Prof Akin Mabogunje – Africa’s sole recipient of world’s highest prize in geography, dies at 90
Professor Akin Ladipo Mabogunje, the Nigerian Geographer who put Nigeria on the global map in the field of geography, is dead. He was 90 years old.
A source close to the family told Neusroom that Mabogunje died on Thursday, August 4, 2022, but did not disclose the cause of his death.
Mabogunje was born on October 18, 1931, in Kano state. He earned his first degree at the University College, Ibadan, now the University of Ibadan, where he also became a lecturer at the age of 27 and rose through the rank to become a Geography Professor at 34, in 1965.
A man of many firsts, he was the first African President of the International Geographical Union, and the first African to be elected as a Foreign Associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences.
He was awarded the VautrinLud Prize in 2017, becoming the first and only African ever to receive the award, which is the world’s highest award in the field of geography.
President Muhammadu Buhari, in his 90th birthday tribute to Prof Akin Mabogunje in October 2021, said Mabogunje’s many firsts ‘brought glory to the country’.
His book ‘Urbanisation in Nigeria’, written in 1968, inspired many to study urban geography.
“After reading his world-acclaimed book ‘Urbanisation in Nigeria,’ I decided to major in Urban Geography at the university,” Isaac Megbolugbe, a retired professor at Johns Hopkins University and a former student, research assistant, and friend of Mabogunje, wrote in the Guardian Nigeria in 2021.
Mabogunje also passed on his legacy of many firsts to his daughter Prof Folasade Ogunsola, the first female Provost of the College of Medicine, University of Lagos. Ogunsola was also Acting Vice Chancellor of UNILAG in 2020.
Until his death,Prof Akin Mabogunje chaired the board of many organisations, including the Fountain Publications, and First Interstate Merchant Bank (Nig.) Ltd, among others.
