UNITEDVILLE, Cayo District, Mon. May 8, 2017–He was born on April 29, 1947, as Michael Elvibirch Brewster. However, he died on May 5 as Olatunji Balogun.

Seventy-year-old Balogun, known to many as a black conscious activist, educator and historian, lost his battle with gall bladder cancer.

According to his common-law wife of twenty-three years, Lucia Ellis, he had been diagnosed with this ailment in July of last year.

Ellis told us that he had opted to receive natural treatment and was coping well until his health began deteriorating about three weeks ago.

Though Olatunji is no longer physically present, his books, all twelve of them, will remain for an eternity, shedding light on the plight of the black race and Afro descendants.

In 1997 he published his first book, Victim of our Wealth, which highlighted the inception of the subjugation of Africans by Europeans.

His last book, published in 2015, A Family Affair, focused on his realization that to preserve the African race, the family had to be strengthened.

Olatunji visited the United States as well as Trinidad, where he gave lectures on this ideology.

After leaving the United States army in the 1980s, Olatunji engaged in a quest for knowledge. His insatiable appetite led to the autobiography of Malcolm X, which molded him into the man we have all come to know.

On Tuesday at 1 p.m., a cultural celebration of his life will be held at his Mount Hope home in Unitedville. His wife told us that all are welcome to join in the drumming, dancing and reflections.

Olatunji leaves behind 7 children.