Akinlawon (Akin) Mabogunje is a renowned Nigerian geographer who made notable contributions to urban geography through his works on urban development principles and practices, especially in Africa.
Akin Mabojungwe. Credit: Ji-Elle. Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0).
His university education began in 1949 at the then University College, Ibadan (now University of Ibadan) where he earned a BA in Geography in 1953. He was part of the second intake of geography undergraduates at Ibadan.
He later proceeded to the University of London where he earned a BA (Hons.) degree in 1956; a Master’s and a PhD degree in Geography in 1958 and 1961 respectively. He began his professional career as the first Nigerian lecturer in the department at the University of Ibadan in 1958. He became a professor within seven years of joining the university.
He has had a strong influence on generations of Nigerian geographers. Professor Akin Mabogunje has served as a Visiting Professor to some top-rated Universities all over the world. Among these are the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford and London; Universities of Durham, Goteborg and Lund; Northwestern University in the USA; McGill University in Canada and as a Visiting Scholar to the Chinese University of Hongkong. He was an Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General for the Second Conference on Human Settlements (1994-1999).
He is the first African to be President of the International Geographical Union and in 2017, he was awarded the ‘Nobel Prize for Geography’, the Vautrin Lud Prize.