Mabel Segun,

NNOM 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 conferred ...

(born 1930) is a Nigerian poet,

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

and writer of short stories and children's books. She has also been a teacher, broadcaster, and a sports woman.

Biography

Born in Ondo City, Nigeria, she had her secondary school education at CMS Girl's School Lagos. She attended the University of Ibadan, graduating in 1953 with a BA 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). Her first book, ''My Father's Daughter'' (1965), published in 1965, has 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).

Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's youngest and first black female book publisherJazzmine Breary"Let' ...

(ed.), '' Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent'' (1992), London: Vintage, 1993; p. 372. Segun has 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, A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...

which she set up in 1990 in Ibadan. She is also a fellow of the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany.

Awards and honours

As a broadcaster, Segun won the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation 1977 Artiste of the Year award. In 2009, she received the Nigerian National Order of Merit Award for lifetime achievements."NNOM Laureates - Humanities"
, 2009. In 2015, the Society of Young Nigerian Writers under the leadership of Wole Adedoyin founded the Mabel Segun Literary Society (www.mabelsegunaliterarysociety.blogspot.com), aimed at promoting and reading the works of Mabel Segun. In 2007, Segun was awarded the LNG Nigeria Prize for Literature.

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 Living people Yoruba children's writers People from Ondo City University of Ibadan alumni 20th-century Nigerian women writers Nigerian women educators Yoruba educators English-language writers from Nigeria Yoruba poets Nigerian women poets Nigerian children's writers Writers from Ondo State Nigerian women children's writers Recipients of the Nigerian National Order of Merit Award 20th-century Nigerian poets Yoruba women writers St Anne's School, Ibadan alumni Nigeria Prize for Literature winners Yoruba people