Chief Jimoh Buraimoh is a contemporary Nigerian artist and one of the products of the experimental workshops known as the Oshogbo School of Art that took place in the 1960s. He was among the quartet whose bold and unconventional art changed the face of contemporary arts in Nigeria. He developed the beads arts, a style of arts that made the world to develop keen interest in the country’s arts. In this interview with Okorie Uguru, he spoke about his journey through life as an artist, among other issues.
2015 Osun Osogbo festival marks the 10-year anniversary of the enlistment of the Osun grove as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. What gains do you think the status has brought to the festival?
The status has brought popularity to Osogbo. From inception, some of us, like Ulli Beier, Susanne Wenger, Georgina Beier and the king at the time, made it possible. We were just doing what we thought was okay for us, not knowing that the future of arts would be better.
What we did then, when we were in training under the late Duro Ladipo, was acquiring university degree in Theatre Arts. I was working there as one of the theatre men, but Twin Seven Seven was not part of the theatre. Myself, Oyelami and some others were there. As we were doing it, anytime Osun festival approached, we would role out exhibitions. Ulli invited different kinds of people from different countries to come and look at the exhibitions. I can remember vividly, in 1963/64, he invited Kofi from Ghana. He did sculpture. And later on, he brought in somebody from an art school for summer school. Some of us emerged. Out of this group, some among us have now passed on, people like Rufus Ogundele and Afolabi Jacob.
In 1964, about four of us emerged out of about 50. Georgina Beier conducted the workshop. She later became the wife of Ulli Beier. We worked together as a team, but when the festival was coming, we had exhibitions. We also did so many things like dramas and so on. Duro Ladipo did drama, we also danced round the town to create awareness. That was how people started coming.
Professor Odetoyinbo wrote a book recently on how Osogbo was put in the world map. He wrote that it was through us that Osogbo was put in the world map. If you go through the forward of the book, it would tell you what we did then to make sure… not knowing that we were bringing Osogbo to popularity.
By then, almost 500 to 1000 visitors would come from different parts of the world to visit the exhibitions and the grove. Ulli always write to people to come over.
So, later on, there was a division of labour between them. Georgina Beier specialized in modern art, while Suzanne Wenger specialized in traditional arts and religious arts. She later on became the daughter of the king, Adenle. When she became the daughter, it gave her the privilege to work at the grove. So, the king just gave her a blank cheque to go and do anything she liked. She felt anywhere she saw any kind of thing she would put a work there. That was how the grove became a sacred place.
She was doing it little by little with help from different foundations like Ford Foundation, from her family, from Austria, and so on. That was how she got money to do things and Ulii sometimes helped. Any time he sold an art work, he would use the money to fund the place until it became very popular. He continued to write. For example, in 1966, we used to have theatre in the morning and in the afternoon we used to go to Georgina Beier’s house, that is Ulli Beier’s house, to practice art.
What we were told then was to make our minds free, do what comes from our minds, and not to copy anybody. By that time, Twin Seven Seven had gone his own way. He was later followed by Muraino Oyelana. But, as the manager of the theatre, I was busy and working hard to do something different from what they were doing. So, we went to Amsterdam in 1966, and while at the airport ,I saw a mosaic on the wall. I had never seen a mosaic before. Then I asked somebody, what is this called, and he said mosaic. I said this is beautiful. When I got home, I decided to use beads. That was how I started using beaded works for table tops. I started with table top, not on the wall…
You developed it into an art…
Later on, I found out that when other people exhibited about 20 works, I cannot exhibit more than two, because they were too heavy to carry, and Ulli Beier was the one who encouraged me to start that. In 1966, I went to Lagos to see a friend. I wanted to use something that will help me fasten beads, and she asked why can’t I do landscape. I said well, ok. I did not disagree with her. I did not disclose my intention to her. My intention was to come home and start doing the beads on something flat. When I came back home, I did about two on canvass and showed them to the lady, Jean Kennedy. She was the wife of old Bob Kennedy. She was working with USAID.. Jean Kennedy used to have exhibition for us every Thursday.
So, by the time I did that, I became a bit known. Later on, when I started the bead painting. The first exhibition was in 1967 at the Goethe Institute in Lagos, and I had about 17 works. Before the opening, because there used to be a preview a day before, almost about 15 works had gone, and when the people came the second day, they were told the art works had been bought. That was how I started becoming popular in my own art.
