Margaret Wrong Memorial Prize, 1959, for Things Fall Apart

Rockefeller travel fellowship to East and Central Africa, 1960

Nigerian National Trophy, 1961, for No Longer at Ease

UNESCO fellowship for creative artists for travel to the United States and Brazil, 1963

Jock Campbell/ New Statesman Award, 1965, for Arrow of God

Commonwealth Poetry Prize, 1972, for Beware, Soul Brother

Neil Gunn International Fellow, Scottish Arts Council, 1975

Lotus Award for Afro-Asian Writers, 1975

Nigerian National Merit Award, 1979

named to the Order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1979

Commonwealth Foundation senior visiting practitioner award, 1984

Booker Prize nomination, 1987, for Anthills of the Savannah

A Man of the People cited in Anthony Burgess's 1984 Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in England since 1930