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Elizabeth Isichei

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Elizabeth Isichei
Born
Elizabeth Mary Allo

(1939-03-22) 22 March 1939 (age 85)
Tauranga, New Zealand
Spouse
Peter Isichei
​
​
(m. 1964; died 2023)​
Children5
Academic background
Alma materNuffield College, Oxford
ThesisQuakers and society in Victorian England (1967)
Academic work
Institutions

Elizabeth Mary Isichei (née Allo; born 22 March 1939) is a New Zealand author, historian and academic.[1][2]

Early life, family and education

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Isichei was born Elizabeth Mary Allo in Tauranga, New Zealand, on 22 March 1939, the daughter of Albert (an agricultural scientist) and Lorna Allo.[2][3] She was educated at Tauranga College, and attained the highest marks in New Zealand in the 1955 university entrance scholarship examinations.[4] She went on to study at the University of Canterbury, from where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1960 and won a senior university scholarship.[5][6] She then completed a Master of Arts with first-class honours in history at Victoria University of Wellington in 1961.[2] Her honours thesis formed the basis of her book, Political Thinking and Social Experience, published in 1964.[7] She won a Commonwealth Scholarship and, after a brief period as a temporary assistant lecturer in history at the University of Canterbury, undertook doctoral studies at Nuffield College, Oxford.[8][9] Her DPhil thesis, completed in 1967, was titled Quakers and society in Victorian England.[10]

At Oxford, Allo met Peter Isichei, a chemical pathologist. The couple became engaged in 1963,[11] and married on 23 July 1964, going on to have five children.[2][9]

Academic career

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Elizabeth Isichei was a professor in the Department of History at the University of Jos in Nigeria from 1976, and was general editor for Jos Oral History and Literature Texts.[2] She has said that having both a family and career "would not have been possible if my husband had not gone to any lengths to help and encourage me".[9] She was a visiting fellow at the University of Canterbury in 1984,[9] and in 1992 was appointed a professor of religious studies at the University of Otago.[12][13] On her retirement from Otago in 2006, she was accorded the title of professor emeritus.[13]

Her works and books are centred on Christianity in Africa and the history of Nigeria particularly the Igbo people,[14] including a biography of Michael Tansi, the first Nigerian Trappist monk.[9] She also wrote on contemporary developments in New Zealand Catholicism, and on the religious meanings of Colin McCahon's art.[15]

In 1992, Isichei was awarded a Doctor of Letters degree by the University of Canterbury.[13][16] She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1997, but no longer holds that fellowship.[17]

Poetry

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Before going to Oxford in 1962, Allo established a reputation as a poet, with her work appearing in publications including the Listener, Landfall, Comment and the Poetry Yearbook.[18] She returned to poetry in the 1990s, and her poems were published in the Listener, Winterspin, and various anthologies,[18] as well as her own published collections.[19]

Later life

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Isichei's husband, Peter Isichei, died in 2023.[20]

Selected works

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  • 1964: Political Thinking and Social Experience: Some Christian Interpretations of the Roman Empire, University of Canterbury Publications
  • 1970: Victorian Quakers, Oxford University Press[21]
  • 1973: The Ibo People and the Europeans: The Genesis of a Relationship, to 1906, St. Martin's
  • 1976: A History of the Igbo People,[22] St. Martin's
  • 1977: A History of West Africa since 1800, Africana[23]
  • 1977: Igbo Worlds: An Anthology of Oral History and Historical Descriptions, Institute for the Study of Human Issues[24]
  • 1981: Entirely for God: The Life of Michael Iwene Tansi, Macmillan Nigeria
  • 1982: Studies in the History of Plateau State, Nigeria, Macmillan
  • 1983: A History of Nigeria, Longman
  • 1995: A History of Christianity in Africa: From Antiquity to the Present, Africa World Press
  • 1997: A History of African Societies to 1870, Cambridge University Press
  • 2002: Voices of the Poor in Africa, University of Rochester Press (Rochester, NY)
  • 2004: The Religious Traditions of Africa: A History, Raeger (Westport, CT)
  • 2005: Stoptide, Steele Roberts (New Zealand)

