Ibadan 1960 – Art, History and Literature
AHRB CentreCATH Seminar 2
The aim of this Seminar is to review a moment in the postcolonial, situated in the city space of Ibadan, Nigeria.
Ibadan is the major city of the Western region of Nigeria, aside from Lagos. It is a city with a particular place in Yoruba history, being the fulcrum of the late Oyo empire. However, this conference is concerned not with the particularity of the city as Yoruba but rather with a moment within which there could be said to be a renaissance in cultural and academic production. Ibadan in the 1960s was the arena within which a number of international careers developed. Three main areas: literature, art and history. Within each particular themes and agendas emerged, the three areas also encouraged and were encouraged by each other .
In literature the work of Wole Soyinka, J P Clarke, Chris Okigbo, D O Fangunwa and Amos Tutuola well as exiles from other non-decolonised parts of Africa such as Alex La Guma and E. Mphalele from South Africa and A. Onyeto from Angola.
In contemporary art the work of Twins Seven Seven, Bruce Onobrakpeya and Jimoh Burimoh , the whole concept of the Mbari workshops run by Ulli Beier and his wife Georgina, the connections between Ibadan and the Harlem Renaissance. The Ibadan history school as a part of the wider context of Ibadan culture. K Dike and Jacob Ajayi were largely responsible for the production of a post-colonial historiography. The university also provided the place for academic exiles such as John Omer-Cooper and Mphele.
Apart from Ulli Beier others such as Lalage Bowen, Micheal Crowder, Martin Banham and Molly Mahood all had a place in this social nexus.
....a reflection back from art historians, postcolonial literary critiques and historians and r scholars working on the contemporary life of the city.
Ibadan 1960: Creativity and the Collective Impromptu
Dele Layiwola, University of Ibadan
Abstract
It is true that Ibadan was founded over a century before it became the home of Nigeria's premier university and a conglomerate of publishing houses; the very roots of cultural nationalism and a creative enterprise had always been evident. As a war camp, conquerors, wanderers, the weary and the mendicant found an accommodating home in Ibadan. In spite of a certain planlessness and rowdiness, there had always been a strong sense of security and heightened urban consciousness in the citizenry. In other words, the very ingredient of drama – conflict – had always attended Ibadan. Her warriors became the strongest rallying point for the Yoruba nation just before the inception of colonial rule and the climax of Yoruba warfare. This paper, therefore, intends to make the point that the hybridity and the complexity of Ibadan as an 'artificial' settlement played a crucial role in its being a center of amazing creativity and serendipity. Its fierce nationalism and violent municipal conflicts between 1830 and 1966 are thus signposts for cultural revival and identity re-formulation and re-invention. In theatrical terms, I hope to illustrate this with a video clip from the stage adaptation of Moliere's Les Fouberies de Scapin as That Scoundrel Suberu by Dapo Adelugba and the University Dramatic Society in the early 1960s.
Biography
Dele Layiwola is a graduate of Ife and Leeds Universities. He earned a PhD from Leeds in 1986. He has been visiting scholar to Legon University, Ghana;Northwestern, Illinois and Ulster in Co. Derry. He was promoted full professor in 1998 and presently serves on the Governing Council of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
Recte Sapere Fons: The Intellectual and Artistic Ambiance of University College, Ibadan, 1960, and Its Legacies
Molara Ogundipe, University of Arkansas
Abstract
Importantly, Ibadan in 1960 was a University College of the University of London. Her motto was "Recte Sapere Fons:" in English from the Latin, "To think straight is the fount (of knowledge). I will explore in my paper what "thinking straight" meant for its members in that university ambiance and for the students received and produced there; what we brought to that college that was a world gathering of scholars, and what we took away.
I shall discuss characteristics, events, and issues determinant and prevalent at the time, such as the appeal of rationalism, attempts at building a global intellectual culture at Ibadan, the beginnings of the decolonization of disciplines, and the importance, roles and influence of the arts and culture in the context of nationalist and transformational fervor on campus, the city of Ibadan, and the country of Nigeria.
Biography
Molara Ogundipe, PhD. (Leiden) entered the University College, Ibadan in 1958 to study English and became in 1963 the first student in the history of the university (from 1948) to graduate first class honors from the Faculty of Arts. After decades of teaching at the Universities of Ibadan and Ile-Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, she became the founding chair of the English department at Ogun State University. After a sabbatical year of working as Editorial Board Member of the then prestigious Guardian newspapers where she wrote weekly op-ed articles, she was appointed a National Director for politics, culture and mobilization in the Federal Government from 1987 to 89. After this, she went to North America where she has been professor in Canada and the US. In the 90s she was invited to the new South Africa to help build master 's degrees in English and Gender Studies.
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