a list of the illustrious Black men and women who made a big difference in the world through their contributions to the lives of common people and the planet.

1. Ralph J. Bunche: The First Black Person to Win the Nobel

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Born in 1904 in Detroit, Michigan, this son of a barber and grandson of ex-slaves attended UCLA on an athletic scholarship and worked as a janitor to cover his personal expenses. He rose to become the chair of the Department of Political Science at Howard University and then taught at Harvard University. Later, he was invited to work with the UN, and that's where he left his mark on the world. He won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1950 "for his work as mediator in Palestine in 1948-1949."

2. Albert Lutuli

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One of the most celebrated men to lead the African National Congress, "Lutuli forged a philosophical compatibility between two cultures — the Zulu culture of his native Africa and the Christian-democratic culture of Europe." He won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1960 (actually 1961) "for his non-violent struggle against apartheid.

3. Martin Luther King Jr. — The Youngest Man to Have Received The Nobel Peace Prize

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This illustrious civil rights campaigner was already a legend before any international prize came his way. Deeply influenced by the nonviolent methods of Mahatma Gandhi, he was a prolific community leader, orator, and agitator who galvanized his community and made sure the path to civil rights became easier for those who come after him. He won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1964 "for his nonviolent struggle for civil rights for the Afro-American population."

4. Archbishop Desmond Tutu

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A man with a great sense of self-respect, courage, and compassion, his name has become synonymous with the civil resistance against apartheid in South Africa. He was the first Black African to hold the position of Bishop of Johannesburg and then Archbishop of Cape Town and also went on to chair the Truth & Reconciliation Commission. He won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1984 for "his role as a unifying leader figure in the nonviolent campaign to resolve the problem of apartheid in South Africa.”

5. Wole Soyinka: The First Black Person to Win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

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This Nigerian is a prolific writer with a smorgasbord of literary works "rooted in Yoruba people’s myths, rites, and cultural patterns." He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986 for being someone "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence."  

6. Derek Walcott

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One of the great poets from the West Indies, this Saint Lucia-born English poet and playwright produced works that celebrated and explored the Caribbean culture. He is famous for many poems among which Tiepolo’s Hound is unique for being a poetic biography of West Indian-born French painter Camille Pissarro. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992 “for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment.”

7. Nelson Mandela

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Once upon a time the world's most famous political prisoner, he started out as one of South Africa's first Black lawyers. Soon, he realized that armed resistance against the apartheid regime was the only way to ensure civil rights and justice for the Black people of South Africa. After spending 27 years in prison, he was released to international applause and domestic adulation. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for his "work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa.” He shared the Peace Prize with the man who had released him, President Frederik Willem de Klerk.

8. Toni Morrison: The First Black Woman to Win the Nobel Prize

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1993 saw two Black Nobel winners. The celebrated litterateur Toni Morison won the Nobel Prize for Literature in December 1993. Her citation commended her as someone "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality.”

9. Kofi Annan

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A graduate of MIT and Macalester College, this learned man from Ghana became the first Black African to head the United Nations when he served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001 jointly with the United Nations "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world."

10. Wangari Maathai: The First African Woman to Win the Nobel Prize

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This Kenyan activist-ecologist was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctoral degree and the first female professor ever in Kenya. In 1977, she founded the Green Belt Movement, an NGO which empowers women by encouraging them to plant trees to combat deforestation and environmental degradation. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her "contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace."  

11. Barack Obama

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The most famous man on this list needs no introduction. His accomplishments are just too many to list and spread out over almost all spheres of human activities (except sports). It had not been even one year of his presidency when, in a surprise twist, his name was announced by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.  Obama was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2009 “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

12. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

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Often called Africa's Iron Lady, she became the first female democratically elected head of state in Africa when she became the President of Liberia in 2005. She led her country through reconstruction following Liberia’s decade-long civil war and the Ebola crisis. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 with Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman "for their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work."

13. Leymah Gbowee

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An affiliate of Sirleaf, she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 with Sirleaf and Tawakkol Karman "for their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work." In 2002, she commenced the grassroots movement, Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, that encouraged Muslim and Christian women to call for nonviolence and peace in Liberia. She later mobilized Liberian women to vote for Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in the 2005 presidential elections.

14. Denis Mukwege

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Born amidst turmoil in the Democratic Republic of Congo (then Belgian Congo), Dr. Mukwege trained as a gynecologist and devoted himself to helping the hapless victims of sexual violence, especially gang rapes. He performed reconstructive surgery on the private parts of victims of such gruesome violence so that they can have a realistic shot at normal sexual health. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with the Yazidi activist Nadia Murad in 2018 "for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.”

15. Abiy Ahmed

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Sworn in as the Prime Minister of Ethiopia in 2018, Ahmed is famous for his political philosophy, medemer, which can be translated as "coming together" in Amharic. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 "for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea."  

16. Abdulrazak Gurnah

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An Arab from the island of Zanzibar, he fled to England when he was 18 after an anti-Arab uprising swept through Tanzania. He started recording this traumatic experience on whatever paper he could find that slowly grew into his first novel. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021 for “his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.” He's the first Black writer to receive the prize since Toni Morrison.

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