WHO IS PROFESSOR ELISABETH ISICHEI?

Profesdor Elisabeth Isichei was born Elizabeth Mary Allo in Tauranga, New Zealand, on 22 March 1939. She is the daughter of Albert (an agricultural scientist) and Lorna Allo.

Elisabeth attended Tauranga College. She is celebrated as having attained the highest marks in New Zealand in the 1955 university entrance scholarship examinations.

After her secondary education, Elizabeth entered the University of Canterbury. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1960 and won a senior university scholarship.

Elisabeth then completed a Master of Arts with first-class honours in history at Victoria University of Wellington in 1961.

Her honours thesis formed the basis of her book titled “Political Thinking and Social Experience,” published in 1964.

“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. Her DPhil thesis, completed in 1967, was titled Quakers and society in Victorian England.”

At Oxford, Allo met Uche Peter Isichei, who would later become a professor of chemical pathology with international experiences. He was an author.

Isichei, Uche Peter was born on November 27, 1932, in Asaba, Delta State, Nigeria. He was the son of Okoafo Francis and Nkenacho (Okoagbo) Isichei. Education. (Prof. Uche Peter Isichei died in 2023).

The couple became engaged in 1963, and married on 23 July 1964, going on to have five children.”

Elisabeth Isichei, in 1964, became a professor in history at the University of Jos, where she did a lot of historical research on Africa, especially Igbo people.

Elizabeth Isichei relocated to Nigeria, where she became a professor in the Department of History at the University of Jos in Nigeria from 1976.

She was also the general editor for Jos Oral History and Literature Texts.

Elisabeth was also a visiting fellow at the University of Canterbury in 1984.

In 1992, she was appointed a professor of religious studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand.

Some of her works are:

1964: Political Thinking and Social Experience: Some Christian Interpretations of the Roman Empire, University of Canterbury Publications
1970: Victorian Quakers, Oxford University Press
1973: The Ibo People and the Europeans: The Genesis of a Relationship, to 1906, St. Martin’s
1976: A History of the Igbo People, St. Martin’s
1977: A History of West Africa since 1800, Africana
1977: Igbo Worlds: An Anthology of Oral History and Historical Descriptions, Institute for the Study of Human Issues
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)