Eton College has today apologised to the first black student to complete his studies there after he suffered years of racist abuse from boys who accused him of being riddled with maggots and asked him: ‘Does your mother wear a bone in her nose?’.
Nigerian-born Dillibe Onyeama would eventually leave the prestigious private school in Berkshire with seven O-level passes but students refused to believe he was capable of it and accused him of cheating in his exams.
And in 1972 he received an official letter from Eton telling him he was now banned from visiting because he wrote a book describing the cruelty he had suffered there.
Today headmaster Simon Henderson apologised to Mr Onyeama and said that the school has made ‘great strides’ since his time there.
In his book, called ‘n****r at Eton’, Mr Onyeama, the son of a Nigerian magistrate who studied at Oxford University, was bullied daily during his four years at the elite fee-paying school.
Nigerian-born Dillibe Onyeama was the first black boy to complete his studies at Eton despite suffering years of racist abuse from other boys
He said today that the book, published when he was 21, was an important way to reveal the systemic racism at Eton.
He told the BBC: ‘As far as the school saw it, I was indicting them as a racist institution. ‘People come to Africa and write all sorts of indicting and shaming experiences and publish it in books and nobody says anything,’ he added.
In his 1972 book, called ‘n****r at Eton’, Mr Onyeama, the son of a Nigerian magistrate who studied at Oxford University, was bullied daily during his four years at the elite fee-paying school. He was then banned from the school
Mr Onyeama said every day the white boys would ask him: ‘Why are you black?’ ‘How many maggots are there in your hair?’ and ‘Does your mother wear a bone in her nose?’
He admitted that he ‘gained a reputation for violence’ after he once broke his hand while punching one of his abusers in the face.
After four years he passed all his exams and also excelled at sports.
He said the boys asked him: ‘Tell me Onyeama, how did you do it?’ I am asked time and time again,’ he wrote: ”You cheated, didn’t you?”
Headmaster Simon Henderson said he was ‘appalled’ by the racism Mr Onyeama experienced and invited him to return to the school to hear the apology in person and see how the school had changed.
Mr Henderson told the BBC: ‘Racism has no place in civilised society, then or now.’
He said ‘significant strides’ have been made since Mr Onyeama was at Eton.
He added: ‘But, as millions of people around the world rightly raise their voices in protest against racial discrimination and inequality, we have to have the institutional and personal humility to acknowledge that we still have more to do.
‘We must all speak out and commit to doing better, permanently, and I am determined that we seize this moment as a catalyst for real and sustained change for the better.’
Headmaster Simon Henderson (pictured) has apologised to Mr Onyeama and invited him back to the old school to hear that apologise in person
Mr Henderson, who took up the role in 2015, invited Mr Onyeama to meet so he could apologise in person and on behalf of the school, adding that he wished to show the writer would always be welcome.
Many educational institutions have come under increased pressure to decolonise the curriculum, tackle racism and boost diversity on campus.
This follows weeks of international Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the death of George Floyd.
Eton College, near Windsor in Berkshire, charges fees of more than £40,000 per year and has been attended by both the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex.
Since 1945, five prime ministers have been educated at Eton, including Boris Johnson.
Eton is in talks with the Department of Education to invest £100million into teaching disadvantaged children in East Anglia, the Midlands and northern England.
Eton’s headmaster, Simon Henderson, thinks the coronavirus pandemic would ‘trigger a profound change’ like the two world wars did and Eton wants to ‘be on the right side of history’ by sponsoring underprivileged sixth-forms.
Mr Henderson said: ‘Every institution will be judged by what they did during the pandemic.
‘That’s particularly true in education where there’s no doubt that inequality is widening.’
The elite private school’s headmaster said that fight against inequality in education needs to be widened to outside of London where most of Eton and other private schools have partnered with state schools.
Mr Henderson is looking for state and private sector partners to join the five-year project currently funded by Eton’s charitable endowment and fundraising.
He told the Times: ‘We want to create a wider network with as many as 50 schools and youth clubs, particularly in disadvantaged areas.
Mr Henderson wants this project to help change people’s association of Eton, which has educated 20 prime ministers including Boris Johnson, with elitism.
General secretary of the head teachers’ union ASCL, Geoff Barton, said: ‘We support any initiative which creates excellent educational provision but we would urge Eton — and the government — to ensure that any state-funded selective sixth form college does not simply cream off the most able students from existing institutions.’
Pictured: Boris Johnson, 15 years old at the time, with some friends at Eton in 1979. The school has educated 20 prime ministers and its pupils often go on to study at Oxford or Cambridge