Blacks Receiving Nobel Prize in Economics and Literature ~ Emerald Quill

Feb 14, 2014

Blacks Receiving Nobel Prize in Economics and Literature

2/14/2014 Celestine Green No comments

In 1895, five Nobel prizes were established in the will of Alfred Nobel: Peace, Literature, Chemistry, Physics and Physiology or Medicine. Nobel bequeathed 94% of his total assets ($186 million in US currency) to endow the prizes and associated administration.The prize in Economics was established in 1968 and is endowed by Sweden's central bank.

In total, there have been 16 Black Nobel Prize winners; 12 of them being Peace prize recipients. Four Blacks received the Nobel Prize for Economics and Literature.

Sir (William) Arthur Lewis was a Saint Lucian economist well known for his contributions in the field of economic development. In 1979 he won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, becoming the first black person to win a Nobel Prize in a category other than peace.

AkinwandeOluwole “Wole” Soyinka is a Nigerian writer, poet and playwright. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, where he was recognized as a man “who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence”, and became the first African in Africa and in Diaspora to be so honored. In 1994, he was designated UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Goodwill Ambassador for the promotion of African culture, human rights, freedom of expression, media and communication.

Derek Alton Walcott is a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2011 for White Egrets. His works include the Homeric epic Omeros (1990). Robert Graves wrote that Walcott “handles English with a closer understanding of its inner magic than most, if not any, of his contemporaries”. He is currently Professor of poetry at the University of Essex.

Toni Morrison is an American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved. She won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988 for her novel Beloved. She received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993for being an author "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import gives life to an essential aspect of American reality". in 2001, she was named one of the 30 Most Powerful Women in America by the Ladies Home Journal. She also was commissioned to write the libretto for a new opera, Margaret Garner, first performed in 2005.