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Elizabeth Isichei

Summary

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

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

Early life, family and education edit

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 edit

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 edit

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 edit

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

Selected works edit

  • 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 edit

  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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