In the last edition of Tabloid.net, we talked about Professor Dame Karin Barber, the remarkable British scholar whose life and scholarship have been deeply connected with Yoruba language, literature and culture.
But Karin Barber is not the only foreigner who has contributed immensely to the development, documentation and international appreciation of Nigerian culture.
In fact, the more I dig into our history, the more surprised I become that many Nigerians do not know the names of some of these people.
We are not an ungrateful people. But sometimes, history is like a buried treasure: if nobody digs it up, the next generation may walk over it without knowing what lies beneath their feet.
Our children deserve to know these stories. They deserve to know the foreigners who came here, listened to our people, respected our creativity and helped create platforms through which Nigerian culture travelled beyond our shores.
So, this week, let us talk about Ulli Beier.
Born Horst Ulrich Beier in Germany in 1922, Ulli Beier came to Nigeria in 1950 to teach at the newly established University College Ibadan, now the University of Ibadan. What began as a teaching appointment became an eleven-year cultural adventure that would leave an extraordinary mark on Nigerian literary and artistic history.
Beier did not remain confined to the university walls. He went into Yoruba communities, particularly around Ede, Ilobu and Osogbo, and immersed himself in the language, literature, festivals, theatre and artistic traditions he encountered.
Then came the turning point.
After attending the 1956 Congress of Black Writers and Artists in Paris, Beier returned to Nigeria determined to create platforms through which African writers and artists could tell their own stories. In 1957, together with German scholar Janheinz Jahn, he founded Black Orpheus, a literary journal that became an important platform for African and African-American literature.
Think about that for a moment.
At a time when colonial narratives still dominated much of the intellectual world, here was a foreign-born scholar helping provide a platform for African voices.
But Beier did not stop with literature.
In 1961, he was involved in establishing the Mbari Artists and Writers Club in Ibadan, a meeting place for writers, dramatists and artists. Names such as Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka and Es’kia Mphahlele were associated with the wider Mbari circle.
Then he moved deeper into Yorubaland.
Through his relationship with the great Yoruba dramatist Duro Ladipo, Beier helped establish Mbari Mbayo in Osogbo, which opened on 21 March 1962. It became a melting pot of drama, poetry, music, dance, exhibitions and visual art.
And from this cultural soil emerged some extraordinary talents.
Twins Seven-Seven. Jimoh Buraimoh. Muraina Oyelami. Rufus Ogundele. Adebisi Fabunmi. Jacob Afolabi. These and other artists became associated with the Osogbo Art Movement, eventually gaining international recognition.
But let us get one thing straight: Ulli Beier did not create these talents.
The talent was already there.
What he did was help provide the platform, encouragement, materials, documentation and international connections through which some of those talents could flourish. Duro Ladipo, Georgina Beier and the artists themselves were equally important to the story.
That distinction is important.
A good gardener does not claim to have created the seed. He simply knows how to provide the soil in which the seed can become a tree.
That was part of Beier’s gift.
He also documented the cultural world around him extensively. Today, his vast archive—including photographs, negatives, documents, publications and other materials—is preserved through collaboration between the University of Bayreuth’s Iwalewahaus and Nigeria’s Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding in Osogbo. In 2020, a large portion of the Beier estate was formally transferred to Osogbo after digitisation.
Ulli Beier died in Sydney in 2011, aged 88. But some people leave behind houses; others leave behind monuments. Beier left behind a trail of cultural possibilities.
His story reminds us that culture is not preserved by talking about it alone. Somebody must write it down. Somebody must photograph it. Somebody must publish it. Somebody must create the stage. Somebody must open the door.
And sometimes, surprisingly, that somebody may come from another country.
So, to Ulli Beier, we say thank you.
And to Duro Ladipo, Georgina Beier, Twins Seven-Seven, Jimoh Buraimoh, Muraina Oyelami, Rufus Ogundele, Adebisi Fabunmi, Jacob Afolabi, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka and the many Nigerians who carried this cultural movement on their shoulders, we say thank you too.
Because history belongs to all those who helped make it.
Our children must know these names.
Next week, we shall open another page of this forgotten-but-important history and talk about another foreigner whose contribution to Nigeria deserves our attention and applause.
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