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Cultural biography of the German-born Yoruba
Omoluwabi: Ulli Beier, Yoruba Society and Culture
Wole Ogundele
Bayreuth African Studies Series
May 2004
302 pages
Review by Gbemisola Remi Adeoti
Since the early 1990s, Wole Ogundele, a literary scholar and teacher of poetry, has been researching many knotty issues in the areas of cultural history and developments in African literature. He has studied African oral and performance traditions, especially against the backdrop of modernisation and globalisation. To him, there is much that the contemporary African can gain if they reach back to the pre-colonial experience of culture, governance, social organisation and the arts. In the course of his research at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria and the Institute of African Studies, Bayreuth University, Germany, Ogundele encountered the personality of a great cultural activist, Ulli Beier. His research has yielded Omoluwabi: Ulli Beier, Yoruba Society and Culture – a book that straddles the genres of life narrative and literary history. Perhaps, this accounts for the author’s recommended generic classification of the book as a "cultural biography".
Sometimes called "the German-born Yoruba", Beier is an expatriate whose disposition toward African cultures has proved to be positive and inspiring. This sharply contrasts with the condescension, insensitivity and disdain exhibited by some westernised Africans or colonialists.
"Beier is an expatriate whose disposition toward African cultures has proved to be positive and inspiring"
At the centre of the narrative is the portrait of Ulli Beier, otherwise known as Obotunde Ijimere, Sangodare Akanji and Omidiji Aragbabalu. However, Beier’s story provides a platform for the author to engage broader issues in the development of contemporary Yoruba arts and culture, as well as modern African literature in English. Consequently, one remarkable feature of the book is the manner in which the subject’s biographical information (few as they are) and his collaborative accomplishments are carefully woven into the narrative of a cultural history in the colonial and postcolonial dispensation of Nigeria. The book gives due attention to the historical, theoretical, critical and the biographical, all in one breath.
The story of Omoluwabi is told in eight chapters, preceded by a foreword written by Wole Soyinka, one of the people with whom Beier had fruitful years of collaboration, which included founding the Mbari Club for writers and artists. Ogundele draws on interviews, personal observations, documented history, critical studies, and Yoruba philosophy.
Generally, Ulli Beier is presented in the book as an epitome of honour, integrity, wisdom, patience, tolerance and calmness. These are values encapsulated in the concept of "omoluwabi" in Yoruba philosophy. He is shown as a man who is never in doubt of his own capabilities, and ever unwavering in the pursuit of his conviction. In Nigeria, the name Ulli Beier recalls the establishment of museums, organisation of musical concerts, art exhibition, writing and translation of oral Yoruba materials into English and promoting the arts of the theatre. He is also a household name on the canvas of modern art.
Beier arrived in Nigeria in October 1950 and joined the extramural department of the University College, Ibadan. He took adult education campaigns to various parts of Western region and found greater accommodation among the people outside the ivory tower. Between 1950 and 1966 when he was in Nigeria, Beier was tremendously influenced by, and he had a positive effect on local artists. He contributed to the nurturing of seeds that would later blossom into wide acclaim in African writing, painting, sculpture and performance. He returned to Nigeria between 1971 and 1974 as the director of Ife University’s Institute of African Studies. During these years, apart from encouraging a pool of "rustic but enthusiastic" artistic talents, he served as a founding pillar of Odu and Black Orpheus, two pioneering journals of African literature and culture.
The opening chapter entitled "The Dancer meets the Drummer" establishes the scope and purpose of the book. One of these is to correct assumptions about Beier that the author considers as being "either downright wrong, exaggerated or simply fictitious". The chapter also contains a summary of his biography. His activities encouraged the forging of a link between African oral tradition and contemporary modes of artistic creation. The second chapter opens further the casket containing the personal portrait of Beier taken against the backdrop of Yoruba culture. Using the metaphor of the snail that carries its house along wherever it goes, the chapter accounts for the enduring influence of Yoruba culture on Beier’s activities beyond the shores of Nigeria in Papua New Guinea, Australia and Germany. His arrival in Nigeria in 1950, his contacts with personalities in the transitional politics of independence, like Obafemi Awolowo and S Awokoya among others, are all documented along with the impetus he gave to the extramural programme in his bid to connect the town and the gown. Unfortunately, information is quite scanty in the book about the content, direction and focus of the extramural classes.
In the third chapter Ogundele shows Beier’s firm root in Yoruba culture, through his association with purveyors of the culture, such as kings, chiefs, artists, priests, devotees of deities in Ede, Osogbo, Ejigbo, Okuku, Ilobu, Ikere, Akure and Ijero. His knowledge of the society, as Ogundele asserts, "was not by reading or researching, but simply by watching and experiencing". Of much interest here are the politico-religious rituals, myths and festivals connected with Yoruba pantheon.
