Dillibe Onyeama had a privileged upbringing, but chose to be his own man and live on his own terms.

His eminent father was a distinguished legal luminary but Dillibe chose to become a writer.Even as there are no guarantees in the writing life, Dillibe refused to be deterred in the determination to write his name into history from the very beginning.

Born on January 6, 1951, he was admitted into the prestigious British boarding school, Eton College in Berkshire, England in 1965 after having done initial studies at the preparatory school at Grove Park in Sussex. He earned the distinction of being the first black lad to graduate from Eton in 1969. His father, Charles Dadi Umeha Onyeama, who had been a Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and later became a Judge of International Court at The Hague, would have wanted his son to follow his legal pedigree.

Dillibe Onyeama raised up a big international storm in the publishing world when his memoir, Nigger at Eton, was published by Leslie Frewin Limited in 1972. His stark depiction of the racism, discrimination and bullying that was all the rage in the elite Eton College riled the British establishment to no end such that Dillibe’s then Headmaster in the school, Michael McCrum, placed a ban on him visiting the school. His dire experiences at Eton became a sore eye-opener, which the authorities would rather have wanted to be covered up for good.

It is remarkable that in 2020 the present-day Headmaster of Eton College, Simon Henderson, offered an unreserved apology to Dillibe for the sordid treatment that had been meted out to him while studying in the school. Even more noteworthy is the fact that the book was republished by the pre-eminent publishing company, Penguin, this year, now titled A Black Boy at Eton.

Dillibe followed up the 1972 publishing of Nigger at Eton with the publication of John Bull’s Nigger in 1974. The charged racial war of the 1960s and 1970s served as a germane theme for the literature of Dillibe Onyeama. The unrelenting Dillibe published a 1976 novel entitled Sex is a Nigger’s Game, a title that should not be confused with Naiwu Osahon’s raunchy Sex is a Nigger!

In 1977, Dillibe began to delve into the occult world with the publishing of his novel Juju. This was followed in 1978 with another novel dealing with the mysterious realm of the supernatural entitled Secret Society.

Dillibe studied at the Premier School of Journalism, obtaining a Diploma.

His return to Nigeria was marked with the 1978 publishing of The Return: Homecoming of a Negro from Eton.

He set up the publishing company, Delta Publications, in Enugu in 1981, stressing his drive to have African stories published from the homeland. In 1982, he published the biography of his fabled forebear, Chief Onyeama: The Story of an African God. Then he followed up with the publishing in 1984 of African Legend: The Incredible Story of Francis Arthur Nzeribe, a biography of the maverick businessman and politician.