Nigeria Content Online

The remains of Ulli
Beier, the German linguist whose pioneering work served as a launch-pad
for Nigerian arts and culture in the 50s and 60s, will be cremated
today in Sydney, Australia.

The Africanist, who
passed away earlier this week, is survived by his wife, Georgina, and
sons, Sebastian and Tunji, a percussionist. A church service for family members will
precede the cremation of Beier, who once fraternised with Yoruba
traditional religions in Western Nigeria, and whose first wife, Susanne
Wenger, became a lifelong devotee and priestess of Osun River worship.

A commemorative
event will follow on Sunday, April 10, in Beier’s home in Annandale,
Sydney, to be attended by friends and former colleagues, for the
celebration of his life and work.

Muraina Oyelami,
one of the artists who rose out of workshops organised by Beier in
Osogbo in the early 1960s, revealed that attempts to send a delegation
to Beier’s funeral had been scuppered by visa complications, given the
short time available.

Oyelami, who
made the official announcement of the legendary Africanist’s death on
Sunday, April 3, also said meetings are ongoing to concretise plans for
a symposium on the life of Beier, whose collections are held at the
Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding (CBCIU) in
Osogbo.

Mr. Beier had been too frail to attend the opening of the centre in January 2009, but his son, Tunji, graced the occasion.

Mr. Beier had come
to Nigeria for the first time at age 28 along with Wenger, an
Austrian-born artist he met in Paris. They settled into his new life at
the Extra Mural Studies Department of the then University College,
Ibadan, but soon grew restless.

They travelled
through Yoruba towns including Ilobu and Ede before settling in Osogbo
in 1958. Along with second wife, Georgina, he organised the
epoch-making art workshops that energised the Nigerian culture scene in
the 1960s.

Along with the late
dramatist, Duro Ladipo, he founded the Mbari-Mbayo Artist and Writers
Club, and translated many Yoruba writings. Under the pseudonym,
Obotunde Ijimere, Beier was also the author of a significant book in
the African Writers’ Series, ‘The Imprisonment of Obatala’.

He served as
director of the Institute of African Studies at the then University of
Ife, and later worked in Papua New Guinea before settling in Australia
where he lived out the rest of his days.

According to Oyelami, there are also plans to send a small Nigerian delegation to
commiserate with Beier’s family in Australia at a later date.