References

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  1. ^ Erik Lönnroth; Karl Molin; Ragnar Björk (1994). Conceptions of National History: Proceedings of Nobel Symposium 78. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 116–. ISBN 978-3-11-013504-6.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Contemporary Authors Online". Biography in Context. Gale. 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  3. ^ "Births". The New Zealand Herald. Vol. 76, no. 23304. 24 March 1939. p. 1. Retrieved 7 October 2023 – via PapersPast.
  4. ^ "N.Z. university scholarships". The Press. Vol. 93, no. 27865. 13 January 1956. p. 3. Retrieved 7 October 2023 – via PapersPast.
  5. ^ "Record number For university graduation ceremony". The Press. Vol. 99, no. 29197. 6 May 1960. p. 7. Retrieved 7 October 2023 – via PapersPast.
  6. ^ "Award of major scholarships". The Press. Vol. 99, no. 29189. 27 April 1960. p. 12. Retrieved 7 October 2023 – via PapersPast.
  7. ^ "Religion". The Press. Vol. 103, no. 30598. 14 November 1964. p. 4. Retrieved 7 October 2023 – via PapersPast.
  8. ^ "University appoints new reader". The Press. Vol. 100, no. 29658. 31 October 1961. p. 17. Retrieved 7 October 2023 – via PapersPast.
  9. ^ a b c d e Coates, Ken (13 July 1984). "N.Z. woman anxious for people to know Africa's 'true place in the world'". The Press. p. 21. Retrieved 7 October 2023 – via PapersPast.
  10. ^ "Quakers and society in Victorian England". SOLO. University of Oxford. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  11. ^ "Engagements". The Press. Vol. 102, no. 30103. 10 April 1963. p. 2. Retrieved 7 October 2023 – via PapersPast.
  12. ^ Elizabeth Isichei (13 April 1997). A History of African Societies to 1870. Cambridge University Press. pp. 582–. ISBN 978-0-521-45599-2.
  13. ^ a b c The University of Otago Calendar for 2022 (PDF). University of Otago. 2021. p. 121. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  14. ^ Kalu Ogbaa (30 January 1999). Understanding Things Fall Apart: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. ABC-CLIO. pp. 66–. ISBN 978-1-57356-667-4.
  15. ^ "Notes on contributors". Journal of New Zealand Literature (13). 1995. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  16. ^ "Graduate search". University of Canterbury. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  17. ^ "List of all Fellows with surnames G–I". Royal Society Te Apārangi. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  18. ^ a b "Contributors". Sport (28): 206. Autumn 2002. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  19. ^ Dornauf, Peter (28 October 2005). "Poets prove peas in a pod". Waikato Times.
  20. ^ "Ogbueshi Isichei obituary". The New Zealand Herald. 7 October 2023. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  21. ^ Pelling, Henry (December 1972). "Victorian Quakers. By Elizabeth Isichei. London: Oxford University Press, 1970. Pp. xxvi + 326. £3·25". The Historical Journal. 15 (4): 819–820. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00003642. ISSN 1469-5103. S2CID 162865652.
  22. ^ "The Igbo In The Politics Of Nigeria, by Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi". Vanguard News. 22 March 2018. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
  23. ^ O'Toole, Thomas (1979). "Elizabeth Isichei. History of West Africa Since 1800. New York: Africana Publishing Company, 1977. xii + 380 pp. Illustrations, maps, tables, bibliography, index. 9.50 paper". ASA Review of Books. 5: 87–88. doi:10.2307/532413. ISSN 0364-1686. JSTOR 532413.
  24. ^ Isichei, Elizabeth Allo, ed. (1978). Igbo worlds: an anthology of oral histories and historical descriptions. Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues. ISBN 978-0-915980-62-8.
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