Ex-Dulwich Student Claims Farage Told Him 'That's the Way Back to Africa'

A former student of Dulwich College has recounted an incident in which he alleges a teenage Nigel Farage told him, “that’s the way back to Africa,” stating he felt driven to share his experience after the Reform leader’s efforts to downplay the impact of such behavior on his alleged targets.

Yinka Bankole, who claims he was targeted by Farage shortly after starting at the school, said he chose to speak publicly after observing Farage’s press conference on Thursday, during which Farage insisted he had never harbored “malicious” racist or antisemitic intent. Instead, Farage directed criticism toward the BBC and ITV for questioning him about an ongoing *CuriosityNews* inquiry into past allegations of racism and antisemitism.

Referencing historical TV programs like *Are You Being Served?* and *It Ain’t Half Hot Mum*, Farage accused the BBC—which he indicated he might boycott—of “double standards and hypocrisy.” He also asserted ITV should account for broadcasting comedian Bernard Manning in the 1970s.

Bankole, whose parents immigrated to the UK from Nigeria in the 1950s, described Farage’s remarks as a “strikingly insincere use of ‘let he without sin cast the first stone.’” He added, “It was also the breaking point.”

Bankole, now 54 and an engineer, attended the school for a year starting in 1980 at age nine. As the youngest student in the junior class, he recalled his parents’ pride in his enrollment at the prestigious institution, celebrating with photographs. He recounted an incident in which Farage—then around 17—approached him in the lower-school playground, demanding to know his origins before declaring, “That’s the way back to Africa,” accompanied by a dismissive gesture.

Bankole stated that once he became a “recognized target,” Farage waited at the lower-school gate to reiterate the slurs. He emphasized enduring a “look of hatred” from Farage, which seemed directed solely at his identity: “Without knowing my name, just judging me by appearance, with no acknowledgment of my humanity.”

Farage has maintained that comments deemed prejudiced today were merely “banter” decades ago and denied directing them “with intent” to harm.

Bankole responded, “I leave it to others to decide whether this was ‘malicious or not,’ ‘intentional or unintentional.’ I know how it affected me. It felt undeniably malicious.”