Listed among men of stature in West Africa

‘Britain’s Purpose in Africa’ by Sir Kenneth Bradley, 1959

Men of stature in West Africa. (Above, left) The late E. S. Beoku-Betts, a Sierra Leone judge. (Right) Mr. Felix Idubor, the famous sculptor from Western Nigeria. (Below, left) The consecration of Bishop Martinson, the first Gold Coast African to become a Bishop. (Right) Dr. E. J, Lawson, of the orthopedic hospital, Igbobi, Nigeria.

Letter from Mary-Louise Hooper to W. E. B. Du Bois, ca. February 1958

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois

[AWH – So a Felix Idubor statue called “The Beggar” may be in the archives of W. E. B. Du Bois – pictured. He lived for another five years after getting this letter. Yale has his archives, but I couldn’t get the online version to work.]

Source: Africa Commons

Quote: “I hope that my little token of remembrance (an African carving from Felix Idubor of Nigeria) arrives in good time. The artist wrote me that it had been sent to you, some time ago. He calls it “The Beggar”; it is a type one often sees in the street, in West Africa.”

Background

Mary-Louise Hooper was a wealthy American heiress and activist in the Civil Rights Movement and anti-apartheid movement.

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was an American sociologist, writer, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist.

Felix Idubor appears in schools TV show ‘Shape In Your Hands’

TV Times – Friday 08 November 1957

2.43 FOR SCHOOLS

SHAPE IN YOUR HANDS

Working in Wood

Donald Potter deals with the problems wood-carvers meet as they begin the final stages of their sculpture. Most of us are familiar with African wood-carvings, and Felix Idubor describes how he first started to work in the Benin tradition, even making his own tools. Rita Ling and John McCarthy will give more encouragement to young clay-modellers and stone-carvers.

Introduced by R. G. Broadhurst

Script by John Lord

Directed by Roger Jenkins

An Associated-Rediffusion Network Production