{{Short description|Centre for cultural activity by Africans founded in Ibadan, Nigeria}} '''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.<ref name=Telegraph>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8508079/Ulli-Beier.html "Ulli Beier" (obituary)], ''The Telegraph'', 11 May 2011.</ref><ref name=Britannica>[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mbari-Mbayo-Club "Mbari Mbayo Club"], ''Encyclopædia Britannica''.</ref> ''Mbari'', an Igbo concept related to "creation", was suggested as the name by Achebe.<ref name=Britannica /> Among other Mbari members were Christopher Okigbo, J. P. Clark and South African writer Ezekiel Mphahlele, Amos Tutuola, Frances Ademola, Jacob Afolabi, Demas Nwoko, Mabel Segun, Uche Okeke,<ref>[http://www.bookshybooks.com/2014/10/54-years-of-nigerian-literature-mbari.html "54 Years of Nigerian Literature: The Mbari Club"], ''Bookshy'', 2014.</ref> Arthur Nortje and Bruce Onobrakpeya.<ref name=Columbia>Oyekan Owomoyela, [https://books.google.com/books?id=VaZx0Q2O3l8C&dq=mbari+club&pg=PA129 ''The Columbia Guide to West African Literature in English Since 1945''], Columbia University Press, 2013, p. 129.</ref>
''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."<ref name=Telegraph /> In the words of Toyin Adepoju: "Coming to birth in the flux of the pre-independence and immediate postindependence period in Nigeria, it brought together a constellation of artists whose work embodied the quality of transformation embodied by the aesthetic of creation, decay, and regeneration evoked by the Mbari tradition."<ref name=Adepoju>Toyin Adepoju, [https://books.google.com/books?id=nkVxNVvex-sC&dq=mbari+club+1961-&pg=PA665 "Mbari Club"], in Carole Boyce Davies (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture: Origins, Experiences, and Culture'', ABC-CLIO, 2008, p. 665.</ref>
Closely connected with the literary magazine ''Black Orpheus'', which Beier had founded in 1957, Mbari also acted as a publisher during the 1960s — considered to be the only African-based publisher of African literature at the time — producing 17 titles by African writers.<ref>James Currey, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/reseafrilite.44.2.8?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents "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> 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), Kofi Awoonor and Lenrie Peters,<ref name=Columbia /> as well as translations of francophone poetry.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://climate-connections.org/2009/10/02/dennis-brutus-poem-gull-copenhagen-conference/|title=Dennis Brutus poem 'Gull' (Copenhagen conference)|last=GJEP|date=2009-10-02|website=Climate Connections|language=en-US|access-date=25 April 2020}}</ref> Brutus was chosen as winner of the Mbari Prize, awarded to a black poet of distinction, but turned it down on the grounds of its racial exclusivity.<ref>Josh MacPhee, [https://justseeds.org/242-mbari-publishing/ "242: Mbari Publishing"], ''Justseeds'', 20 September 2016.</ref><ref>Dennis Brutus, [https://books.google.com/books?id=mpSqpLpvKcMC&dq=Mbari+prize+&pg=PA23 ''The Dennis Brutus Tapes: Essays at Autobiography''] (edited by Bernth Lindfors), James Currey, 2011, p. 23.</ref>
==History== Founded in 1961 by a diverse group of writers, visual artists, musicians, and actors, and active throughout the 1960s, 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.<ref name=Telegraph />
While celebrating the creativity of Nigerian talent in the newly independent nation, Mbari "was an international environment, attracting artists from across Africa and beyond".<ref>[http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/century-city/century-city-lagos-1955-70 "Mbari writers and artists Club"], ''Century City: Lagos 1955–70'', Tate.</ref> 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 their work, including Langston Hughes, Jacob Lawrence and Pete Seeger.<ref name=Columbia /> The club also initiated writing competitions.<ref name=Adepoju />
