Ulli Beier

Ulli Beier (pseudonym: Obotunde Ijimere ; born: Horst Ulrich Beier ; * 30th July 1922 in Glowitz , county Stolp , Pomerania , † 3. April 2011 in Sydney , Australia ) was a German writer , linguist and editor . He became known for his pioneering work in the teaching and development of literature, poetry and drama, first in Nigeria and later in Papua New Guinea .

Life

After the Nazis came to power in 1933, the medical family, whose relatives were non-practicing Jews , emigrated to Palestine . At the beginning of the Second World War , the family was interned for a short time as " hostile foreigners ". Ulli Beier then began distance learning at the University of London , which he completed with a Bachelor of Arts (BA). He then worked for three years as a teacher for disabled children in England. He later studied phonetics in London . He was appointed to the University of Ibadan in Nigeria to teach phonetics. He went to Nigeria with his first wife, Susanne Wenger . During this time, Beier and his wife got to know the art and culture of the Yoruba . By forays into the country of the Yoruba, for example to Ede , Ilobu and Oshogbo , they became aware of the environment and the culture of the various Yoruba societies.

After Beier returned to Ibadan from a conference of black authors in Paris in 1956 , he founded the magazine Black Orpheus there , which became the main forum for many Nigerian poets and authors from 1957 and in the following years. Through his work as a translator, Beier introduced some African poets to an international audience, made them known and published them in anthologies, for example.

Susanne Wenger and Ulli Beier separated, and in 1965 Beier married the London-born artist Georgina Betts . As Georgina Beier, she organized workshops at their shared home in Oshogbo and instructed young non-academic artists a. a. in printing techniques. The so-called Oshogbo School of Nigerian Artists emerged from this commitment . a. Twins Seven Seven , Muraina Oyelami , Jacob Afolabi , Adebisi Fabunmi , Rufus Ogundele and Jimoh Buraimo . Nike Olaniyi-Davies is one of the few female artists who are included in this group . The Beier couple founded a gallery for contemporary art and a museum in Oshogbo, today's Ulli Beier Museum .

In 1968 Ulli and Georgina Beier left Nigeria and worked from then on in Australia and Papua New Guinea. Beier returned to Nigeria in 1974 and was professor of Black African Studies at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ilé-Ifè. Susanne Wenger stayed in Oshogbo and died there in 2009. In 1981 the Beier couple returned to Germany. In the same year, the IWALEWA house was inaugurated in Bayreuth , which serves to support studies at the University of Bayreuth in the Africa focus and is intended to present non-European art and culture to a wider audience. Beier was director of the house until 1997 (with one interruption between 1985 and 1987).

He has received numerous honors and awards for his understanding, commitment and efforts to promote other cultures: As early as the 1960s, he was named “Bobagunwa” - “the right hand of the king” and “Bobarotan” - “royal” in Nigeria Historian ”appointed. In 1992 he received the title “Oba Masa” - “King of Tradition” and an honorary doctorate from Obafemi Awolowo University , Ile-Ife . In Germany he was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1979 by the University of Mainz . The city of Bayreuth honored Ulli Beier with the city's culture award in 1995.

pseudonym

Ulli Beier wrote several plays which he published under the pseudonym Obotunde Ijimere. He even provided the character Obotunde Ijimbere with a fictional résumé and fooled many people with it for a long time. But already in 1972 it was revealed by Janheinz Jahn that behind Obotunde Ijimere (translated from the Yoruba the name means: "The monkey has returned the baboon") was Ulli Beier.

Works (selection)

• 1966: The Imprisonment of Obatala. Heinemann, London [a. a.]. (As Obotunde Ijimbere.)
• 1967: Introduction to African Literature: An Anthology of Critical Writing from Black Africa. Longmans, London.
• 1980: New Art in Africa. The book for the exhibition. Reimer, Berlin, ISBN 3-496-01009-6 (exhibition in the Landesmuseum, Mainz and in the University of Bayreuth).
• 1982: Hapless Heads: Paintings by Mad [sic!] From Nigeria - Luckless Heads: Paintings by De-ranged Nigerians . Edition CON, Bremen, ISBN 3-88526-095-6 .
• 1991: 10 years of Iwalewa House in Bayreuth . Encounters with cultures from Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Iwalewa House, Bayreuth.
• 1991: Thirty Years of Oshogbo Art , in connection with an Exhibition at the National Museum, Lagos, Nigeria.
• 1997: A sea of indigo . Adire , Yoruba Textile Art in Transition. Edition Peter Hammer, Wuppertal ISBN 3-87294-769-9 .
• 1999: There is no grass growing in the eye of God . On the religion, art and politics of the Yoruba and Igbo in West Africa. Edition Trickster by Peter Hammer Verlag, Wuppertal, ISBN 3-87294-817-2 .
• 2002: selected and edited by Beier: Yoruba Poetry . Breitlinger, Bayreuth, ISBN 3-927510-75-0 .
• 2003: New art from Australia, Fiji, India, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea and Tonga in the SchmidtBank , Marktredwitz , Verlag für Moderne Kunst, Nuremberg 2003, ISBN 3-936711-13-5 .

literature

• Cornelia Nicodemus: Black in Bayreuth . In: taz , July 13, 2002.

Web links

• Literature by and about Ulli Beier in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Ulli Beier  in the German Digital Library
• Albert S. Gérard: European-language writing in sub-Saharan Africa , Volume 2

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ulli Beier dies at 88 . ( Memento from September 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English) Ulli Beier dies at 88 ( Memento from September 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
2. ^ Charles R. Larson: Commentaries. Ulli Beier: African Playwright? In: Books Abroad 46 (3), 1972, pp. 393-396.