Beyond “The Way of God:” Missionaries, Colonialism and Smallpox in Abeokuta

Abstract

This article explores the ways the people of Abeokuta encountered smallpox disease. It looks beyond the notion of a conflict between Yoruba healing ways and the European medicine to uncover the multiple adoptions and adaptations of medical ideas during the era. It also argues that missionary and colonial medical knowledge were not always exact, or superior to Yoruba ways, and thereby renders Yoruba medical history as the changing ways by which the Yoruba understood, engaged, tried to cope with, and cure the disease.

Key Words: Abeokuta, Colonial Medicine, Smallpox, Sopono.