Nigerian’s prolific author and publisher, Dillibe Charles Ejiofor Onyeama, has died at the age of 71. His death is a great loss to the literary community and the nation. Onyeama made history as the first black person to finish his study at Eton College in England in 1969. His writing career was much shaped by his experience at Eton. This can be deciphered from the titles of some of his works.
His demise came at a time when the country is in dire need of promoters of reading culture and publishers of creative works. His 1972 novel, The Nigger at Eton, which was critical of racism at the British elite boarding school, established him as a great writer. The book, which portrayed his experience of racism, was later published as The Black Boy at Eton in Britain in 1974. It was also published with the same title by Penguin in 2022.
For daring to expose racism in Eton and by extension the United Kingdom (UK), Dillibe Onyeama was banned from visiting the school by the then headmaster, Michael McCrum. But the ban was later reversed with an apology in 2020 by the present headmaster of the school, Simon Henderson. He also restored his right to join the alumni association of the college. It is to his eternal credit that Onyeama wrote about the evils of racism before it later gained international attention and global condemnation.
Born in Nigeria in 1951, Dillibe Onyeama, the second son of Justice Charles Dadi Onyeama, a former judge of the International Court of Justice at The Hague, was registered as the first black boy to attend Eton College. He had his preparatory school at Grove Park in Sussex before becoming a pupil at Eton in 1965 and finished his study in 1969. Dillibe Onyeama returned to Nigeria in 1981 and established the publishing company, Delta Publications Nigeria Limited in Enugu.
Since inception, Onyeama had used the publishing outfit to promote the reading culture in Nigeria through the publication of novels and other literary works and even biographies of notable Nigerians. Some of his published works are: The Nigger at Eton, 1972; John Bull’s Nigger, 1974; Sex is a Nigger’s Game, 1976; Juju, 1977; Secret Society, 1978; The Return: Homecoming of a Negro from Eton, 1978; Chief Onyeama: the Story of an African God, 1982.
Others include African Legend: The Incredible Story of Francis Arthur Nzeribe, 1984; The New Man: A Perspective in Evil, 2002; and Dadi: The Man, the Legend: An Intimate Portrait of His Excellency Judge Charles Dadi Onyeama of the International Court of Justice, The Hague, 2021. It is unfortunate that despite his numerous literary works, Dillibe Onyeama remained an unsung hero. His works have not received the national and international attention they deserve. His works have also not featured prominently in critical and scholarly circles. Throughout his life, Dillibe Onyeama was a committed writer and a firm believer in the value of the arts and a promoter of Nigerian culture.
He believed in the power of the written words and he remained a lover of books and arts till the end of his life. He contributed so much to the development of publishing industry in the country as well as the reading culture, which is gradually dying. He had engaged in reading sessions in some Nigerian universities as part of his activities to promote the reading culture in Nigeria. He was not swayed by material wealth and other mundane considerations. He mentored and promoted some Nigerian writers through his publishing company.
Although Dillibe Onyeama had immortalised himself through his numerous works, it will still be appropriate for the government to honour him by naming one national edifice after him. The Enugu State government should also print and distribute some of his works to schools in the state as part of its effort to encourage the reading culture.
We commiserate with the literary community, his family, the government and people of Enugu State over the irreparable loss. May God grant his creative soul eternal repose.