A project to recover, digitize, and re-engage the legacy of Africa's most important literary journal — 1957 to 1993.
The Black Orpheus Journal of African and Afro-American Literature was first published in 1957, founded by Ulli Beier — a German-Jewish expatriate whose work in late-fifties Nigeria helped bridge a crucial gap between Francophone, Anglophone, and Afro-American literatures.
Its pages carried the early work of Wole Ṣóyínká, Christopher Okigbo, Chinua Achebe, J.P. Clark, Abiola Irele, Ama Ata Aidoo, and Leon Damas — defining voices in African modernism. After Beier left Nigeria in 1967, the journal continued under Clark and Irele, and trudged on — in fits and stops — until it finally ceased publication in the early 1990s.
Beginning in November 2024, OlongoAfrica launched Black Orpheus Revisited: a year-long project to recover the physical copies, digitize the complete run, and bring contemporary African writers and artists into creative conversation with this pivotal archive. The project is supported by a grant from the Open Society Foundations.
Black Orpheus journals at the G.A.S. Library (Yinka Shonibare Foundation), London · April 2025
In November 2024, we exhibited original copies at Art X Lagos. In early 2025, we completed the digitization of all recovered volumes in collaboration with Archivi.ng and JCAA Lagos. We selected the inaugural class of Black Orpheus Fellows in February 2025, and loans of 43 physical items were arranged with the G.A.S. Library in London.
Some copies were donated by Professor Fẹ́mi Euba from Louisiana. Additional scanned copies came from Charles Akínṣẹ̀tẹ̀ at the University of Ibadan and Li Lu from Beijing Foreign Studies University.
Black Orpheus at Art X Lagos, October–November 2024 · Physical copies of the journals
All covers of Volume 1 were designed by Susanne Wenger, Austrian artist and Ulli Beier's first wife. Taking traditional African art forms from across the continent and rendering them in punchy two- and three-colour screen prints, the covers are among the most distinctive of any literary journal of their era.
All cover images courtesy of Josh MacPhee / Justseeds. Click any cover to read his essay on the journal's visual history.
All scanned editions are freely available via Google Drive. Consult the metadata spreadsheet to navigate content across Vol. 1.
📊 Volume 1 Metadata Spreadsheet A guide to all content in Vol. 1 →Missing copies: If you come across issues not listed — particularly from Volumes 2, 4, and 5 — please reach out to submissions@olongoafrica.com.
Work produced in direct engagement with the digitized archive, the fellowship, and the broader project — published on OlongoAfrica.
A conversation on the origins and ambitions of the Black Orpheus Revisited project — why recovering this archive matters now, and what it means for contemporary African literary culture.
Watch on YouTube →Further video documentation relating to the Black Orpheus Revisited project and its recovery and celebration of the journal's remarkable legacy.
Watch on YouTube →How Black Orpheus Revisited has been received and discussed in the wider world.
