Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been honoured with the Kassel Citizens’ ‘Prism of Reason’ award for her vision of humanistic diversity.
The Board of Directors and the Board of Trustees of the Society of Friends and Sponsors of the Kassel Citizens’ Prize selected Chimamanda as the 2019 winner, making her the first Nigerian to receive the remarkable prize.
The prolific Nigerian-born writer’s award ceremony which held in Germany on Sunday coincided with her 42nd birthday celebration. It was also a recognition of her undeniable literary prowess and that of her equality and justice advocacy.
According to a statement issued by the organisers of the event, the prize is awarded to ‘persons or institutions whose work serves the ideals of the Enlightenment by overcoming ideological barriers and promoting reason and tolerance towards dissenters’.
The “Prism of Reason” award was founded in 1990 by citizens of the city of Kassel and the region. So far, the prize has been awarded 28 times. The 2019 award is the 29th in the series.
The first prize-winner (in 1991) was the then German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher; he was honoured for his services to the opening of the Iron Curtain.
Other awardees include Chinese dissident and artist Ai Weiwei; Indian scientist, Vandana Shiva; Somali-born Dutch-American activist, Ayaan Hirsi Ali; Israeli diplomat, peace activist and publicist Avi Primor; and Peruvian farmer Saúl Luciano Lliuya.
A statement made by the Kassel Board president Bernd Leifeld said “Combative but not fanatical, Adichie points out ways to overcome outdated patterns which are deeply anchored in education and society.”
“Kassel citizens honour her with their Prize ‘The Prism of Reason 2019’ because she believes in the social, political and economic equality of all people,” he said.
The prize consists of a certificate, a sculpture designed by the Kassel art professor and artist Karl Oskar Blase with a prism (symbolising the analytical glass of the Enlightenment).