Remembering Dilibe Onyeama…

Okechukwu Uwaezuoke

Not even the recognition of man’s ultimate mortality—a fact that silences all scepticism and about which there is no ignorance—could have prepared anyone for the news. Hence, Charles Dilibe Ejiofor Onyeama’s sudden departure from this life on Thursday, November 10, would have hit many in the literary community like a ton of bricks. Many people who were – and probably still are – in shock may have hoped that it would be quickly debunked as a rumour. But no, the traditional media outlets were soon awash with the announcement, which followed closely on the heels of that of the social media platforms. Then there were the family sources, who didn’t just corroborate the information. They would also later announce that the remains of the renowned novelist and convener of the Coal City Book Convention would be buried on Saturday, December 3, in his native town of Eke in Enugu State.

Onyeama, a respected figure in literary circles, bowed out of the scene quite unexpectedly at a time when no one had anticipated it. Such circumstances repeatedly raise questions bordering on the purpose of man’s earthly existence. For here indeed was a silver spoon child, born as the second son of the late Nigerian judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, who became the first black person to graduate from Eton College in England in 1969. What could be the point of such an earthly life in privileged circumstances if it were meant to end so abruptly? Could there be a more animated reality beyond this physical reality? 

Meanwhile, Nigger at Eton, unarguably Onyeama’s best-known book, was based on his firsthand experiences of racism at the famous public school Eton College. Its publication led to his ban from visiting the school by then-headmaster Michael McCrum. Though the ban was revoked in 2008 by the late Provost of the school, Sir Eric Anderson, when Onyeama was invited to participate in an Old Boys’ get-together (which he was unable to attend), it took the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 to reawaken global interest in the book, which has now been retitled A Black Boy at Eton.

Despite the fact that the author described Eton’s apology as “neither solicited nor desired, nor expected nor anticipated; in effect […] wholly unnecessary,” the fact that it came after Simon Henderson, the school’s headmaster since 2015, was a positive symbolic gesture. “Racism has no place in civilised society, then or now,” Henderson was also quoted by the BBC as arguing, as he promised to invite Onyeama “so as to apologise to him in person, on behalf of the school, and to make clear that he will always be welcome at Eton.”

While acknowledging the school’s apology as “touching and much appreciated,” Onyeama emphasised, “We have all done enough to be ashamed of, and nobody – of whatever race or hue – has a monopoly on righteousness.” He would let bygones be bygones and rather focus on the positives of his experience at the school. The school, which is known around the world for its high educational standards, charges fees of more than £40,000 (N 21,154,937.57) per year. Founded by King Henry VI in 1440, Onyeama believed that the school was never conceived with Africans in mind. Hence, he described himself as “an eccentric choice for such a breeding ground whose ancestors hoisted the flag in those backward lands in which the crown had established acquisitive occupancy.” 

Of course, Onyeama, who founded Delta Publications (an Enugu-based book publishing company), was also renowned for other books, including novels like Juju, Secret Society, Nigger at Eton, Sex Is a Nigger’s Game, Night Demon, Revenge of the Medicine Man, and Godfathers of Voodoo, among others, which were bestsellers in the 1970s and 1980s. There were also books like African Legend, Modern Messiah, A Message to My Compatriots (the Case Against Sanctions), The Story of an African “God”: The Life and Times of Chief Onyeama, The A-Z of Humorous Poems that Rhyme, Dadi: The Man, the Legend (an Intimate Portrait), and the occult novel The Flaming Sword, which was published in 2019. 

Delta Publications, which was never known to have encouraged vanity publishing, was known to have launched a handful of authors into the limelight. Among them was Chris Abani, whose debut novel, the political thriller Masters of the Board, was published in 1984. The company also published novels by the late, renowned Abubakar Gimba, namely, Trial of Sacrifice, Witness to Tears, and Innocent Victims, among others, as well as Michael Nsonwu’s All Screwed Up and Mukhtar Balewa’s novel, Prince of Mali.

Curiously, Onyeama remained unsung despite his literary accomplishments and contributions to the Nigerian literary landscape. Could he have sensed that his relaunch of the controversial book, A Black Boy at Eton, in February this year would be his swan song?