However, he is best known for collecting and translating Yoruba folk tales and traditional poetry in collaboration with Ulli Beier.
This work dispels the Middle Eastern and Arabia origins propounded by such scholars as the late Samuel Johnson (1846–1901) and also gave prominence to the works on the Pre-Oduduwa Period by Ulli Beier among others.
It also carried reproductions of works by Papua New Guinean artists, including Timothy Akis and Mathias Kauage.
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In 1956, after visiting the First Congress of Negro Artists and Writers in Paris organized by Présence Africaine at the Sorbonne, Ulli Beier returned to Ibadan with more ideas.
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In 1950 they both moved to Nigeria, where Ulli Beier had been hired at the University of Ibadan to teach Phonetics.