The Imprisonment of Obatala [Pseudonymous Nigerian Literature]

Obotunde Ijimere [Ulli Beier].

London: Heinemann, 1968. Second edition. In illustrated wraps. 5 x 7 ¼ in. [ix], 109 pp. Very good; mild wear to edges of wraps.

Supposed work of Nigerian literature, written under a penname by the white German author Ulli Beier.

Notably, this pseudonymous work is cited, without reference to the true authorship, in Wole Soyinka’s Myth, Literature and the African World. This influential collection of essays defines African literature as distinct from the European tradition; The Imprisonment of Obatala seems a strange and unfortunate choice in light of the writer’s identity.

Ulli Beier worked as a translator and scholar of Yoruba literature throughout the 1950s and ‘60s. In 1957, he founded the journal Black Orpheus which would be edited by Wole Soyinka, Es'kia Mphahlele, and Abiola Irele, and would help widen the recognition of dozens of important African authors. Beier had an indisputably strong influence on Nigerian publishing in the 1950s and ‘60s, and was generally considered to be a supporter of African literature by African people.

An obscure work, published during a period of increased interest and awareness of African literature in the West.