Nicol, Davidson Sylvester Hector Willoughby

▪ 1995

      (ABIOSEH NICOL), Sierra Leonean diplomat and writer (b. Sept. 14, 1924, Freetown, Sierra Leone—d. Sept. 20, 1994, Cambridge, England), enjoyed a varied career as a medical researcher, physician, academic, diplomat, and writer. After attending the University of London, where he studied medicine, Nicol earned a B.A. (1947) in natural science and doctorates in medicine and biochemistry from Christ's College, Cambridge. There he conducted research on the chemical structure of insulin in the human body, and he wrote and lectured widely on medical and scientific topics. In 1957 Nicol became a fellow of Christ's College, the first black African to achieve this distinction. Nicol returned to Sierra Leone in 1958 as a senior pathologist, but in 1960 he was appointed principal of the Fourah Bay College in Freetown, a position he held for eight years. He began a distinguished diplomatic career in 1969, when he was appointed Sierra Leone's ambassador to the UN. In 1970 he became president of the UN Security Council, and he served (1972-82) as executive director of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. From 1983 to 1987 he was president of the World Federation of UN Associations. Nicol, writing under the pen name Abioseh Nicol, won the 1952 Margaret Wrong Prize and Medal for Literature in Africa. His works include Two African Tales (1965) and The Truly Married Woman, and Other Stories (1965). He edited Paths to Peace: The UN Security Council and Its Presidency (1981) and coedited Creative Women in Changing Societies: A Quest for Alternatives (1982).

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