On Friday, October 10, 2025, the Nobel Foundation, located in Stockholm, Sweden, awarded the 2025 prestigious Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, to Venezuela’s Opposition Leader, Maria Corina Machado, for her fight against dictatorship in Venezuela.
For the first time, I could relate to the Nobel Peace Prize! Why? By courtesy of Ghana’s Defence Attaché in Denmark, Air Commodore (Brig. Gen.) Jacob Ashrifie, “Manager” (Mrs Frimpong) and I visited the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Sweden and Norway in Summer 2025.
An article I wrote on the visit to Norway, titled “Awesome Oslo”, is quoted below.
On June 19, 2025, after visiting the Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA) in Stockholm, Sweden, where we were briefed by the Director of the Academy and his team on their role, and also in collaboration with the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), we continued our journey by road to Oslo, Norway. Nine hours after leaving Stockholm, we arrived in Oslo.
As we drove through tunnels and picturesque houses in hilly ranges entering Oslo, I could not help but smile broadly, welcoming myself to “Awesome Oslo!”
An observation one easily makes about the Scandinavian landscape is that while Denmark is flat, Sweden is hilly and Norway is mountainous. In a seeming paradox, Oslo is the home of the Nobel Peace Centre, where perhaps, the primus inter pares of Nobel Prizes, the Peace Prize, is awarded annually.
The five others for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology (Medicine), Literature and Economics are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden.
Not surprisingly, the question is often asked about AB Nobel’s nationality: Swedish or Norwegian?
AB Nobel
Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833 – 1896) was a Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor and armaments manufacturer. He created the Bofors Steel Company, which he later converted into an Armaments manufacturing company. He was also a writer/author. His most enduring invention, however, was dynamite.
In 1888, Alfred’s younger brother, Ludwig Nobel, died. Mistaking the dead Nobel to be Alfred, several newspapers published obituaries about the living Alfred Nobel. None was positive.
Indeed, a French obituary stated “Le marchand de la mort est mort” (The merchant of death is dead.) He was condemned for inventing weapons of destruction like the cannon and dynamite.
One publication said, “Dr Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever, died yesterday.” He was disappointed with what he read and profoundly affected!
Alfred Nobel’s conscience pricked him about what legacy he was leaving behind and how negatively humanity would remember him in spite of all his inventions.
He, therefore, decided to bequeath his fortune to humanity for the promotion of peace and development through a Nobel Foundation.
Nobel prizes
In his will in 1895, a year before he died, Alfred Nobel established five prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology/Medicine, Literature and Peace.
These awards were to be given to individuals or a group of individuals not exceeding three, or an organisation, for making a positive contribution to humanity after Nobel’s death.
In the will, he instructed that the Peace Prize be awarded in Oslo, Norway, while the others are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, annually. The first awards were made in 1901.
In 1968, a new prize for Economics was added by the Swedish Central Bank, bringing the Nobel Prizes to six disciplines. For 2023, each winner won 11 million Swedish crowns (US$986,000).
Additionally, winners also receive a gold-plated green-gold medal, symbolising their remarkable contribution to their respective fields, and a diploma.
In 2025, each winner will take $US1.2 million.
African Nobel Prize winners
In 2001, Ghanaian UN Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan won the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with the United Nations.
South African winners of the Nobel Peace Prize include Albert Lithuli, President of the African National Congress in 1960, Archbishop Desmond Tutu in 1984 and Nelson Mandela in 1994 for their fight against apartheid (“apart-ness”).
Apartheid in the Afrikaans language of the minority Boers meant apart-ness/separation. Blacks were legally segregated and discriminated against.
They were second-rate humans! Apartheid was finally banned in South Africa in 1994, having begun in 1948.
For the first time in the history of Nobel awards, Nigerian poet Wole Soyinka won the Prize in Literature in 1986, making him the first African to win a prize other than for Peace.
In 2004, Kenyan Environmentalist Professor Wangari Maathai won the Peace Prize for her contribution to greening the environment in Kenya through tree planting. She led her Green Belt Movement, an NGO she founded in 1977, to plant over fifty million trees all over Kenya.
Discussion
Visiting the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo, Norway, was an awesome experience. The whole history of the Nobel Prizes is preserved in a building.
So far, the only Ghanaian winner of the Nobel Prize is Mr Kofi Annan, a prize he won jointly with the UN. The challenge to Ghanaian youth is to work hard and follow the example of
Kofi Annan. With discipline, strong leadership skills, hard work and integrity, the youth can win future individual Nobel Prizes for Ghana.
I challenge the youth of Ghana to emulate role models like Mr Kofi Annan, Professor Konotey-Ahulu for his work in Medicine in the area of Sickle Cell research, and Professor Allotey in the field of Nuclear Physics.
Others are Lt General EA Erskine for his contribution to humanity through United Nations Peacekeeping and Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse, also for services to humanity.
The Vice-Chancellor of Family Health University and Hospital, Accra, Prof. Enyonam Yaw Kwawukume, is a potential candidate for his pioneering works in gynaecology.
In aspiring to join Mr Kofi Annan as a Nobel Prize winner from Ghana, they will require an attitudinal change and the realisation that the seeming triumph of mediocrity over meritocracy is only ephemeral.
Kenya’s Wangari Maathai’s award should encourage Ghanaians about the virtue of ensuring a green environment. The tendency of real estate agents razing every tree in sight before they start building is wrong and must stop! Elsewhere, no damage is allowed to vegetation!
Summary
In correcting the unintended negative consequences of his inventions, Nobel bequeathed to humanity his huge fortune.
Starting in 1901, five prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology/Medicine, Literature and Peace have been awarded. In 1968, Economics was added.
Finally, Ghanaian leaders must realise that, unlike Alfred Nobel, whose brother’s death made him aware how much he was hated and, therefore, redeemed himself through philanthropy, such second chances do not happen often.
Therefore, do the right thing! Stop “galamsey” now!
Congratulations to Venezuela’s Maria Corina Machado for winning the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize!
Leadership, lead by example/integrity! Fellow Ghanaians, wake up!
The writer is a former CEO, African Peace Support Trainers Association, Nairobi, Kenya; Council Chairman, Family Health University, Teshie, Accra.
E-mail: dkfrimpong@yahoo.com
