Yoruba Poetry. Traditional Yoruba Poems collected and translated by Bakare Gbadamosi and Ulli Beier.

BLACK ORPHEUS.

Published by Ibadan: General Publications Section, Ministry of Education, 9 February 1959

About this Item

A rare anthology of Yoruba poetry, published as a special issue of the Nigerian literary magazine Black Orpheus. "An excellent survey of Yoruba literary types" (Farris-Thompson, p. 267), the work organizes Yoruba poetry by subject matter into four key genres: oriki (praise), odu (oracle), ijala (hunters), and iwi (masqueraders), alongside marriage and funeral songs, poetry for children, and proverbs. The translation of the poems into English was a collaboration between the German linguist Ulli Beier (1922-2011) and the Yoruba poet Bakare Gbadamosi (b. 1930). In 1957, Beier founded Black Orpheus, which published early writing by Wole Soyinka and Cyprian Ekwensi, among others, and which is now recognized as "the doyen of African literary magazines" (Wollaeger & Eatough, p. 280). The striking illustrations, which recreate scenes of Yoruba myths, are by Beier's wife Susanne Wenger (1915-2009), an Austrian-born artist who, at the time of publication, had been "living for eight years in a Yoruba village, where she has been honoured with a religious title by the priests of the Obatala cult" (p. 64). She founded the New Sacred Art Movement in Osogbo in the early 1960s, which restored shrines to the Yoruba gods in the Sacred Grove, a divine forest along the banks of the river Osun. She remained in Nigeria until her death in 2009. Robert Farris-Thompson, "Yoruba Artistic Criticism" in Howard Morphy and Morgan Perkins, eds, The Anthropology of Art: A Reader, 2006; Kimberli Gant and Ndubuisi Ezeluomba, Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club, 2022; Mark Wollaeger and Matt Eatough, The Oxford Handbook of Global Modernisms, 2012. Folio. With 8 silkscreen prints tipped in, and 10 vignette illustrations to the text, all by Susanne Wenger. Original blue wrappers, printed in black and white, designed by Susanne Wenger. Spine fold lightly rubbed, small spot of browning to head of front wrapper, else bright, light foxing to edges. A very good copy.

Seller Inventory # 175134

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Yoruba Poetry. Traditional Yoruba Poems collected and translated by Bakare Gbadamosi and Ulli Beier.
• Publisher: Ibadan: General Publications Section, Ministry of Education, 9 February 1959
• Edition: 1st Edition