Black Academy Press, Inc.

HON. A. C. MEZU
(October 7, 1935 – January 5, 2008)
by Dr. S. Okechukwu Mezu

Hon. Ambrose Chukwudi Mezu (popularly known as AC) was born on October 7, 1935 by Clement Ugwuezuonu Mezu and Rose Nlemdiuwaoma Mezu nee Akuta who were married a year earlier (1934) and Mr Clement Mezu, was then the headmaster at Imerienwe Central School. A precocious and brilliant student, Ambrose Chukwudi Mezu attended elementary school at Christ the King School (CKS) Amaimo in Ikeduru and later at Our Lady’s School, Emekuku, before proceeding to St. Patrick’s College, Ikot-Ansa, Calabar for his secondary education.

At 12.30 a.m. on Sunday, January 6, 2008, Feast of the Epiphany, barely into the New Year, Hon. Ambrose Chukwudi Mezu passed away. It was not just the shock that Ambu (as family members and friends called him) is no more but it was the crystal clear, irrevocable finality of death that struck an unmistakable chord in my heart and brain.

So many memories abound of the man called Ambrose – flamboyant, fun-loving, classily fashionable, grandiloquent, loquacious even, but intrepidly courageous and brutally honest.