# List of African Nobel laureates

The Nobel Prize is an international prize awarded annually since 1901 for achievements in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace. An associated prize in Economic Sciences has been awarded since 1969. Nobel Prizes have been awarded to over 800 individuals.
Africans have received awards in all five of the Nobel prize categories: Peace, Physics, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Chemistry. The first Black African recipient, Albert Luthuli, was awarded the Peace Prize in 1960 and the first White African who received the prize was Max Theiler in 1951 for Physiology or Medicine. The most recent recipient, Abdulrazak Gurnah, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021.
A notable recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize is Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) the first democratically elected president of South Africa, who played a key role in the repeal of apartheid laws. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 alongside President F.W. de Klerk.
Two African laureates, Anwar Sadat of Egypt in 1978 and F.W. de Klerk of South Africa in 1993, were presidents of their countries at the time they were awarded the Nobel Prize. Sadat was honored along with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin for their efforts to reach a peace agreement between their two countries. DeKlerk was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Nelson Mandela, who led the ANC but was not president of South Africa until 1994.

## Laureates

| Year | Name | Country | Category | Comment |
| 1951 | Max Theiler | South Africa | Physiology or Medicine | First White African to win a Nobel Prize |
| 1957 | Albert Camus | France (born in Algeria) | Literature | First White African to win a Nobel Prize in Literature |
| 1960 | Albert Luthuli | South Africa | Peace | First Black African to win a Nobel Prize |
| 1978 | Anwar El Sadat | Egypt | Peace | First Egyptian and North African to win a Nobel Prize |
| 1979 | Allan M. Cormack | South Africa | Physiology or Medicine | |
| 1982 | Aaron Klug | South Africa | Chemistry | |
| 1984 | Desmond Tutu | South Africa | Peace | |
| 1985 | Claude Simon | France (born in Madagascar) | Literature | |
| 1986 | Wole Soyinka | Nigeria | Literature | First Black African person to win the Nobel Prize for Literature |
| 1988 | Naguib Mahfouz | Egypt | Literature | First Egyptian and North African to win a Nobel Prize in Literature |
| 1991 | Nadine Gordimer | South Africa | Literature | First White African woman to win a Nobel Prize |
| 1993 | Nelson Mandela | South Africa | Peace | |
| 1993 | F. W. de Klerk | South Africa | Peace | |
| 1997 | Claude Cohen-Tannoudji | France (born in Algeria) | Physics | |
| 1999 | Ahmed Zewail | Egypt | Chemistry | First Egyptian and North African to win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. |
| 2001 | Kofi Annan | Ghana | Peace | |
| 2002 | Sydney Brenner | South Africa | Physiology or Medicine | |
| 2003 | J. M. Coetzee | South Africa | Literature | |
| 2004 | Wangari Maathai | Kenya | Peace | First Black African woman to win a Nobel Prize |
| 2005 | Mohamed ElBaradei | Egypt | Peace | |
| 2007 | Doris Lessing | Zimbabwe (born in Iran) | Literature |
| 2008 | J. M. G. Le Clézio | Mauritius (born in France) | Literature | |
| 2011 | Ellen Johnson Sirleaf | Liberia | Peace | |
| 2011 | Leymah Gbowee | Liberia | Peace | |
| 2012 | Serge Haroche | France (born in Morocco) | Physics | |
| 2013 | Michael Levitt | South Africa | Chemistry | |
| 2015 | Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet | Tunisia | Peace | |
| 2018 | Denis Mukwege | Democratic Republic of the Congo | Peace | |
| 2019 | Abiy Ahmed | Ethiopia | Peace | |
| 2021 | Abdulrazak Gurnah | Tanzania | Literature | |