A review by nuraitheodora
One of Them: An Eton College Memoir by Musa Okwonga

medium-paced

4.0

Musa Okwonga’s One of Them is a thought-provoking and personal look at Eton, a prestigious private school in England, a school that produces many of the country’s future politicians and people in charge. Okwonga’s parents fled to the UK from Uganda and his mother worked very hard for him to be able to go to Eton. As one of the few Black students and coming from a working-class background, he stood in sharp relief against the wealthy white boys who filled the halls. Okwonga describes his experiences, both positive and negative, in small, vivid snippets. He writes about trying not to behave as a ‘stereotypical Black guy’ in order not to prove his classmates right about biases they have, and how that affects him; he writes about instances of racist abuse he faces, as well as the close friends he makes while he’s there. He talks about football, and though that’s not really an interest of mine, you can tell he’s written about it before and loves doing so, because he does make it compelling. For a short read, there are a lot of themes that are touched upon.

Because I’m not British, and Eton and its prestigious presence in the educational ‘landscape’ hasn’t really been part of my life, I don’t think this was as engaging/interesting to me as it could have been. That said, I still found it an engaging read, and Okwonga’s thoughts about the culture of ‘old boys’, how many of the Tory ministers and even the current prime minister stem from Eton, and the myth of the meritocracy, this idea that successful people have got where they are purely on merit, were well expressed and fit in well with his personal experience of Eton. This culture definitely isn’t specific to the U.K. and I recognised a lot of the things Okwonga was talking about in my country (the Netherlands).
Regardless of whether you’re British or intimately acquainted with Eton and its reputation, I think this is a worthwhile read!