A necessary compromise: mainstreaming traditional birth attendants ( Iya Abiye ) into colonial maternal healthcare in Ibadan, c.1930 – c.1960

The colonial project was both parasitic and extractive. Its resource extraction imperative depended on maintaining a reservoir of cheap labour, whose supply required that they encourage and sustain high birth rates in the colonies. Maternal healthcare was therefore key to this project. The period 1930 to 1960, which we examine, was also characterized by increased African political agitation and internationally, by deepening global liberalism. Advocates of the latter called for colonial reforms, including some political participation of the growing African middle class. This, plus political changes in Britain at the time, put British colonial officials in Africa under pressure to bring about some reforms, including healthcare services. In Nigeria’s Ibadan, the colonial regime initiated a training scheme for Africans to become midwives. They also recognized and mainstreamed in their medical service the institution of traditional birth attendants (known locally as Iya Abiye). We view this effort as a convenient response of the colonial officials to the shortage of medical personnel in Nigerian rural areas. These changes also reveal the rudimentary nature of health service delivery further away from urban areas. The introduction of Iya Abiye signals a shift in colonial health policy to an accommodative one due to the continued popularity of Iya Abiye in Yorubaland. By co-opting Iya Abiye into the mainstream maternal health system, colonial Nigeria officially became a medical pluralist society characterised by implementation challenges amidst some successes.