Nobel Peace Prizes Won By African Nationals from 1960 to 2019

1)The first African to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was the ANC president, Albert Lutuli, who won it in 1960 for his peaceful policies against racial segregation in South Africa. At the time, both the liberation movement and Luthuli had already been banned by the apartheid government. He wasn't able to receive the prize in Oslo until a year later, when a travel ban was lifted for 10 days

2)Anwar al-Sadat President of Egypt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel. The two were awarded in 1978 for their contribution to the two frame agreements on peace in the Middle East and on peace between Egypt and Israel, which were signed at Camp David, USA in September 17, 1978.


3)Archbishop Desmond Tutu campaigned for human rights and against discrimination — he was South Africa's moral compass, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984

4)When anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela was released in 1990 after 27 years in jail, South Africa held its breath for what was a truly historic moment

Nelson Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize alongside South African President Frederik Willem de Klerk in  1993

Nelson Mandela's fight against oppression paved the way for general elections a year later in which citizens of all races were allowed to vote

5)Kofi Annan was considered an ambassador for peace. In 2001, the Ghanaian diplomat and the United Nations jointly received the Nobel Prize for Annan's "commitment to a better organized and more peaceful world" as secretary-general of the world body.

6)In 2004 a black woman received the Nobel Peace Prize for the first time: Wangari Maathai. The Kenyan professor fought for women's rights and against poverty in her home country. The deputy environment minister received the nickname "Mother of Trees" for her Green Belt Movement. She celebrated the prize in her own style, as she wrote in her autobiography: "I planted a tree."

7)Mohamed ElBaradei(Egypt) Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) received the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with the UN’s nuclear watchdog IAEA for their efforts for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way. The Nobel committee noted that ElBaradei had done much in strengthening the IAEA as an organisation and the increasing accession to the nuclear non-proliferation regime. Mohamed ElBaradei was born in Cairo in 1942. Before becoming head of the IAEA he had worked for a number of years as an Egyptian diplomat and in the United Nations.


8)In 2011, three women were honored together: Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf ; Liberian human rights activist Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni journalist Tawakkul Karman. The two women from Liberia were honored for their efforts to save their country from violence during the civil war

9)Congolese surgeon and human rights defender Denis Mukwege has made it his life's work to aid women who have been raped and mutilated. For many years, the gynecologist has been head surgeon at Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, which he founded in 1999. He gives his patients hope and courage — which garnered him the award in 2018, alongside Nadia Murad, an Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist

10)Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has reason to celebrate: He won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for his "initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighboring Eritrea." The Nobel Committee was also impressed by his reconciliation efforts in his own country, a reform process in the multi-ethnic state of Ethiopia that isn't over yet