MBARI MBAYO – Those were the days
OH YES!
Mbari Mbayo was the golden age and - I was there! Although even the nom propre of the place, of Mbari M. was what we German Oyingbo Peppers call a ‘tongue-breaker’. But I seem to remember that my German-Jewish-Yoruba countryman Ulli BEIER helped me to pronounce it comme il faut.
And then we students used to take those sixpence Morris Minor cabs/taxis from the bell-tower at U.I. down to Mokola and then trecked to the Club. And ENJOY, the Club, its STAR beer, the performances, and most important of all: the STAR people in the club: from KONGI through the designer man from Asaba Demas Nwoko, John Pepper, and Chris Okigbo who drove in in his flashy Jaguar... and our friend from OSHOGBO of Oba Koso fame... Duro Ladipo.
Those were the days, the best introduction to vibrant African culture to be had for a young ONIOCHA, BATURE, Mzungu.
African culture: Not the Negritudinist, mystifiying kind but rather of the realist-surrealist type - unfortunately already - predictive of things to come after that ‘independence on a platter of gold’ – the ‘Western Rig-On’ was just around the corrner...
Loking back I wonder whether even at that time African Culture was not being supported financially by an organisation which was called ‘Congress for Cultural Freedom’, which, as we found out much later, was an American front organisation, fully financed by... an organisation by the name of ...CIA.
If so, and KONGI has a story about that in SET FORTH, we did enjoy their generosity! The Oyingbo Pepper, for one, enjoyed it ALL But only a few years later it was all over...
And for a few weeks in later 1965 I trecked a few hundred yards further, up from Dugbe Market to the Central Police station near Cocoa House..., where a certain Kongi or ‘da man’ or Prof. had been locked up prior to his trial for having staged a somewhat violent irruption into a studio of the Western Nigerian Broadcasting Station. And I quote:
… „ A wild man from the German radio named Gerd Meuer, braving the xenophobic reaction to foreign pressmen, baffled, irritated and entertained the officers all at the same time; and they finally learnt to live with his unpredictable irruptions. Once he crashed through their latest ‘restraining orders’ with picnic basket, laden with an eight-course Indonesian meal, prepared by his wife. Both prisoner and goalers had their fillof the exotic treat while the Investigation Department continued to seek witnesses, take statements, look for missing bodies.” Wole Soyinka, “Ibadan”, p. 367 describing my regular visits to him while he was locked up in a cell at Ibadan Police Headquarters in September 1966.
If it wasnt for my two 'successfully concluded' marriages... and the accompanying expenses involved... I would have- gladly – dug deep into my pocket or wallet to buy a plane ticket to fly to EKO, to be present at yet another Book Fair and share those experiences with the lovers of African Culture, the KULTSHURE that does not fall asleep with praise-singing of “the good old days before the coming of the white man, when we were all a happy crowd of Africans singing and dancing under the Boabab tree and drinking palm-wine...”
No Mbari Mbaye stood for a vibrant, challenging culture. Mbari was a place where KING UBU was already staged long before Idi Amin, Jean-Bedel Bokassa, Mengistu Haile Mariam and all the other Sanni Abachas even appeared on that very real stage... in the lives of African peoples. Having travelled in 48 of 51 African countries since 1962 - my first African ‘port of call’ having been Ibadan! – I CANNOT think of a more cultured place in Africa.
I shall always thank the YORUBA Gods for having granted me that unique opportunity so early in life!!!
Adupe, asante sana, anitshé, gracias, obrigado, merci, dank u well and DANKESCHÖN!!!
So says grandpa Gerd. |
