CBCIU remembers Ulli Beier, foremost Yoruba culture promoter

The 2019 edition of the annual Ulli Beier Annual Lecture recently held in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, left fond memories in the mind of culture enthusiasts who thronged the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding, venue of the epoch. TUNDE BUSARI reports

E VEN when former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola was kilometres away from the venue in Osogbo, the Osun State capital and was represented by Alhaji Kazeem Adio, his presence was pervasive in generous eulogy showered on him as a genuine lover of culture, who birthed what is today known and celebrated as the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding.

Prince Oyinlola is serving the centre as Chairman, Board of Trustees and also said to have contributed immensely in ensuring that the centre remains consistent with the dream of Ulli Beier, who was known to be a close friend to Oyinlola’s late father, the Olokuku of Okuku, Oba Moses Oyinlola.

Aside Oyinlola, a royal blood from Okuku in Odo-Otin Local Government Council of the state, the legendary German researcher, Ulli Beier and the culture amazon, Adunni Olorisa (Susanne Wenger) equally earned the applause of the audience for their respective roles in preserving and promoting Yoruba cultural heritage, committing all they had into the project in their lifetime.

That role explains the staging of the annual lecture, 2019 edition of which held last month in atmosphere which recreated life and times of the late Europeans who lived and died for Yoruba arts.

The Director of the centre, Professor Siyan Oyeweso, a renowned Professor of History, and his planning team justified the sleepless nights they endured on drawing board  going by the stature of guests they hosted in that big theatre.

The gathering was admix of academics and sundry lovers of practitioners, some of whom had attended previous editions in the same Ulli Beier Hall.  It was a day of lecture and cultural performances by select troupes invited to spice up the occasion. Audience was thrilled and was particularly ferried back to good old days of when live performances were a major feature of night life in Yorubaland.

Professor Oyeweso said that a return to past social life in which people walked to film houses and enjoyed movies and returned home with joy, would stabilise and improve life expectancy rate. Those who had the opportunity to witness Osogbo and Ibadan even up till early 70s, he added, would appreciate his dream.

“I can assure you that we are on course; this mission is real, and we are going to achieve it. If you go through the objectives of CBCIU, this are of interest, they should not be strange to you. That was the dream of Ulli Beier whose footprint in Osogbo and Ibadan cannot be wished away. At the centre, we owe him this rejuvenation of what he symbolized,” he said.

To Professor Oyeweso, Beier and Wenger were God-sent individuals with uncompromising interest in Yoruba culture which eventually brought out the hidden talents in young Yoruba artiste who dominated the scene in the 60s and 70s and became global products in their respective areas of arts.

“They lived a life full of selfless service. This is why they are being remembered annually as they took the Yoruba culture to the world stage. I want to urge Nigerians to learn from them and live lives that will make people to not only remember them but also celebrate them with occasions like this we just held here,” he admonished.

The Professor recalled how Ulli Beier, a linguist, arrived at the University of Ibadan to teach Phonetics, after which he found himself engrossed in promoting Yoruba cultural heritage at places like Ibadan and Osogbo.

The lecture titled ‘The Essence of Ulli Beier’ was delivered by the Head, Department of History, University of Ibadan, Professor Olutayo Adesina, who first expressed his satisfaction at the consistency for which CBCIU is reputed.

He berated the thriving spirit of extreme individualism among the people, a contrast to communalism which was said to have shaped remarkable growth of pre-colonial Yoruba society, stressing that society would suffer until people retraced their steps.

Professor Adesina also said that the Nigerian culture is unique, hence its attraction to Ulli Beier, who devoted his time and resources into it.

“Let me also state here that history is not about the past alone. It’s a total way of our lives. More so, the heritage we are preserving or protecting is not only for tourism but it is about us. We are exactly how we present culture and heritage to the public.”

Like Oyeweso and Adesina, Oyinlola also attested to the legacy of Ulli Beier and Susanne Wenger, describing them as great contributors to cultural and tourism development in Osun.

On January 7, 2009, the CBCIU was set up with the administrative building officially inaugurated by the then Director-General of UNESCO, Koichuro Masuura, after several visits by UNESCO officials to both Osogbo and Sydney, Australia.

Saturday Tribune gathered that Oyinlola, then as governor of Osun State, also visited  France and received federal government nod on the centre.v