One of the most glowing tributes to this most indomitable of women was uttered right in my presence, during a lecture several years ago, in an auditorium at the University of Benin, by that most extraordinary of orators, the Ikemba Nnewi, Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu. Grace Alele Williams was Vice Chancellor at the time, and was present as the Ikemba serenaded her with effulgent praise. That speech, delivered impromptu, is still etched in my memory because of the mellifluousness of the Ikemba’s delivery, and the overpowering melodrama of that moment!

“Grace has always epitomized incandescent beauty”, the fiery orator smilingly began, his eyes bulbous and shining, set in that thickly bearded warrior’s face.

“When I was at King’s, she was the jewel at Queen’s. Even then, her tremendous beauty and incomparable intellect preceded her – two qualities this most elegant of amazons has retained to this day. I hear about her in the news daily, and the feats she continues to perform here, and today, as I stand on the hallowed grounds of this great university, I am awed by the tremendous transformation Grace has wrought, and the enlightened sophistication that has continued to rub off on all those who encounter her. To know Grace is to encounter haunting allure, but disrespected, she can muster the sting of a wasp – Itsekiri aristocracy, like all great aristocracies around the world, is an amalgam of opposites, and Grace, its most accomplished of daughters! A product of the noblest genealogy, this erudite professor of mathematics was not only well mothered and fabulously fathered, but has inevitably and deservedly gone on to have the distinction of being excellently husbanded!”

Adieu, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Grace Alele – Williams!

• Kenneth Ikonne