Three or four of us were distinct, but that is not happening these days.
So, how did you people marry this art into religion?
Well, religion is apart.
I mean the Osogbo School of Art was not just distinct on its own, it was married into the traditional religion?
Then, we see the traditional religion everyday. Osogbo is culturally aware, culturally blessed and you can see the grove, how congested it was during the festival; everybody was doing his own thing in his own way, and from there you could see something, either from the crowd, from the stage, from the music or from the lyrics. You can see something that will encourage you. It may come like imagination, but you now use it, not just what you saw, but to translate it into another perspective. But sometimes, we may portray Osun grove, Osun festival, Sango festival, Oya festival, because there are lots of festivals in Osogbo, unlike some other places. Although Osogbo has both Christian and Muslim population, but apart from that, there are traditionalists. Traditionalists have their way. We have our culture before the two religions were brought. So, all these festivals, when we were at the palace, we saw it every day. That was in 1966 when we had the museum.
Was it by chance that people like Ulli Beier, Suzanne Wenger and Georgina Beier ended up here Osogbo, or was it the enthusiasm of Osogbo people, or the rich culture?
Ulli was a German, born in Germany; he studied English language in London and came to teach at the University of Ibadan. The university was a college at the time, that was around 1959. When he was working there, he was walking round the city. He couldn’t see much influence. He loved something different, you know, as a literature person, he was more of a creative somebody. He came together with Suzanne Wenger. Suzanne Wenger was a painter from Austria, they met and became married, I think in Nigeria. When they got to Ibadan, both were living there. But eventually Ulli came from Ibadan doing research. He loved to do research all over, and he got to Ede and saw the Timi, the drummer. He became friend with the Timi of Ede. After that, he went to Ile Ogbo. He came to Osogbo and discovered that Osogbo was richer than any of these places. So, when he got here, he loved the place. They all moved to Osogbo in 1959. He was living here from 1960 and he went to the University of Ibadan every day from Osogbo. He had a Citroen car. As he traveled every day, by that time there was only one bar, there might be some others, but that was the only one which was well known. It was called Popular Bar and it belonged to Duro Ladipo. Duro Ladipo was a teacher. He was using that as hobby. So, any time Ulli was coming and going, he would drop by to drink. He became Duro Ladipo’s friend. He asked Duro Ladipo why he can’t turn it to a theatre. He said he could see the talent in him. That was how the Duro Ladipo theatre group started in 1963. That was how we got to the theatre. In 1964, they had the workshop that I told you.
Most of us might not have done it before, but my mother happened to be a mat weaver. That was my own background, I don’t know about the others. We worked together as a group, but we never copied each other.
I think Suzanne Wenger, as she was working at the grove, started writing letters to A.G. Leventis Foundation and others to improve the grove. We also continued writing to UNESCO until it became a reality in 2005.
When it became a reality, a lot of people started accepting it. By that time, we had started the festival, but the festival was not having much glamour anymore. But by the time UNESCO accepted it, the glamour came back. We said, ok, what do we do? I was a kind of adviser on arts to His Royal Majesty, the late Oba Oyewale Iyola Matanmi. We formed the body of Osogbo Heritage Council. That embodied the whole cultural festivals, Oya, Osun and so on. The most popular one was Osun. So, I became the co-coordinator of the festivals. Let us come back to art. It is not that the school is dead; it is just that the new era is not progressive. When we started, we never believed in money, but they believe in money now.
Some people may ask to know why the older ones are not passing to the younger ones the kind of training we had under the watchful eyes of people like Ulli Beier, Susanne Wenger, Georgina and so on. As for me, if you go to the studio, you will see some people working. Even two of my children are in the art, but some of our people do not want people to see them. That is their policy. But my own policy is to expose my works to them. It has become a kind of crusade for me to get other people involved because it is a new vogue in arts. I became the first Nigerian to introduce bead into contemporary arts in Africa. They had never used beads in contemporary arts in Africa before I started it. I pioneered it, although in South Africa they do beads, but they use it for ornaments, even all the East African countries. That was how I became a teacher in arts in the United States since 1997. I have trained so may people, almost about 2000.
