Last week, in this column, we travelled through the remarkable story of Ulli Beier, the German scholar whose footprints can still be found in the cultural history of Nigeria, particularly in Ibadan and Osogbo. We talked about Black Orpheus, Mbari, the Osogbo artistic movement and the many Nigerian talents whose creativity found a wider audience through those platforms.
But there was a woman walking alongside that story.
Her name was Susanne Wenger.
And if Ulli Beier was opening doors for Nigerian literature and art, Susanne was walking through another door entirely, the door into the spiritual and artistic world of Yorùbáland.
Susanne Wenger was an Austrian artist who met Ulli Beier in Paris in 1949. They married and came to Nigeria together in 1950 when Beier took up an academic appointment at the University of Ibadan. Their journey eventually brought them into the heart of Yorùbáland, where Susanne’s encounter with Yoruba religion, poetry, mythology and traditional art would change the course of her life.
This is where the story gets interesting.
Susanne did not come to Nigeria merely to admire African art from a distance. She rolled up her sleeves, so to speak, and entered the cultural stream. In Ede, she encountered Yoruba religious traditions and became deeply influenced by priests and custodians such as Ajagemo, the blind Ọ̀bàtálá priest who became one of her important mentors. Later, she lived in Ilobu, learned the traditional art of àdìrẹ, and eventually settled in Osogbo.
There, she became known as Adunni Olorisa.
And what a name that became.
She immersed herself in Yoruba spirituality and became an Olorisa, while continuing to work as an artist. Her artistic journey eventually became inseparable from the sacred landscape of Osogbo and the Ọ̀ṣun-Òṣogbo Sacred Grove.
But let us not tell the story as though one Austrian woman single-handedly rescued Yoruba culture. That would be doing Nigeria and Susanne herself a disservice.
She worked with Nigerian artists, craftsmen, priests and traditional custodians. Among those associated with the New Sacred Art movement were Chief Adebisi Akanji, Buraimoh Gbadamosi, Rabiu Abesu and Kasali Akangbe Ogun. The Metropolitan Museum of Art also identifies these Nigerian artists, alongside Wenger, as central figures in the movement that transformed Osogbo into a major centre of artistic and spiritual activity.
This is where I say: Ẹ káàbọ̀, Nigeria!
Look at us.
A foreign artist arrived here and encountered a civilisation rich enough to change her artistic language. She found something in Yoruba culture that spoke to her imagination and spirit. And rather than simply take it away, she worked with Nigerians to create something that has endured.
The sculptures, shrines, decorated walls and monumental structures associated with Wenger and the New Sacred Artists became part of the cultural landscape of the grove. UNESCO later recognised the Ọ̀ṣun-Òṣogbo Sacred Grove as a World Heritage Site, explicitly acknowledging the “fertile exchange of ideas” that came from Wenger’s absorption into the Yoruba community and the New Sacred Artists movement.
But behind every celebrated name are many Nigerian names.
Adebisi Akanji. Buraimoh Gbadamosi. Rabiu Abesu. Kasali Akangbe Ogun. Duro Ladipo. Twins Seven-Seven. Jimoh Buraimoh. Muraina Oyelami. These names remind us that Osogbo’s cultural renaissance was never a one-person show.
Nigeria provided the soil. Her people provided the talent. People like Ulli Beier and Susanne Wenger helped water the garden.
And what a garden it became.
Today, the Ọ̀ṣun-Òṣogbo Grove remains one of the most important surviving sacred groves in Yorùbáland, a living expression of Yoruba cosmology and cultural tradition.
That is why our children must know this history.
They must know that some people came from far away and, instead of allowing our cultural treasures to gather dust, helped document, celebrate and preserve them. But they must also know the Nigerian men and women who were the custodians, artists, priests, teachers and creators behind the story.
Adunni Olorisa died in Osogbo in 2009, but the art she helped create and the cultural landscape she became part of continue to speak.
And perhaps that is the greatest lesson.
Culture is a river. People may come from different shores, but when they meet with respect, something beautiful can flow.
This is from my heart to my readers: let us learn our history, celebrate those who contributed to it and, above all, teach our children that Nigeria’s cultural heritage is a treasure chest that must never be allowed to rust.
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