AWARDS AND HONORS

Wole Soyinka who has received numerous awards and honours for his contributions to literature and human rights activism. He was the first African to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in1986 and has been honoured with the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and the Medal from the Royal Society of Literature, among others. Soyinka's work continues to inspire and challenge readers around the world. Some of his honors include:

1957: Receives Honors Degree in English Literature/Drama
1960: Rockefeller Research Fellow
1966: Shares John Whiting Award
1973: Honorary D.Litt., University of Leeds
1973–74: Overseas Fellow, Churchill College, Cambridge
1983: Elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (Hon. FRSL)
1983: Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, United States
1986: Nobel Prize for Literature - the 1st African and Black writer to be so honored
1986: Agip Prize for Literature
1986: Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR), 2nd highest national honor of Nigeria
1990: Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature

1993: Honorary doctorate, Harvard University
2002: Honorary fellowship, SOAS University of London
2005: Honorary doctorate degree, Princeton University
2005: Enstooled as the Akinlatun of Egbaland, a Nigerian chief, by the Oba Alake of the Egba clan of Yorubaland. Soyinka became a tribal aristocrat by way of this, one vested with the right to use the Yoruba title Oloye as a pre-nominal honorific.
2009: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member Archbishop Desmond Tutu at an awards ceremony at St. George's Cathedral, Cape Town, South Africa
2013: Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, Lifetime Achievement, United States
2014: International Humanist Award
2017: Joins the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, as a Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Humanities
2017: "Special Prize" of the Europe Theatre Prize
2018: University of Ibadan's arts theater renamed as Wole Soyinka Theatre.
2018: Honorary Doctorate Degree of Letters, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB).
2020: Abeokuta Train Station is renamed Prof. Wole Soyinka Station
2022: Honorary Degree from Cambridge University, bestowed upon people who have made outstanding achievements in their respective fields.
2024: Arterial Road N20 from Northern Parkway to Outer Northern Expressway renamed as Prof. Wole Soyinka Highway