List of African Nobel laureates
The Nobel Prize is awarded every year since 1901 for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace. The prize in economics has been given since 1969.
Africans have won prizes in all five categories. The first Black African recipient was Albert Luthuli, who won the Peace Prize in 1960. The first White African recipient was Max Theiler, who won Physiology or Medicine in 1951. The most recent African laureate is Abdulrazak Gurnah, who won the Literature Prize in 2021.
Nelson Mandela is a well-known Peace Prize winner; he and F. W. de Klerk shared the prize in 1993 for helping end apartheid in South Africa. Two African laureates were presidents when they won: Anwar Sadat of Egypt in 1978, who shared the prize with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin for peace in the Middle East; and F. W. de Klerk in 1993, who shared the prize with Mandela. Mandela had led the African National Congress but became South Africa’s president in 1994.
The Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was established in 1968 by the Bank of Sweden and began in 1969.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 14:17 (CET).