RENOWNED art and culture scholar, Prof. Ulli Beier, passed on yesterday in Annandale, Sydney, Australia. He was aged 91
According to a source close to the family, Beier died in his residence after a protracted illness. Born in Germany in 1922, Beier came to Nigeria in 1950 and joined the Extra Mural Studies Department at the then University College (now University of Ibadan (UI). He was appointed to teach phonetics in the English Department of the institution.
Confirming the news on telephone, renowned artist and one of the beneficiaries of Beier’s informal initiatives, Muraina Oyelami said the deceased’s son, Sebastian informed him about the death of his father yesterday.
Also, a source said the chairman of the Governing Board of the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding, Osogbo, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, stated that the deceased’s family informed the Centre in a telephone call. .
The source said the Executive Director of the centre, Prof. Wole Ogundele, explained that Beier’s son, Tunji Beier, broke the news to him at about 3pm yesterday (Sunday) in a telephone call.
Beier started his adventure into Yoruba culture by organising classes in towns and villages.
Indeed, the Nigerian art community would have a golden place for Beier in the history of the country’s art and culture, among those whose initiatives contributed to the growth of contemporary Nigerian art.
Two years after independence from the British colonialists in 1960, the country, gradually, started experiencing a transformation in the creative art and culture sectors. This much, it’s on record, started in the then Western Region as Beier embarked on workshops for artisans across Ife and Osogbo. Interestingly, this development was independent of any government policy direction.
Tagged Mbari-Mbayo Artists and Writers Club – an initiative he co-founded with the late thespian, Duro Ladipo – it involved artists whose main jobs were carvings and paintings for the royal families.
However, that development could not have been an isolated one; Beier, according to sources, had been part of a literary evolution at the University College. As a teacher of linguistic studies, he had, in the company of other participants such as Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Christopher Okigbo, J.P. Clark, Mabel Segun and Demas Nwoko strengthened the Mbari Artists and Writers Club club.
Although Beier and his partner, Georgina, also included the Eastern part of the country in their experimentation, the Ife-Osogbo axis ended up as the couple’s major focus for which they are known till date.
From the several workshops spanning a period of five years, skills of artists such as Oyelami, Jimoh Buraimoh, Twin Seven Seven Jacob Ogundele, Rufus Ogundele were elevated beyond the artisan level. And it was not just about visual art, but culture in general: some of the performing artists who were brought to broader public glare through workshops were Yemi Elebuibon, late Oyin Adejobi, Tidjani Mayakiri, Ademola Onobonokuta and Lere Paimo.
More interesting, four decades after Beier and his partner Georgina left Osogbo, the seed of cultural renaissance planted has grown into another dimension: UNESCO Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding (CBCIU) in Osogbo, which was commissioned in 2009 houses works of the Beiers. Some of the couple’s works returned by Beier during the commissioning of the centre are books, posters and photographers. In a message sent to the occasion through his son, Olatunji Beier, he stressed that Osogbo remains the spiritual home of the works compiled by him and his wife during their stay in Nigeria.
The important role of the Beiers in documenting Yoruba art and culture was brought to fore earlier as controversy arose over where these works should be kept. In 2008, UNESCO ‘s Goodwill Ambassador, Soyinka, had advocated that these works should not be kept at UNESCO- designated institute inside Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL), Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Also, the Beiers, according to sources, rejected offers from some universities in the U.S. to house the works. However, at $680, 000 they accepted to have their collections returned to Nigeria on the condition that the centre must not be under government manipulation, a source said. And this gave birth to the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding, also backed by UNESCO in Osogbo.
Beier is well known for translating works of African origin such as poetry, drama, particularly of Yoruba language into English.
In 2005, he was in Nigeria for the launch of a book, Every Inch A King: A Biography Chronicling the Legacy of Service of Oba Moses Oyewole Oyinlola, Olokuku of Okuku, (1934-1960). The book is co-written by Lasisi Olagunju, Bamidele Salam, Kayode Oladeji and Wole Ogundele. Part of several activities of the occasion was an exhibition of photographs by Beier titled The Face of the Gods: Yoruba Kings, Priests and Children which was held at the Arts Gallery, Institute of Cultural Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State.
Shortly after the opening of the exhibition, Beier, during a chat with his guest explained that his journey through the Mbari-Mbayo experiment started because he could not express himself as much within the university structures of colonial government. Having got the chance of residence outside the campus, “I had the freedom to introduce Literature, provided I could persuade my students that this would be more meaningful and interesting to them than Chaucer, Milton and Wordsworth.”
He recounted that through the royal fathers such as Timi of Ede, Oba Adetoyese Laoye; Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Samuel Adeleye Adenle; Oogoga of Ikere, Oba Adegoriola; Olokuku of Okuku, Oba Moses Oyinlola, his mission was made easier.
In fact, Beier’s last visit was significant to his relationship with the Obas. The then Governor of Osun State, Oyinlola invited him specifically for the book presentation.
Beier reminisced: “I was fortunate that I met Timi Laoye, one of my early students in the extramural classes. Through Laoye, I met other Obas like Adenle, Adegoriola and Oyinlola (father of the Governor) of Osun State.” Beier was so passionate about the Yoruba culture such that he gave himself different native names. One of such, perhaps, well known among the people is ‘Obotunde Ijimere.’
However, the workshops for the visual artists, he noted, was made much easier when his partner Georgina joined him. Beier insisted that the workshop initiative was never “meant to teach the artists,” but to motivate them.
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