Rethinking Colonial Medical Power in Eastern Nigeria, c. 1900–60: Enforcement, Resistance, and the Negotiated Adoption of Smallpox Vaccination

The invention of the smallpox vaccine changed the pattern of public health interventions for the disease, leading to its global eradication in the 20^th century. Although the eradication of smallpox globally was a remarkable achievement of the World Health Organization, examining the longer histories of colonial medical encounters helps us grasp the historical process through which eradication occurred rapidly in postcolonial Eastern Nigeria. The introduction of the vaccine, along with the implementation of vaccination policies and laws by colonial authorities, led to resistance from indigenous communities. Drawing on colonial medical reports and archival documents, this paper explores British colonial smallpox vaccination laws and policies in Eastern Nigeria, their implementation strategies, indigenous resistance, and negotiated adoption of the vaccine. Various scholars have examined smallpox vaccination laws in African colonies and indigenous resistance to these measures, often attributing it to indigenous beliefs in Juju medicine. This paper extends the body of literature by arguing that religious factors did not primarily drive resistance to the smallpox vaccine but were instead deeply rooted in colonial coercive mechanisms used to enforce vaccination laws, alongside other socioeconomic factors. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates that vaccine acceptance was achieved through negotiation rather than coercive enforcement of vaccination laws. It also examines how this earlier colonial experience contributed to the rapid eradication of the disease in postcolonial Eastern Nigeria during the global eradication campaign. By foregrounding this earlier colonial experience, the paper demonstrates that eradication in the region was a historical process deeply rooted in both colonial medical authority and African agency.