By Kola Omotoso
Mbari Club was a
natural draw for an aspiring writer. Situated a mere street walk from Mokola
Roundabout, past the ancient Palm Chemist and you were there in the midst of
Chinua Achebe, Ulli Beier, Amos Tutuola, Wole Soyinka, Duro Ladipo and
Christopher Okigbo. Lindsay Barrett had arrived from Kingston
Jamaica via London perhaps. Poetry published in their
journal Black Orpheus was available at the counter bookstall. There was
a bar somewhere at the back and a small performance and rehearsal stage, again
somewhere in the two-storey building.
*Christopher Okigbo and Chinua Achebe |
It was my second year
as an undergraduate at the University
of Ibadan . Student Union
activities had been part of the life since my closest friend Ladipo was running
for PRO of the student union government. Nigerian electoral politics was
boiling over. The Action Group had imploded and the federal government of
Ahmadu Bello in collusion with SLA Akintola had put Obafemi Awolowo out of
action away in prison in Calabar for treasonable felony. Of course, nobody in
Western Region believed any of this fable about treasonable felony. Awolowo as
far as the region was concerned was still very much in action.
The federal elections
of 1964 came and went. It was heavily rigged in the Western Region ensuring
victory for the Akintola party now in alliance with Ahmadu Bello’s Northern
People’s Party (jamiatu mutenen arewa).