Prophet Timothy Obadare- 83
Earlier report has it that the
renowned evangelist, Prophet Timothy Obadare
died but unconfirmed . It is now
confirmed that the renowned evangelist and founder of the World Soul Winning
Evangelical Ministry, died in a private hospital on Thursday in Akure, at the
age of 85.
An aide of the late evangelist,
Pastor Michael Awe, and Chairman of Ondo State chapter of the Christian
Association of Nigeria, Bishop Joshua Ketiku, confirmed that doctors at the
private hospital, where the octogenarian man of God breathed his last, pronounced
him dead around 4.45pm.
Awe, who had managed the media
activities of Obadare’s WOSEM for many years, said the late prophet died of
old-age-related ailment.
He said, “Baba had worked
tiredlessly as a general in the army of Jesus Christ. He travelled widely
within and outside the country for serious and rigorous evangelical activities
for many years. These definitely took a toll on his health, considering the
fact that he also fasted and prayed a lot, apart from engaging in long sessions
of counselling.”
Asked whether the age-long
controversy between the late prophet and the Christ Apostolic Church will not
affect WOSEM, Awe said, “There is no faction in the CAC. The late Prophet
Obadare related well with officials of the CAC before his death, and he was a
great follower of the late Apostle Ayo Babalola, founder of the CAC.”
Meanwhile, Ketiku has described
the death of the late Obadare as a shock.
He said, “The news of Baba
Obadare came to us as a shock. Baba lived a good life. He is happy where he is
now.”
Chinua Achebe - 82
Early Years
Chinua Achebe (fully
Albert Chinualumogu Achebe) was born on November 16, 1930, in eastern Nigeria,
in the Igbo town of Ogidi. After he was educated (in English) at the University
of Ibadan, Achebe taught briefly before joining the Nigerian Broadcasting
Corporation (NBC) as director of external broadcasting (1961–1966). Just prior
to joining NBC, Achebe saw his first novel published, 1958’s Things Fall Apart.
Things Fall Apart
was published. It has since sold more than 12 million copies and been
translated into more than 50 languages. Achebe is currently the David and
Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown
University in Providence, Rhode Island
The groundbreaking
novel centers on the cultural clash between native African culture and the
traditional white culture of missionaries and the colonial government in place
in Nigeria. An unflinching look at the discord, the book was a startling
success and has become required reading in many schools across the world.
1960s and 1970s
The 1960s proved to
be a creatively fertile period for Achebe, and he wrote the novels No Longer at
Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964) and A Man of the People (1966), all of which
address the issue of traditional ways of life coming into conflict with new,
often colonial, points of view. (Anthills of the Savannah [1987] took on a
similar theme.) In a related endeavor, in 1967, Chinua Achebe and Christopher
Okigbo, a renowned poet, cofounded a publishing company, the Citadel Press,
which they intended to run as an outlet for a new kind of African-oriented
children’s books. Okigbo was soon killed, however, in the Nigerian civil war.
Two years later, Achebe toured the United States with Gabriel Okara and Cyprian
Ekwensi, fellow writers, giving lectures at various universities. The 1960s
also marked Achebe’s wedding to Christie Chinwe Okoli in 1961, and they went on
to have four children.
When he returned to
Nigeria from the United States, Achebe became a research fellow and later a
professor of English (1976–1981) at the University of Nigeria. During this time
he also served as director of two Nigerian publishing houses, Heinemann Educational
Books Ltd. and Nwankwo-Ifejika Ltd.
On the writing
front, the 1970s proved equally productive, and Achebe published several
collections of short stories and a children’s book, How the Leopard Got His
Claws (1973). Also coming out at this time were Beware, Soul-Brother (1971) and
Christmas in Biafra(1973), both poetry collections, and Achebe’s first book of
essays,Morning Yet on Creation Day (1975). While back in the United States in
1975, at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst Achebe gave a lecture
called “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness,” in which
Achebe asserted that Conrad's famous novel dehumanizes Africans. The work
referred to Conrad as a “thoroughgoing racist,” and, when published in essay
form, it went on to become a seminal postcolonial African work.
That same year, he
joined the faculty at the University of Connecticut, but he returned to the
University of Nigeria in 1976.
Later Years
The year 1987 would
mark the release of Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah, which was shortlisted
for the Booker McConnell Prize. The following year he published Hopes and
Impediments (1988), but the 1990s began with tragedy as Achebe was in a car
accident in Nigeria that left him paralyzed from the waist down and would
confine him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Soon after, he moved to
the United States and taught at Bard College, just north of New York City,
where he remained for 15 years. In 2009 Achebe left Bard to join the faculty of
Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Chinua Achebe has
won several awards over the course of his writing career, among them the Man
Booker International Prize (2007) and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize
(2010). He has also received honorary degrees from more than 30 universities
around the world.
Culled from:
