Professor Wole Soyinka, a Nobel Prize winner, received an honorary degree from the University of Cambridge together with nine other people.
Nigeria's Soyinka and the nine other honorees were honoured at a ceremony held Wednesday at the university's Senate House with over 400 staff, students and other guests in attendance.
The Cambridge varsity honorary degree, one of the highest accolades in the world, is given to individuals "who have made extraordinary achievements in their particular disciplines," according to the varsity's official website. Over 400 staff members, students, and other visitors attended the ceremony on Wednesday, which was held at the university's Senate House.
The University's Chancellor, Lord Sainsbury of Turville, presided over the ceremony, which was conducted in Latin and English.
Soyinka, a playwright, poet, novelist and political activist, won the prestigious 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature.
He has held visiting appointments at higher institutions in Cambridge, Legon, Atlanta and Yale.
Recipients of this year's honorary doctorates from the University of Cambridge include Soyinka, Ghanaian philosopher Professor Kwame Appiah; literary scholar, Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.; Developmental Biologist, Professor Edith Heard; music composer, dr. Judith Weir; and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Dr Ali Smith.
Other recipients, all of whom are professors, are mathematical physicist Sir Roger Penrose; developmental biologist Elizabeth Robertson; art historian Simon Schama; and molecular biologist John Walker.