Horst Ulrich (Ulli) Beier (30 July 1922 – 3 April 2011) was a German editor, writer and scholar, who had a pioneering role in developing literature, drama and poetry in Nigeria, as well as literature, drama and poetry in Papua New Guinea. His wife Georgina Beier[1] had an instrumental role in simultaneously stimulating the visual arts in both Nigeria and Papua New Guinea.
Beier was born in Glowitz, Weimar Germany (modern Główczyce, Poland) in July 1922. His father was a medical doctor and an appreciator of art and raised his son to embrace the arts. After the Nazi party' rise to power, the Beiers, who are non-practicing Jews, left for Palestine. In Palestine, while his family were briefly detained as enemy aliens by the British authorities, Ulli Beier was able to earn a BA as an external student from the University of London. However, he later moved to London to earn a degree in Phonetics. A few years later, after his first marriage to the Austrian artist Susanne Wenger, he was given a faculty position at the University of Ibadan to teach Phonetics.
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While at the University, Beier transferred from the Phonetics department to the Mural Studies department. It was at the Mural Studies department he became interested in Yoruba culture and arts. Though, he was a teacher at Ibadan, he ventured outside the city and lived in nearby cities, of Ede, Ilobu and Osogbo, this gave him an avenue to see the spatial environment of different Yoruba communities. In 1956, after visiting the First Congress of Negro Artists and Writers organized by Presence Africaine at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France Ulli Beier returned to Ibadan and founded the magazine Black Orpheus, the name was inspired by Jean Paul Sartre's essay "Orphée Noir". The journal quickly became the leading space for Nigerian authors to write and publish their work. The journal became known for its innovative works and literary excellence and was widely acclaimed. Later in 1961, Beier, co-founded the Mbari Artists and Writers Club, Ibadan, a place for new writers, dramatist and artists, to meet and perform their work. In 1962, he co-founded (with the dramatist Duro Ladipo) Mbari-Mbayo, Osogbo. In the early 1980s he founded and directed the Iwalewa Haus, an art centre at the University of Bayreuth in Germany.
Ulli Beier was known for his efforts in translating African literary works. He emerged as one of the scholars who introduced African writers to a large international audience for his works in translating plays of dramatists such as Duro Ladipo and publishing Modern Poetry (1963) an anthology of African poems.
After Beier left Nigeria in 1968, he worked in Papua New Guinea and intermittently returned to Nigeria for brief periods. While in Papua New Guinea, he fostered budding writers at the University of Papua New Guinea. Whilst in New Guinea, his wife, Georgina Beier continued the work she had been doing in Nigeria, recognising and encouraging the visual imagination of New Guineans. Beier found international venues taking the artwork to world. Ulli Beier created the literary periodical Kovave: A Journal of New Guinea literature, which reproduced works by Papua New Guinean artists including Timothy Akis and Mathias Kauage.[2] His efforts have been described as significant in facilitating the emergence of Papua New Guinean literature.[3]
While in Papua New Guinea, he encouraged Albert Maori Kiki to record his autobiography, which Beier transcribed and edited. The book, Ten Thousand Years in a Lifetime was published in 1968.[4]
He lived in Sydney, Australia with his wife and artist Georgina Beier. Beier died aged 88 on 3 April 2011 at his home in Annandale.