Black Orpheus and Odu, discussed in Chapter Four, were both part of the cultural environment that nurtured the development of modern African literature. The activities of the Mbari Artists and Writers’ Club in Ibadan also features in the narrative, as does the attempt by Duro Ladipo to replicate its success in Osogbo through the founding of Mbari Mbayo. Mbari is described as "a social centre" and "a cultural intellectual organisation" formed around professional collaboration and personal friendship. In this chapter and the one that follows, Ogundele presents personalities who shaped Beier’s understanding of African culture and who also benefited from his cultural re-awakening mission. Some of them include Duro Ladipo, Ovia Idah, Ben Enwowu, Fela Sowande, Kola Ogunmola and many others.
Beier’s contributions to the development of the Yoruba popular travelling theatre, the precursor of the current home video tradition in Nigeria, are documented in Chapter Six. The chapter ends with Beier’s departure from Nigeria in 1966 and his relocation to Papua New Guinea, where the enduring influence of Nigerian cultures on him remained palpable. It provides a worthy insight into aspects of his life that have yet to be given the attention they deserve in scholarship.
In Chapter Seven, one of the mandates of biography is fulfilled when the author engages critics on Beier’s cultural interventions. One such critic is Oyekan Owomoyela who not only quarrels with Beier’s adoption of the pseudo-name Obotunde Ijimere, but also claims that the latter’s "representation of the Yoruba ethos is too often distorted and even slanderous". Ogundele frowns at David Kerr’s inability to recognise Beier as the face behind the mask of Obotunde Ijimere while he takes exception to Demas Nwoko’s attempt to understate the contributions of Beier to modern African art. Some of Ogundele’s responses to the critics however, are not sufficient to prevent further re-evaluation of the subject. As the author himself admits, "debates and controversies over Ulli in Nigeria will continue".
The concluding chapter re-affirms the uniqueness of Beier’s personality. He is shown as the epitome of "Omoluwabi" whose character trait is a source of strength and beauty.
The book affirms, at strategic intervals, the utility and indispensability of African indigenous cultures in the blinding gale of modernisation or globalisation. This conviction serves as the strand around which other details of the narrative are woven. Hence, Omoluwabi exemplifies in significant measure, the continuity and intersection between traditional art forms and contemporary literary productions.
Generally, no attempt is made to achieve chronology in the narration of events or in the order of Beier’s encounters with personalities. The style permits a free interplay of facts with anecdotal digressions, authorial remarks, interpretation of human actions and critique of historical events. Perhaps this accounts for the repetition of events as the same incident is presented in several places with the story shuttling forth and back. Examples of such over-stated incidents include Beier’s transfer from the English Department at the University College to the Extramural Department and the founding of Mbari Club.
Another limitation of the book is its somewhat monolithic conception of Yoruba society and culture. This is partly responsible for the occasional exaggerated assertions about the impact of Beier on culture and society. Cultural practices vary from place to place and Yorubaland is geographically vast and heterogeneous. It transcends the frontiers of areas around Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti where Beier operated. As Ogundele’s account shows, not much is revealed about Beier’s cultural activities in other parts of Yorubaland, such as Ilorin, Oke Ogun, Badagry and Egbado, for instance.
Nonetheless, the merit of the book far outweighs these limitations. Omoluwabi is an ambitious book, made impressive by the clarity of its narration and the depth of its scholarship. It offers authentic insights into the contributions of Beier on the literary, performing and fine arts landscapes in Nigeria. Here is an authoritative discourse of Beier, told in simple, free-flowing prose laced with humour. It is an incisive exploration of the life of an enigmatic personality and a complex culture whose definition can only be attempted but never exhausted.
The narration is not overburdened by theory and theorising that would expected in such a work. Rather, it tells the story of Beier, his associations and accomplishments with the graceful ease of a griot, but its scholarly bent is unmistakable. The biography will enrich modern debates on hybridism, multiculturalism and postcolonial studies. General readers can also learn from the accounts of Beier’s contributions to the development of contemporary African literature, painting, sculpture, popular travelling theatre and publishing. The photographs of people, places and events surrounding Beier, as well as the long list of bibliographical materials, could prove useful to future researchers.
Scholars who are interested in life narrative would find Omoluwabi an innovation in the genre. It is a worthy tribute to an expatriate who transcends national borders to become an engaging subject in the discourse of the "margin". Interestingly, Beier’s personality compels a re-definition of both "the metropolis" and "the margin".
Gbemisola Remi Adeoti is a lecturer in the Department of English at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
