The Mbari Club
The Mbari Club was a centre for cultural activity by African writers, artists and musicians that was founded in Ibadan, Nigeria, in 1961 by Ulli Beier, with the involvement of a group of young writers including Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe.[1][2] Mbari, an Igbo word for "creation", was suggested as the name by Achebe.[2][3] Among other Mbari members were Christopher Okigbo, J. P. Clark and South African writer Ezekiel Mphahlele, Frances Ademola, Demas Nwoko, Mabel Segun, Uche Okeke,[3] Arthur Nortje and Bruce Onobrakpeya.[4]
The Daily Telegraph in an obituary of Beier noted that "the Mbari Club became synonymous with the optimism and creative exuberance of Africa’s post-independence era. Fela Kuti made his debut as bandleader there, and it became a magnet for artists and writers from all over Africa, America and the Caribbean."[1]
Closely connected with the literary magazine Black Orpheus, which Beier founded in 1957, Mbari also acted as a publisher during the 1960s — said to be the only African-based publisher of African literature at the time — producing 17 titles by African writers.[5] Mbari published early works by Clark, Okigbo and Soyinka, poetry by Bakare Gbadamosi (Okiri, 1961), Alex La Guma (A Walk in the Night and Other Stories, 1962), Dennis Brutus (Sirens, Knuckles, Boots, 1963), as well as translations of francophone poetry.[3] Kofi Awoonor and Lenrie Peters.[4]
History
The Mbari Club was originally located in Ibadan's Dugbe Market, on the site of "an old Lebanese restaurant that was converted into an open-air performance venue, an art gallery, a library, and an office."[3] The premieres of Soyinka's The Trials of Brother Jero and Clark's Song of a Goat were staged at Mbari, and internationally renowned artists were also invited to play or exhibit there work, including Langston Hughes, Jacob Lawrence, Pete Seeger.[4]
In 1962 a similar club, called Mbari Mbayo (the name this time reflecting a Yoruba phrase meaning: "Were I to see, I would rejoice" or "When we see it we shall be happy"),[4][2] was developed in Oshogbo — about 50 miles northeast of Ibadan — by dramatist Duro Ladipo together with Beier and Mphahlele.[3] Ladipo converted his father's house into an art gallery and a theatre, where he produced his plays.[2] Artists who emerged from the Mbari Mbayo Club in Oshogbo include Twins Seven Seven and Jimoh Buraimoh.[2]
Further reading
- James Currey, "Literary Publishing After Nigerian Independence: Mbari as Celebration", Research in African Literatures, Vol. 44, No. 2, (In)Visibility in African Cultures / Zoe Norridge, Charlotte Baker, and Elleke Boehmer, Guest Editors (Summer 2013), pp. 8–16.</ref>
- Olabode Ibironke, "The Ibadan Origins of Modern African Literature: African Writers Series, Mbari Club & the Social Character of Ibadan", History Compass, Vol. 13, Issue 11, pp. 550–559, November 2015.
References
- ^ a b "Ulli Beier" (obituary), The Telegraph, 11 May 2011.
- ^ a b c d e "Mbari Mbayo Club", Encyclopædia Britannica.
- ^ a b c d e "54 Years of Nigerian Literature: The Mbari Club", Bookshy, 30 October 2014.
- ^ a b c d Oyekan Owomoyela, The Columbia Guide to West African Literature in English Since 1945, Columbia University Press, 2013, p. 129.
- ^ James Currey, "Literary Publishing After Nigerian Independence: Mbari as Celebration", Research in African Literatures, Vol. 44, No. 2, (In)Visibility in African Cultures / Zoe Norridge, Charlotte Baker, and Elleke Boehmer, Guest Editors (Summer 2013), pp. 8–16.