In what ways have religion- Christianity, Islam and so on, affected Osogbo in not having modern art icons that you and the others were?
The religions have nothing to do with it. It is just because they are not creative enough. I told them, please, don’t do what I do. Receive the training that I give to you and if you follow the training, you will be successful. I told one of my children that if he copies my arts, it is like he is helping me, because people would say ‘this is Jimoh Buraimoh, so we can’t buy it’. But, if we are four artists, somebody can buy all the four, because they are different from one another. But, if they are similar, only one would be sold. That was how Osogbo became popular.
Is it that they are not creative enough?
They are not creative enough. They want to copy what you have done. That is why they can’t progress. That is why you can’t hear their names. They can’t have exhibitions. They believe in doing and selling. You have to keep your works for some time so that you can have exhibitions. You must have up to 20 works. We were always yearning to have exhibitions- at least group shows, maybe five, five works, and later, maybe individual exhibitions. But these days, they don’t care. They just want to sell. That is the problem. It is the same all over, even in Lagos. It is still the money issue. They don’t believe in creativity anymore. We changed Nigeria to contemporary art. Osogbo art was being criticized then. They said what kind of naïve art was it, not knowing that we had a good background. Most of us…I later went to Ahmadu Bello University to teach art, the kind of art that I am doing.
What sacrifices did you make to become what you are in arts today?
The sacrifices include keeping my works for some time to showcase to other people and say this is something different from what other people are doing.
On a more personal level, as you are growing up, did you learn anything from your mum?
I picked many things from her. My mother was patient, careful and never violent. The kind of craft she was doing was mat, where she was born, the kind of craft they do was weaving of mat. When a woman wanted to marry in those days, the bride carried mats to her husband’s house. They will write the name of the bride and bridegroom on the mat. So, I would help her to write, but she would do the colouring. I saw her do different colouring.
So, that was how your interest started?
Yes. From there, my intention was to go to technical college to study home decoration. But eventually, I couldn’t until I got to Osogbo when the theatre came and there was opportunity for me to be involved in the workshop. That was how I started. I had told Ulli that my mother was a mat weaver and I would love to be involved in the art.
How was growing up like?
It was like from the scratch, my parents were so poor. We had nothing. When I was growing up and I wanted to art, and I wanted go to Mbari. My father was a Muslim. I had learnt electrical work in 1961, so that was why Duro Ladipo invited me as a stage man and so on. AS I joined, my father didn’t know where I was going. You know in those days, when you were late coming home, your parents would be worried. But we did not live together, he was living somewhere else. By that time, the late Atoaja, Oba Iyiola Matanmi was in our compound because the mother was from our compound. So, my daddy was so angry that he was not seeing me, and he would ask me where I was always going. I later confessed to him that I was going to Duro Ladipo. He was shocked and he shouted ‘Duro Ladipo! The pagan man?’ My father went to report me to Oba Oyewole. He wasn’t the boa at the time. He told him that I was going to see a pagan. But Oba Oyewole said Duro Ladipo is a teacher and that they were friends. The late kabiyesi used to go to the popular bar then, so he knew Ladipo very well. That was how my father released me. Without the late Oba being involved, I would not have been able to go and be part of the theatre. That became a turning point in my life. In 1964, we went to Berlin, and the Kabiyesi told my father, ‘have you seen what I told you? You don’t know where the glory of God will manifest. Let him go’. In 1965, we went to London, we started going to different parts of the world. Then in 1968, I left the theatre for Obafemi Awolowo University to work with the school of African studies. I was working and teaching arts to the young ones. At the African studies, we had choreographers, musicians, choreographers and cinematographers like Ola Rotimi, Sam Akpabot and so on. I was involved in Ola Rotimi’s production of The Gods are not to Blame. We were the first cast in 1969 or so. We performed wonderfully well.
What did you do with the skills acquired from the Duro Ladipo theatre?
Yes, with the experience, we transferred it to Ife. That was how we trained the young ones. Some of them, like Peter Badejo became a choreographer till today. We changed some lives, like Robinson, the guy who played a lead role in the Gods are not to Blame. Robinson studied agriculture, while Sofoluwe studied agriculture. But they were all involved in Ola Rotimi’s play. They all went to get a diploma in arts and went on to either theatre or television.
