One of Them

Journalist and poet Musa Okwonga explores the effect of toxic institutions on Britain’s political life through the lens of his time at Eton as a young Black man

How could an institution that did Musa Okwonga so much good cause so much harm? One of Them is a memoir of his experiences as a young black man at Eton, and its connection to the privilege, racism and Old Boys networks behind Brexit

Musa Okwonga – a young Black man who grew up in a predominantly working-class town – was not your typical Eton College student.

The experience moulded and challenged him… but also made him wonder why a place that was so good for him also seemed to contribute to the harm being done to the UK. The more he searched, the more evident the connection became between one of Britain’s most prestigious institutions and the genesis of Brexit.

Woven throughout this deeply personal and unflinching memoir of Musa’s five years at Eton in the 1990s is a present-day narrative which engages with much wider questions: privilege, the distribution of wealth, the rise of the far right, systemic racism, the ‘boys’ club’ of government and the power of the few to control the fate of the many.

One of Them is both an intimate account and a timely exploration of race and class in modern Britain.