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Brief summary

Onyekwere E. Akwari (June 5, 1942-April 14, 2019) a Nigerian-American, was Duke University’s first African-American surgeon. His academic career involved laboratory research, complex general surgery, teaching and advocacy from the undergraduate through postdoctoral levels, and contributions to Duke University and American surgery.

Early Years, Education and Training

Onyekwere Emmanuel Akwari was born on June 5, 1942 in Aba, in then-Imo State, now-Abia State, in southeastern colonial Nigeria to Christiana Ngarasi Ukegbu Akwari, a shopkeeper and landlord and Theophilus Egesi Akwari owner of an export-import firm. Akwari was the eldest of eight siblings. The family’s ancestral home was Ndiagwu Item, Nigeria.

Akwari’s primary education was in Government School, Aba until age 12 when he became a boarding student at Hope Waddell Training Institution from age 12. He became senior prefect and valedictorian, graduated, and earned his higher school certificate in a colonial educational system conforming to British education. Nigeria gained independence from England in 1960, the “Year of Independence” for some 17 African countries. Akwari received a scholarship to the University of Washington for his undergraduate education from the competitive African Scholarship Program for American Universities (ASPAU), a collaboration between the African countries, a cohort of US universities, and the predecessor of the US Agency for International Development.

He began his research career as a student in the University of Washington laboratory of Dr. Dan Porte. He was a member of the University’s soccer team as a forward and the track and field team as a sprinter, and high jumper. He was active in international organizations and served on the University’s student government, receiving the largest number of votes of any Board of Control candidate. He was named honorary citizen of the City of Seattle for outstanding civic involvement.

In 1966, Akwari began medical school at the University of Southern California A bloody war ensued, cutting Akwari’s contact with family until 1970 and decimating the family businesses. Akwari began his general surgery residency at the Mayo Clinic as Associate Professor of Surgery in 1978 by Dr. David C. Sabiston, Jr. Akwari was Duke’s first African-American surgeon and second black tenure-track hire, at the time, in the Duke University School of Medicine. He held a secondary appointment as Associate Professor of Cell Biology. He published over 150 papers and book chapters and presented at over 70 national meetings. In addition to clinical practice and academic research and writing, he served the Medical Center, the University, national and international surgery on numerous committees, and served American and international surgery by serving on committees and boards of major surgical societies. His career was abbreviated by a stroke in 1995.

Among his society memberships were the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, the National Medical Association, the American Motility society, and the Association of Veterans Administration Surgeons. He was a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Royal College of Surgeons (Canada) and the American Surgical Association. He was a founding member of the Trauma Association of Canada and the World Association of Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery. He headed the surgical section of the National Medical Association. In 1989, Akwari organized the first meeting of the Society of Black Academic Surgeons. He served as its second president.

Akwari received the Golden Apple Award voted by the Duke medical student body, and the University Scholar/Teacher of the Year Award. With other pioneering African-American faculty in the medical school, Akwari championed fair treatment of minority medical students and increased hiring of minority faculty.

Two endowments in Akwari’s honor include a distinguished professorship awarding early-career faculty five years of support for their academic promise are housed at the Duke University Medical Center Archives.