Segun Fajemisin’s Chronicle




NIGERIAWORLD COLUMNIST

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Segun Fajemisin, journalist and publishing consultant, has his background in English, Education and Library Science.

He started his career in journalism while still a student at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria freelancing for various publications, including the 'Lagos Weekend' and the defunct 'Happi Romance', Nigeria's first true-life romance magazine. In 1991, he co-founded and edited a community newspaper, 'Obokun Verdict' in Ilesa, Osun State (Nigeria).

Though involved in journalism at different levels, Segun's work has been more pronounced in the area of publishing and consultancy. Career advancement led him to book publishing when he moved to Harare, Zimbabwe in 1994 to work as research consultant for an NGO, the African Publishers' Network (APNET), the umbrella organisation for African publishers and which is responsible for the development of book trade on the continent.

Commissioned by the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), he successfully completed a major research work entitled 'A Study of Library Materials in Indigenous Languages of Africa' for APNET between 1994 and 1995. The research entailed detailed field surveys and analysis of the conditions and output of indigenous language publishing in Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Benin Republic, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho and Kenya.

The result of this effort, spanning 7 months, was some 600 pages of detailed analysis on orthography, publishing conditions, policies, list of publishers, bibliographies of indigenous language books, references and recommendations. This was summarised and presented at the 61st Congress of IFLA in Istanbul, Turkey in August 1995.

Segun Fajemisin became the first African to be awarded the Bertelsmann Foundation Grant in publishing as he completed a three-month internship with the Berlin-based Springer Verlag at their International Sales and Marketing Department in1997. After his stint with the German publisher, he moved to London where in addition to continued activities in publishing, he has rekindled interests in his first love, journalism.

He is currently editor of Focus, Nigeria's leading international society magazine and contributing editor to African celebrity journal, Ovation.

Book Fairs and Expos are a familiar turf for Segun as he has been generally involved with the Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF), Frankfurt Book Fair and lately the London Book Fair (LBF).

Last year, he consulted for the New Orleans, US-based National Association of Nigerian Women for Excellence, USA, Inc. (NANE) resulting in the publication of the book of profiles, 'Arise'.

Widely travelled within and outside Africa, he has represented Nigeria at conferences and workshops including the UNESCO-sponsored Association for the Development of African Education (DAE) Working Group on Textbooks and Libraries Meeting in Paris (1995) and the German Foundation for International Development (DSE)/APNET Round Table Conference on Indigenous Language Publishing at the ZIBF '96 in Harare.


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