The news of her death at the age of 95 on March 6, 2025, represents another epic loss to the literary community in Nigeria, which has bid farewell to so many of the first generation of writers. Her 95th birthday celebration was a profound reflection of her rich and multifaceted life—a true gathering of reverence, recognition and reflection.
 
Born Mabel Dorothy Okanima Aig-Imoukhuede in Ondo town on February 18, 1930, Mabel was from a literary family: the Aig-Imoukhuede family of Sabongida Ora in Edo State. She was highly talented, humble, passionate, hard-working, and impactful to the younger generations. Her father, Reverend Isaiah Aigbovbioise Imoukhuede, who adopted the surname Aig-Imoukhuede, wrote the first Ora primer, a short history of Ora and was translating the Yoruba Hymn book into Ora when he died at the age of 39. He had also composed the first verse of the well-known Yoruba song, lwe Kiko, which was inspired by his farming background.
   
Although she was only eight when her father died, he exercised a great influence over her. Her industry, her creativity and her humanity all stem from this source. She showed early promise as a writer and sportswoman at the newly founded University College, Ibadan, where she was admitted in 1949 into the second set of students.
 
She graduated in 1953 with a second-class London Bachelor of Arts Degree in English, Latin and History. She was deputy editor and advertisement manager of the University Herald with Chinua Achebe, her classmate as editor, and contributed poems, short stories and articles to that pioneer students’ magazine.   
  
A short story, The Surrender, which she wrote in the year of her graduation, won the maiden edition of the Nigerian Festival of the Arts Literature Prize the following year, 1954. Segun was a pioneering African children’s writer who adeptly challenges and deconstructs colonial narratives. She authored 11 children’s books, including co-authored and co-edited volumes.
  
Her writing spanned various genres, including prose, poetry, and plays. Segun’s debut novel, My Father’s Daughter (1965), an autobiographical account of her childhood in colonial southwestern Nigeria, was written in an episodic format, which portrayed the deep bond between her and her clergy father, whom she described as ‘very black’.
 
Segun continued to significantly enhance the landscape of children’s literature in Africa through a diverse array of works, including Youth Day Parade (1984), Olu and the Broken Statue (1985), My Mother’s Daughter (1986), The First Corn (1989), Respect for Life: Stories, Poems and Plays for Young People (co-edited), The Right to Develop: Stories, Poems and Plays for Young People (co-edited), Living Together in Harmony: Stories, Poems and Plays for Young People (co-edited).
 
She also published four books for adults, including a poetry collection, Conflict and Other Poems, a collection of short stories published by Longman in the UK titled: The Surrender and Other Stories, and a selection of her radio talks under the title Friends, Nigerians, Countrymen, later re-titled, Sorry No Vacancy.
  
To enhance the quality of materials available for children’s writing, Segun founded the Children’s Literature Association of Nigeria (CLAN) in 1978 and the Children’s Documentation and Research Centre (CLIDORC) in 1990.
 
Readers’ Theatre: Twelve Plays for Young People (2006) came after CLIDORC.The latter was a joint recipient of the NLNG-sponsored Nigeria Prize for Literature in 2007.
  
Her stories and poems have been published in over 30 anthologies in Nigeria and abroad. They have been translated into German, Danish, Norwegian, Greek and Serbo-Croat. Two of her children’s books have been translated into Swahili and Arabic.
   
In 1983, her name was inscribed upon the Roll of Honour of Men and Women of Distinction published by Cambridge International Biographical Centre. She was also listed in the “Outstanding People of the Twentieth Century”, including 2000 Outstanding Writers of the 20th Century, published by Cambridge International Biographical Centre in 2001.