As recalled by Lindsay Barrett, secretary of the Mbari Club from 1966 to 1967: "We were in a historic, literary setting ... when the civil war [1967–70] broke out and disintegrated everything."<ref>Anote Ajeluorou, [http://www.nigerianbestforum.com/generaltopics/echoes-of-okigbos-poetic-legacy-at-ibadan-reading-tour/ "Echoes of Okigbo’s poetic legacy at Ibadan reading tour"], NBF Topics, 13 May 2009.</ref>
===Mbari Mbayo=== In 1962 a similar club based on the same concepts, 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"),<ref name=Britannica /><ref name=Columbia /> was developed in Oshogbo — about 50 miles northeast of Ibadan — by dramatist Duro Ladipo together with Beier and Mphahlele.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mbari-Mbayo-Club|title=Mbari Mbayo Club {{!}} African arts club|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=25 April 2020}}</ref> Ladipo converted his father's house into an art gallery and a theatre, where he produced his plays.<ref name=Britannica /> Artists who emerged from the Mbari Mbayo Club in Oshogbo include Twins Seven Seven, Jimoh Buraimoh and Muraina Oyelami.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Darnton |first1=John |title=Cultural Renaissance Is Under Way in West Africa (Published 1977) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/01/17/archives/cultural-renaissance-is-under-way-in-west-africa.html |work=The New York Times |date=17 January 1977}}</ref><ref name=Britannica />
===Mbari-Enugu=== The Mbari-Enugu Club of Eastern Nigeria was established in 1963 and like Mbari Mbayo was particularly a platform for sculpture, painting and literary performance.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=yYqYAAAAQBAJ&dq=mbari+club+members&pg=PT45 "Common Objectives and Ambitions"] in D. Strauhs, ''African Literary NGOs: Power, Politics, and Participation'', Springer, 2013.</ref>
==Selected list of people associated with The Mbari Club== {{div col|colwidth=30em}} * Chinua Achebe * Frances Ademola * Ulli Beier * Lindsay Barrett * J. P. Clark * Vincent Akwete Kofi * Ezekiel Mphahlele * Arthur Nortje * Amos Tutuola * Demas Nwoko * Uche Okeke * Christopher Okigbo * Colette Omogbai * Bruce Onobrakpeya * Muraina Oyelami * Ibrahim el-Salahi * Mabel Segun * Wole Soyinka {{div col end}}
==Legacy== In June 2016, the Ibadan Literary Society (IBS) was launched, modelled after the Mbari Club.<ref>[http://www.dailynigerianews.com/2016/06/19/reviving-the-pioneer-literary-club-mbari-through-ibadan-literary-society/ "Reviving the pioneer literary club, Mbari through Ibadan literary society"], ''Daily Nigeria News'', 19 June 2016.</ref> In December 2019, ''The Mbari Clubs and Nigerian Modernism'', an exhibition focusing on the Mbari Clubs in Ibadan and Osogbo, took place at the Barbican Art Gallery in London.<ref>[https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2019/event/the-mbari-clubs-and-nigerian-modernism "The Mbari Clubs and Nigerian Modernism – Into the Night tour"], Barbican, 11 December 2019.</ref>
==Further reading== * James Currey, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/reseafrilite.44.2.8?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents "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. * Olabode Ibironke, [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hic3.12288/abstract "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. * Chika Okeke-Agulu, ''[https://www.dukeupress.edu/postcolonial-modernism#:~:text=Written%20by%20one%20of%20the,of%20civil%20war%20in%201967. Postcolonial Modernism: Art and Decolonization in Twentieth-Century Nigeria]'' (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015)
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== * [http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no90000513.html "Mbari Club"] at Library of Congress. * ’Tunji Olaopa, [https://punchng.com/the-spirit-of-mbari-club/ "The spirit of Mbari Club"], ''Punch'' (Nigeria), 23 September 2018.
{{authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Mbari Club, The}} Category:1961 establishments in Nigeria Category:Arts organizations based in Nigeria Category:Arts organizations established in 1961 Category:Poetry publishers Category:Culture of Nigeria