Africa lost another of its giants on Thursday as multi-talented writer, Mabel Segun, bid the world bye.
Segun, author of My Father’s Daughter, among other acclaimed books, died some three weeks after her 95th birthday was celebrated.
A robust mind that had little space for triviality, Segun excelled in broadcasting, table tennis, women liberation and mentoring.
Her passing was announced by her family in a statement Thursday.
“It is with gratitude to God for a life well spent in the pursuit of excellence in Literature, Broadcasting and Sports that we announce the passing of our beloved mother, grandmother and great grandmother, Mabel Dorothy Okanima Segun (nee Aig-Imoukhuede),” the statement read.
According to the statement, Segun died in the early hours of March 6, 2025 and her funeral arrangements will be published later.
She is survived by Gbenga Segun, her son; Omowunmi Segun, her daughter and many grand children.
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 (1992).
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, 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.
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.
