Bakare Gbadamosi (born 1930) is a

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

poet,

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

and short story writer from Nigeria.

Life

Born in

Osogbo Osogbo (also ''Oṣogbo'', rarely ''Oshogbo'') is a city in Nigeria. It became the capital city of Osun State in 1991. Osogbo city seats the Headquarters of both Osogbo Local Government Area (situated at Oke Baale Area of the city) and Olorund ...

, Hammed Gbadamosi wrote his own Yoruba poetry and short stories in the early 1960s. However, he is best known for collecting and translating Yoruba folk tales and traditional poetry in collaboration with

Ulli Beier Chief Horst Ulrich Beier, commonly known as 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 p ...

. Much of Gbadamosi's work was published by

Mbari The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) is a private, non-profit oceanographic research center in Moss Landing, California. MBARI was founded in 1987 by David Packard, and is primarily funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation ...

, a club founded by Beier in Ibadan. In the late 1960s Gbadamosi was working as an ethnographer for the Nigerian Museum in Lagos, having previously worked "as a letter writer, stage magician and actor". He participated in

Duro Ladipo Durodola Durosomo Duroorike Timothy Adisa Ladipo (December 18, 1926 – March 11, 1978), more commonly known as Duro Ladipo, was one of the best known and critically acclaimed Yoruba people, Yoruba dramatists who emerged from postcolonial Africa. ...

's theatre group in Osogbo.Oluseyi Ogunjobi
"The visual languages of Duro Ladipo's Theatre in Oba Moro, Oba Koso and Oba Waja"
, PhD thesis, University of Leeds, 2011, p. 287. According to one source, Gbadamosi later became known as Demola Onibonokuta.

Works

In Yoruba

* ''Oriki'', Ibadan: Mbari Publications, 1961. (Poems.) * ''Ọrọ pẹlu idi rẹ'', Oshogbo: Mbari Mbayo Publications, 1965. (Stories.)

In English

* (coll. and tr. with

) ''Yoruba Poetry: traditional Yoruba poems''. Ibadan: Ministry of Education, 1959. Special publication of '' Black Orpheus''. With silkscreen prints and vignettes by

Susanne Wenger Susanne Wenger MFR, also known as Adunni Olorisha (4 July 1915 – 12 January 2009), was an Austrian-Nigerian artist and Yoruba priestess who expatriated to Nigeria. Her main focus was the Yoruba culture and she was successful in building a ...

. * (coll. and tr. with Ulli Beier) ''The Moon Cannot Fight: Yoruba children's poems'', Ibadan: Mbari Publications, 960s? Illustrations by Georgina Betts. * (coll. and tr. with Ulli Beier) ''Ijala: animal songs by Yoruba hunters''. Port Moresby, 1967. * (coll. and tr. with Ulli Beier) ''Not Even God Is Ripe Enough: Yoruba stories'', London & Ibadan: Heinemann Educational, 1968.

African Writers Series The African Writers Series (AWS) is a collection of books written by African novelists, poets and politicians. Published by Heinemann (publisher), Heinemann, 359 books appeared in the series between 1962 and 2003. The series has provided an int ...

48.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gbadamosi, Bakare Nigerian male poets Nigerian male short story writers Nigerian short story writers Yoruba poets Yoruba–English translators Nigerian folklorists 1930 births Living people English-language writers from Nigeria Yoruba-language writers People from Osun State 20th-century Nigerian poets