Award-winning novelist and feminist icon, Chimamanda Adichie, has received an honorary degree from the prestigious Duke University in Durham, North Carolina America.

The 40-year-old was among the few individuals who received the honorary degree from the university and they were all described as “people making changes in the world in very extensive ways.”

President of Duke University, Vincent E. Price, had earlier in March confirmed that the Half a Yellow Sun author was on the list of recipients.

Adichie, who made the announcement in a post to Facebook on Thursday, received the award alongside Chairman of General Motors, Marry Bara and lead architect for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture Phil Freelon.

Other recipients of the award are Former Durham Mayor William Bell, Dr William Kaelin, professor of medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Russell M. Robinson II, attorney, community leader and philanthropist.

Adichie had been featured regularly in the New York Times, including being a part of the magazine’s ‘Greats’ List in 2017.

She was awarded a Mcarthur Genius Grant in 2008 and was described in The Times Literary Supplement as “the most prominent”. Recently, she won the PEN Pinter Prize for her writing and activism.