Mabel Segun, NNOM (13 February 1930 – 6 March 2025) was a Nigerian poet, playwright and writer of short stories and children's books who was also a teacher, broadcaster, and a sportswoman.

Biography

Born in

Ondo City Ondo Town is the second largest town in Ondo State, Nigeria. Ondo Town is the trade center for the surrounding region; commercial crops such as yams, cassava, grain, tobacco and cotton are grown, the latter of which is often used to weave a cul ...

, Nigeria, she had her secondary-school education at CMS Girls' School Lagos. She attended the

University of Ibadan The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public university located in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Initially founded as the University College Ibadan in 1948, it maintained its affiliation with the University of London. In 1962, it became an independe ...

, graduating in 1953 with a BA degree in English, Latin and History. She taught these subjects in Nigerian schools, and later became Head of the Department of English and Social Studies and Vice-Principal at the National Technical Teachers' College, Yaba (now

Yaba College of Technology Yaba College of Technology, popularly known as YABATECH, was founded in 1947, and is Nigeria's first higher educational institution. It is located in Yaba, Lagos. , it had a student enrollment of over 16,000. It also has a secondary school and ...

). Her first book, ''My Father's Daughter'', published in 1965, had been widely used as a literature text in schools all over the world, and her books have been translated into German, Danish, Norwegian and Greek. Her work is included in the anthology ''

Daughters of Africa ''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'' is a compilation of orature and literature by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora ...

'' (1992). Busby, Margaret (ed.), '' Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent'' (1992), London: Vintage, 1993; p. 372. Segun championed children's literature in Nigeria through the Children's Literature Association of Nigeria, which she founded in 1978, and the Children's Documentation and Research Centre, which she set up in 1990 in

Ibadan Ibadan (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the List of Nigerian cities by population, third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano (city), Kano, with a total populatio ...

. She was also a fellow of the

International Youth Library The International Youth Library (IYL) (, IJB) in Munich is a library that specializes in the collection of children and youth literature from around the world in order to make them available to the public, focusing on the international community. ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, Germany. She was a founding member of the

Association of Nigerian Authors The Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) is a non-profit organization that promotes Nigerian literature. It represents Nigerian creative writers at home and abroad. It was founded in 1981 by Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe as its president. The ...

, established by

Chinua Achebe Chinua Achebe (; born Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as a central figure of modern African literature. His first novel ''Things Fall Apart'' ( ...

in 1981. Segun died on 6 March 2025, at the age of 95.

Awards and honours

As a broadcaster, Segun won the

Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation The Voice of Nigeria or VON ( Yoruba: ; Hausa: ; Igbo: ; Fula: ) is the official international broadcasting station of Nigeria. History Founded in 1961, the Voice of Nigeria began as the External Service of the then Nigerian Broadcasting Corpo ...

1977 Artiste of the Year award. In 2009, she received the

Nigerian National Order of Merit Award The Nigerian National Order of Merit Award (NNOM) is an academic award conferred on distinguished academicians and intellectuals who have made outstanding contributions to the academic, growth and development of Nigeria. The award is often conferre ...

(NNOM) for lifetime achievements. In 2015, the Society of Young Nigerian Writers under the leadership of Wole Adedoyin founded the Mabel Segun Literary Society, aimed at promoting and reading the works of Mabel Segun. In 2007, Segun was awarded the LNG

Nigeria Prize for Literature Nigeria Prize for Literature is a Nigerian literary award given annually since 2004 to honor literary erudition by Nigerian authors. The award rotates among four genres; fiction, poetry, drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mod ...

Selected bibliography

*''My Father's Daughter'' (1965) *''Under the Mango Tree'' (co-edited) (1979) *''Youth Day Parade'' (1984) *''Olu and the Broken Statue'' (1985) *''Sorry, No Vacancy'' (1985) *''Conflict and Other Poems'' (1986) *''My Mother's Daughter'' (1986)
''Ping-Pong: Twenty-Five Years of Table Tennis'' (1989)''The First Corn'' (1989)''The Twins and the Tree Spirits'' (1990)''The Surrender and Other Stories'' (1995)
*''Readers' Theatre: Twelve Plays for Young People'' (2006)
''Rhapsody: A Celebration of Nigerian Cooking and Food Culture'' (2007)

References

External links

*
"Mabel Segun 1930 to the Present"
Facebook, 20 August 2012. {{DEFAULTSORT:Segun, Mabel 1930 births 2025 deaths 20th-century Nigerian poets 20th-century Nigerian women writers English-language writers from Nigeria Nigeria Prize for Literature winners Nigerian children's writers Nigerian women children's writers Nigerian women educators Nigerian women poets People from Ondo City Recipients of the Nigerian National Order of Merit Award St Anne's School, Ibadan alumni University of Ibadan alumni Writers from Ondo State Yoruba educators