Josiah Olunowo Ositelu

Primate Josiah Olunowo Ositelu (Psy.D) is the most prestigious and the first transnational head of an African Indigenous Church (AIC) in Nigeria. His most popular portrait, which shows him dressed in the full regalia of a church primate, betrays his Anglican roots and his ambition to become head of an equivalent church—an aspiration that was fulfilled. Ositelu’s TCLAW was officially inaugurated in his hometown of Ogere in southwestern Nigeria on July 27, 1930, with ten members. It became one of the fastest growing AICs soon after its establishment. The Church rapidly started branches in towns in western, northern, and eastern Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, and the United Kingdom.