Renowned Nigerian poet, playwright and writer of short stories and children’s books, Mabel Segun, died recently at the age of 95. She was also a great teacher, broadcaster and sportswoman. The late writer contributed immensely to the development of Nigerian literature, education and sports. Mabel Segun died on March 5, 2025, some weeks after celebrating her 95th birthday. Although she wrote in all genres of literature, she was highly regarded as an author of children’s books.
She attended the University of Ibadan, where she met with other pioneers of Nigerian literature such as Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Chris Okigbo, J.P. Clark and others. All of them later became established writers, who placed African literature on the map of world literature. Undoubtedly, their works inspired other Nigerian writers.
Segun showed early promise as a writer when, in 1954, a short story she wrote at the University College Ibadan won the maiden edition of the Nigerian Festival of the Arts Literature Prize. Segun’s books have been read by many Nigerians and even foreigners. At the same time, many students and researchers the world over have used her books to write theses and academic papers that advanced their academic pursuits.
The late writer belongs to a rare breed of writers with the gift and ability to write across all the genres of literature – prose, poetry and drama. She was also an essayist. She ranked alongside Flora Nwapa and Zulu Sofola as the pioneers of Nigerian female writings. Their writings gave rise to other female writers in the country. She was nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award run by the Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs in 2007. Her children’s book, Readers’ Theatre: Twelve Plays for Young People, jointly won the Nigeria Prize for Literature sponsored by NLNG. She also received a honourable mention from NOMA Award for Publishing in Africa the same year.
Segun published over a dozen books, mostly fiction and nonfiction. Her children’s literature classic include the autobiographical works, 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).
She will be remembered for not restricting her writings to books published by her publishers alone. Her poems and stories appeared in over 30 anthologies worldwide, a testament to her literary fecundity. Some of her books have been translated into many European languages, including Danish, German, Norwegian, Serbo Croat, and Greek. Two of her children’s books have also been translated into Swahili and Arabic. She had published many articles in reputable journals. She was also involved in promoting African literature in Nigeria and overseas. She founded the Children’s Literature Association of Nigeria (CLAN) in 1978 and the Children’s Documentation and Research Centre (CLIDORC), which she set up in Ibadan in 1990.
Fondly regarded as the matriarch of Nigerian literature by her fans, she was self-effacing, despite being a literary colossus. She collaborated with the International Board on Books for Young People, Basel, Switzerland, in its promotional work. She also served as an assessor for the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa. Born to Reverend Isaiah and Eunice Aig-Imoukhuede from Sabongida Ora in Edo State, on February 13, 1930, she was educated, from 1942 to 1947, at the CMS Girls School, Lagos, and the University College, Ibadan, where she graduated in 1953 with a BA degree in English, Latin and History.
She also excelled as a teacher, becoming the Head of the Department of English and Social Studies and Vice-Principal at the National Technical Teachers’ College, Yaba (now Yaba College of Technology). In 2009, she received the Nigerian National order of Merit Award (NNOM) for lifetime achievement. As a broadcaster, she won the 1977 Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation Artiste of the Year award.
We commiserate with her family, friends, fans and the literary community over the great loss. Considering her immense contributions to the development of children’s literature, we urge the Federal Government and the Ondo State Government to immortalise her.