A Tribute To Professor Chieka Ifemesia

I did not study history in senior secondary school. Yet, if I know history better than most, it is because I stand on the shoulders of a giant: Professor Chieka Ifemesia.

While many young Nigerians today attend secondary schools devoid of history classes, my era still included the subject in the curriculum. I longed to study history, just as my father had. However, as a science student, I had to choose between history and literature. I chose literature, leaving me to pursue history on my own. It wasn’t a simple path. Without a solid foundation, gaps in my knowledge remained — until I met Professor Ifemesia.

In 2004, I lived a stone’s throw from Professor Chieka Ifemesia in Bay Shore, New York. People who studied history in Nigeria must have encountered him along their academic path. I didn’t. The credential I used to pass through the door was that I married the daughter of his beloved Ogidi.

That was how I started partaking in my private moonlight tales in his house. Most evenings after the day’s work, I would slide over to his house and have him tell me stories about Nigeria that only a few people knew. Sometimes, his children sat in and listened. But most times, it was our special moments.