Published 22 January 2026 in The Legacy
Uche Okeke Legacy Editorial
Before Uche Okeke and the Zaria Rebels initiated the aesthetic turn that birthed the Nsukka School and the philosophy of Natural Synthesis, a cultural movement was already well in bloom in Nigeria, and at its heart was the Mbari Artists and Writers Club.
Founded in 1961 in Ibadan, it became a crucible for postcolonial modernism - a haven where artists, writers, and intellectuals across Africa and the diaspora could meet to interrogate colonial legacies and imagine new futures.
Mbari’s Founding and Vision
ASC Leiden, NSAG, van Es 12, 030, A street scene 1, Wikimedia Commons
The Club was founded by Ulli Beier, a German linguist and cultural advocate, after he moved to Nigeria in the 1950s. He had become deeply involved in Yoruba arts and literature, working closely with artists and writers, often acting as a bridge between them and international audiences. Beier had driven the publication of early African voices through platforms like Black Orpheus, a journal established by Beier in 1957 as a counter to Eurocentric literary criticism and to promote freedom of voice.
Alongside him were Nigerian intellectuals Wole Soyinka - Nobel Laureate in Literature (1986), dramatist and poet known for his sharp critique, Chinua Achebe - author of Things Fall Apart (1958), bringer of Igbo cosmology and anti-colonial resistance into the global literary discourse, and Christopher Okigbo – a celebrated poet, whose works blended Igbo myth with Western form. Within the sanctity of The Club, they unashamedly played their part in grounding it in true Africanism, celebrating the history and heritage of the continent.
A Crossroads of African Modernism
At the height of the Mbari Club, it became a gathering place for African and diasporic creatives of all kinds seeking not only freedom of expression but solidarity. It was a space that allowed for candidness of self and craft, but also that of like-minded individuals who, more often than not, had the same lived experiences.
Exhibitions were more intimate and improvisational. Bruce Onobrakpeya, Demas Nwoko, and Jacob Afolabi all presented works that reflected personal and political experimentation in Mbari spaces, such as Onobrakpeya’s printmaking and metal foil techniques, Nwoko’s installations that interrogated tradition and urbanity. These shows, often staged in converted spaces in Ibadan, reflected a shift away from academic formalism, marking key moments in the articulation of a modern African visual language shaped by collective critique and cultural memory.
A notable international connection of the Club was Gerard Sekoto. Exiled from South Africa in 1947 during apartheid, Sekoto settled in Paris but was invited by Beier to visit Nigeria in the early 1960s. His paintings - rooted in social realism and charged with political empathy - were exhibited in Ibadan and Lagos under the Club’s auspices. Sekoto’s time in Nigeria crystallised a pan-African dialogue of art as resistance. Similarly, the Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o was involved with the Mbari circle during his early years after Beier’s literary network caught wind of Thiong’o’s writings. His play The Black Hermit (1962), one of the first modern Kenyan plays in English, was performed at Mbari’s Ibadan theatre. The encounter signalled the Club’s wide reach and commitment to confronting the entanglements of tradition and colonial disruption.
Connection to Uche Okeke
Uche Okeke engaged with the Mbari Club on a more philosophical stage than institutional. He did not formally affiliate with the Ibadan chapter, but Okeke and Beier shared mutual respect and corresponded occasionally. Both were invested in revitalising indigenous creative traditions and resisting imported academic norms. Through his writings and curatorial efforts, Beier acknowledged the Zaria Art Society’s groundbreaking shift toward cultural self-determination - a vision Okeke inspired from within.
Official recognition alone didn’t validate Okeke’s pursuit; it came through in the thematic resonance across their projects. The Mbari Club and Okeke’s Nsukka School both envisioned a postcolonial Africa with art grounded in heritage while being alive to innovation. As Okeke began his pursuit to foreground Uliism in the early 1960s, it mirrored the Mbari impulse: reinvigoration of the African visual systems, not static relics, but vital, evolving languages. These dialogues and shared thinking between Ibadan and Nsukka made them one part of the much larger ecosystem of aesthetic awakening.
Legacy and Influence
In 1963, the Mbari ethos was carried across Nigeria by its sister institution, the Mbari Mbayo Club. Established by Ulli Beier and
Susanne Wenger in Osogbo, a town with deep connections to Yoruba heritage, it became another haven that echoed the Mbary Club in Ibadan. Artists
Twins Seven-Seven,
Muraina Oyelami, and
Rufus Ogundele all found the space and developed styles blending ritual performance, batik, sculpture, and mythic storytelling. The space, though informal, functioned as a radical environment for art outside colonial frameworks. It offered young artists the freedom to experiment with indigenous themes, without the constraints of Western academia.
Other offshoots included the Mbari Enugu chapter and other collectives in Lagos. Although smaller, these spaces provided holistic training in the arts across linguistic and ethnic divides. By decentralising colonial art institutions and foregrounding African philosophies - practices of knowing, creating, and teaching, they empowered artists to use their own authentic cultural vocabularies, allowing these movements to expand what modernism could mean in Africa. It was no longer about imitating European trends, but rather shaping identities that were grounded locally, yet globally resonant. These spaces spoke to ordinary people, engaged with oral histories, and challenged elitist limitations in the arts. The diversity of styles and mediums - whether Uli, Yoruba Oríkì, printmaking, or experimental theatre and literature - was a testament to the creative plurality ignited by the Mbari vision.
Conclusion
The impact of the Mbari Club expanded beyond its Ibadan base. It contributed to the reimagining of modernism in Africa, centring the continent’s histories, forms, philosophies, methods, and most importantly, futures. While institutions like
Iwalewahaus in Bayreuth, Germany – also founded by Ulli Beier - have in part preserved the history of Mbari through exhibitions and archives, much of its legacy remains underexplored, particularly in Nigerian public institutions. This history should not be forgotten.
The Mbari Club, like T
he Nsukka Art School, was vital in asserting intellectual and creative sovereignty at a time when political independence and cultural autonomy were not yet truly afforded. It shaped global perceptions of African literature and art, challenged reductive narratives and elevated the status of their expression on the world stage – giving freedom of voice and spirit to those that had been stifled for too long. The Mbari Club will always be a key ingredient in what is African Modernism.
Mbari Mbayo Complex, Front View, Inside Osun Osogbo, 7 July 2025, Abdurrazaq A.F.O, Exif_JPEG_420, Wikimedia Commons
