Dillibe Onyeama
One of Eton’s first black pupils, whose memoir painted a grim picture of his time at the school
DILLIBE ONYEAMA, who has died in Enugu from a heart attack aged 71, was a Nigerian author, journalist and publisher, who was well known in Britain as one of the first two black boys to be educated at Eton. He gained a certain notoriety when he published a shocking memoir of his school experiences, under the title, N----- at Eton, published by Leslie Frewen in 1972 and advertised as “the most outspoken book ever published on life in the world’s most famous public school”.
In the book he painted a grim picture of his life at Eton, accusing the school of colour prejudice. He gave numerous examples of juvenile racist taunting, his struggles with the school syllabus and exams, though this was balanced by his prowess in sport and in the boxing ring. Today his contemporaries remember him as a kind and gentle boy, a “gentle giant”, standing more than 6ft tall.
While at the school, Onyeama attracted press attention for giving a Black Power salute while taking a bow after a performance of Antony and Cleopatra in November 1968. His headmaster, Anthony Chenevixtrench, described it as “good fun and quite appropriate”.
Within days, however, Chenevixtrench had to defend Onyeama against malicious accusations that he was practising witchcraft. (In his book Onyeama recorded that he did indeed practise without the headmaster’s knowledge, once successfully hypnotising a friend so that he would not feel a beating.)
Following the book’s publication, the new headmaster, Michael Mccrum, barred him from attending the Fourth of June celebrations. Onyeama reported Mccrum to the Race Relations Board, but the court decided “there was no unlawful discrimination under the Act”.
Inevitably, the story of Onyeama’s time at Eton was later revived, to the school’s discredit. In 2020 Simon Henderson, by then headmaster, issued a public apology to him, stating: “We have made significant strides since”, and invited him back to the school. Onyeama’s line was that they had no need to apologise and, in retrospect, his view of Eton was largely positive. He agreed in principle to come back and visit if his airfare was covered. His book was republished this year, retitled by Penguin as A Black Boy at Eton.
Charles Dillibe Ejofir Onyeama was born on January 6 1951, the second son of Judge Charles Dada Onyeama, and his wife, Susannah Ogwudu. His father, about whom Dillibe later published a biography, obtained a Law degree at Brasenose College, Oxford, and was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1941.
He became Chief Magistrate in Western Nigeria, was appointed by the Queen to be the first Nigerian Judge of the High Court of Lagos in 1957, later served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and was elected as the first Nigerian judge to serve at the International Court of Justice in 1960.
Dillibe’s grandfather was Paramount Chief Onyeama, the Okuru Oha of Agbaja, who was born in the 1870s, had more than 50 wives, and died in 1933; he encouraged commerce, industrialisation and agriculture, and after whom the first coal mine in Enugu in south-east Nigeria was named.
His father announced Dillibe’s birth in Enugu in The Times and immediately put him down for Eton. At the age of five, in 1956, Dillibe was a youngster at Enugu airport, waving a flag when the Queen paid her famous visit to Nigeria, his father being one of the receiving line.
He spent his first eight years in Nigeria, living largely with his uncle. He and his brother were sent to be educated in
Britain. Onyeama had a guardian, the Reverend
Arthur Cox, who lived at Glympton in Oxfordshire. He attended prep school at Grove Park in Sussex before arriving at Eton in 1965 and staying there until 1968.
He then gained a diploma from the Premier School of Journalism and for six years from 1975 was managing editor of
Satellite Books in
London. While in Britain he bought himself a Jaguar 420G, which he discovered had featured in a celebrated murder case, the body of the victim having been found in the boot. Following his first book, in 1974 he published John Bull’s N-----.
This caused even more controversy when Louis Chase, a black member of the West Metropolitan Conciliation Committee of the Race Relations Board, reported Onyeama to Sir Robert Mark, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, for making obnoxious and repugnant comments likely to have a dilatory effect on a deteriorating state of race relations. Onyeama’s publishers riposted that this claim was nonsense and suggested that the attack raised questions concerning free speech. He returned to live in Nigeria in 1981 and set up his own publishing house, Delta Productions, in Enugu. It has published more than 600 titles, and is also involved in desktop publishing and public relations. There were annual book gatherings: the Coal City Book Convention in Enugu, Capital Territory Book Convention in Abuja, and Profiles at the Lagoon in Lagos. They published a biography of Chief Akintola, the father of Onyeama’s erstwhile schoolmate, the Chief having been murdered in 1966.
Nor was Onyeama himself discouraged from breaking into print. He produced books such as The Book of Black Man’s Humour, Female Target, Juju, Night Demon, and a novel called Secret Society about the realms of the supernatural. There was a biography of Francis Arthur Nzeribe, the Nigerian senator who died earlier this year, and a book on the wit of Muhammad Ali.
He was also active on social media. When the Queen died, he declared: “Britain has lost its soul – and with it its greatness.” This October he was surprised to be honoured as part of Faith magazine’s Black History Month.
He married Nneka Celestina, whom he described as “the quintessential wife, mother and homemaker”. Following his death, he was afforded elaborate funeral arrangements. There was a Christian wake in his home town, a lying-in-state in the compound of his father, Justice Charles Dada Onyeama, a Requiem Mass at St Paul’s Catholic Church at Amankwo Eke, and interment in his father’s compound.