Prophets of our time

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:

http://www.biography.com/people/chinua-achebe-20617665?page=2