Westville pupil is Harvard-bound

Westville Girls’ High School’s Colombe Obono Eyono with her letter from Harvard University indicating the year she is scheduled to complete her studies at the prestigious United States institution. Picture: Supplied

Westville Girls’ High School’s Colombe Obono Eyono with her letter from Harvard University indicating the year she is scheduled to complete her studies at the prestigious United States institution. Picture: Supplied

Published Feb 13, 2021

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Durban - Westville Girls’ High star pupil Colombe Obono Eyono, who like many other matriculants is waiting for her matric results “any day now”, is on her way to the United States’ prestigious Harvard University.

Born and bred in South Africa, of Cameroonian parents, she hopes to eventually contribute to the world by informing economic policy around decolonisation of colonial economic legacies. Her other interest is gender issues.

“I have been conscious of how destructive colonial and neo-colonial legacies are in African countries,” she said.

Obono Eyono hopes to major in economics and African studies at the Ivy League institution.

She said it was “marginally reassuring” to be going to the US in the post-Donald Trump era but expected the legacy of his era to still be around on a structural level.

“I’m still expecting quite a bit of chaos and division, from what I have seen on the news but I think it’s a land of possibility, without trying to promote the American Dream,” she said.

“It’s a country where a lot can happen.”

In the five months between now and the start of the academic year at Harvard, Obono Eyono will return to her alma mater to help out with the school’s debating activities, one of the many activities she engaged and excelled in while at school.

“What I like about debating is that it gives one the ability to force one’s self to see the other side.”

Westville Girls’ High said that Obono Eyono maintained 80% or above throughout her five years there.

Last year she came eighth in the De Beers English Olympiad, written by more than 5 000 pupils across South Africa.

Obono Eyono said her favourite subjects were history and maths.

She said she expected to miss the weather and culture of Africa.

The Independent on Saturday

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