Adebisi Akanji at the beginning of his career

Adebisi Akanji was a bricklayer by profession, who, as a young man, was trained to build cement decorations for the elaborate 'Brazilian' baroque building style which was introduced to West Africa in the late 19th century by returned decendents of slaves originally taken from West Africa. In the early 1960s he participated in art workshops in Osogbo run by Susanne Wenger, Ulli Beier and Georgina Beier and showed enormous interest and talent.