Ahead of Friday's Nobel Peace Prize announcement, we looked at Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize Laureates.
The Nobel Peace Prize, an award for people who do valuable work towards “increasing fraternity between nations” is awarded annually by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The first prize was awarded to Henry Dunant in 1901.
African winners were few and far between in the first half of the 20th century, but the continent has started to offer up more winners in recent years.
South Africa’s Albert Luthuli was the first African Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1960. At the time Luthuli was the president of the African National Congress (ANC). He was a prominent Anti-Apartheid activist who spent much of his life under movement bans imposed on him by the Apartheid government. Award ceremony speech excerpt:
It was 18 years before there was another Nobel Peace Prize winner from Africa, this time it was Egyptian president Mohamed Anwar Al-Sadat who was awarded the prize along with Israel's Menachem Begin for their work on the Camp David agreement.
In 1984 South African bishop Desmond Tutu won the prize for his contribution to struggle to bring an end to Apartheid. He was awarded the prize for his writing and lectures on bringing about liberation in South Africa. Since 1994, Tutu has remained an outspoken critic of perceived injustice and corrupt practices.
In 1993 ANC President Nelson Mandela and South African president FW de Klerk were awarded the prize for their efforts to bring about a peaceful transition for South Africa.
In 2001 the prize was awarded jointly to the United Nations and Ghana's Kofi Annan, then the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
In 2004 The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Kenyan environmental and political activist Wangari Maathai. She was the first African woman to win the prize, which was awarded for her actions as an activist, MP and her work with the Green Belt Movement in Kenya.
Egyptian law scholar and diplomat Mohamed ElBaradei was jointly with the International Atomic Energy Agency awarded the prize in 2006. He was the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency. 5 years after winning the Nobel Peace Prize he played a prominent role in the Egyptian revolution.
In 2011 the prize was jointly awarded to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni politician Tawakkul Karman for their work on the struggle form women's rights and peace-building work.
Culled from msn
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