African Indigenous Midwifery Museum™

Group and private guided tours available beginning january 12th, 2026 AIMM - A Global Center for African Midwifery Heritage & Research

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Opening Reception & Ribbon Cutting
Saturday October 25, 2025 at 1pm CST

NORMAL HOURS: Beginning January 12, 2026
Wednesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm

DAILY ENTRY
Adults: $7
Students: $5 (with valid student ID)
Children: FREE (ages 0–12)

GUIDED TOURS
Our one-hour tours led by a knowledgeable guide must be scheduled in advance. Visitors can book a one-hour tour at the rate that fits their category-adult, student, or free for children. Museum members can enter their membership code when scheduling to reserve a tour at no cost.

The African Indigenous Midwifery Museum™ (AIMM) is the first and only cultural heritage museum in the world solely dedicated to the preservation, education, and celebration of African Indigenous midwifery traditions.

Founded by Okunsola M. Amadou in 2025, AIMM is a museum and spiritual institution that documents the precolonial, prehistoric and diasporic history of midwifery, to preserve and connect the past, present, and future of midwifery lineages.

Housed within The Historic Jamaa Birth Village Cultural Heritage Center in Ferguson, the African Indigenous Midwifery Museum (MO-AIMM) exhibits artifacts, art collections, oral histories, texts, and immersive exhibits that honor ancestral, pioneering, and priestess midwives, and tell the full story of Black birthwork as a force for liberation, resilience, and communal power.

DOWNLOAD THE MUSEUM PDF GUIDE

MISSION

Educating, archiving, and celebrating the spiritual, medicinal, and cultural knowledge of African Indigenous midwives through:

EXHIBITS

Exhibits that illuminate precolonial and prehistoric birth practices, diasporic traditions, and modern-day midwifery.

STORYTELLING

Storytelling that uplifts the legacies of midwives who shaped maternal health across continents.

RESEARCH & SCHOLARSHIP

Our Library Research Institute provides access to the largest collection of Black midwifery-centered materials in the nation.

COMMUNITY

Community connection that empowers individuals to see midwifery not only as healthcare but as a cultural and spiritual practice of liberation.

Current Exhibitions
Special Exhibitions

African Indigenous Midwifery Museum Exhibition

PERMANENT EXHIBIT

Birth in Primordial Antiquity: A Precolonial & Prehistoric Birth

Step into an immersive recreation of an ancestral African birth setting. This exhibit highlights the tools, rituals, and community-centered care that characterized birthwork prior to colonization, offering visitors an intimate and reverent look into humanity’s earliest birthing environments.

PERMANENT EXHIBIT

Guardians of Life: Midwives of Africa

Explore the roles of midwives in Congo, Dahomey (Benin), Mali, Ghana, Nigeria, and beyond-where birth attendants were spiritual priestesses, healers, and protectors of lineage. This exhibition features rare artifacts, fertility figurines, birth divination tools, midwife musical instruments, and oral histories that reveal their power, influence, and sacred role in sustaining life.

PERMANENT EXHIBIT

Yemoja Carries Us: Midwives in the Transatlantic Experience

A deeply moving journey into the lives of African midwives during the transatlantic slave trade (1500s–1800s). Discover how they resisted, adapted, and passed down knowledge that sustained both life and culture under unimaginable conditions.

PERMANENT EXHIBIT

A Living Altar: Honoring the Midwives Who Came Before Us

A sacred grounding space where visitors may pause, reflect, and honor ancestral midwives whose names, stories, and spirits continue to guide the future of birth justice.

PERMANENT EXHIBIT

Traditional Midwifery to Criminalization & Credentialing: 1865–1995

This exhibit traces the journey of midwifery from post-emancipation through the 20th century, highlighting the Granny "Grand" Midwives of the South, the rise of Certified Professional, Nurse and Licensed Midwives, and today’s movement toward culturally rooted, community-led care. It explores the transformation of midwifery tools-from plant medicine and nature-based practices to the medical instruments used in contemporary birthwork-through oral history, folklore, and archival artifacts.

PERMANENT EXHIBIT

Modern Midwives & Trailblazers: The Women Who Returned Black Midwifery to Us

Celebrate the ancestral and living midwives who defied criminalization, blazed new trails, and restored midwifery to Black communities across America. This exhibit honors their courage, brilliance, and resilience as they carved a path for future generations.

PERMANENT EXHIBIT

Midwifery of the Diaspora: African Midwifery Practices Across the Globe

This global exhibit highlights traditional and Indigenous midwifery practices rooted in African knowledge. Featuring photos, art, artifacts, fabrics, and local & regional tools from Asia, Europe, Canada, India and Australia, it brings to life the unbroken lineage of African midwifery across the diaspora.

PERMANENT EXHIBIT

Legacy & Liberation: Jamaa Birth Village

Celebrate the history and impact of Jamaa Birth Village and its visionary founder, Okunsola M. Amadou -Missouri’s first Black CPM-Traditional Midwife, priestess, and pioneer. This exhibit traces Jamaa’s 10-year history and its founders' maternal health journey over 2-decades, including their milestones and ongoing contributions to maternal health, birth justice, and cultural reclamation.

SPECIAL EXHIBIT

January 12, 2026 – December 15, 2026

SPECIAL EXHIBIT

Midwifery Coastal Communities: Caribbean and Haitian Midwives

Celebrate the history and impact of Jamaa Birth Village and its visionary founder, Okunsola M. Amadou -Missouri’s first Black CPM-Traditional Midwife, priestess, and pioneer. This exhibit traces Jamaa’s 10-year history and its founders' maternal health journey over 2-decades, including their milestones and ongoing contributions to maternal health, birth justice, and cultural reclamation.

SPECIAL EXHIBIT

Sacred Shores: Gullah Geechee Birth Traditions in the Carolinas

A powerful exploration of Gullah Geechee midwifery along the southern U.S. coast. Learn how these midwives preserved African birthing traditions and became essential to the survival and health of their communities through centuries of oppression, practicing Hoodoo, prayer, laying on of hands, and conjure to protect their people.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Black Midwifery & The Life of Missouri Midwife Mariah Watkins

October 25, 2025 at 9:30am CST | Missouri Historical Society

Midwife and folklorist Okunsola M. Amadou explores the deep roots of midwifery in American culture with a spotlight on Mariah Watkins. Born into slavery in North Carolina and freed at the end of the Civil War, Watkins settled in Neosho, Missouri, in the 1870s after being married in St. Louis. She is remembered today as a prominent member of the Neosho community, delivering babies for almost 40 years and influencing the work of one of Missouri’s greatest scientists-George Washington Carver. RSVP Here.

AIMM Community Opening Reception

October 25, 2025 at 1:00pm CST | The Historic Jamaa Birth Village Cultural Heritage Center

Celebrate with us as we open our doors to the community for the first public viewing of the African Indigenous Library & Research Institute and five-exhibits within the African Indigenous Midwifery Museum. Enjoy an afternoon of culture, history, and connection as we honor the midwives who shaped generations. RSVP Here.

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP

All membership tiers include full access to the African Indigenous Midwifery Museum (AIMM) and the African Indigenous Library & Research Institute (AIM LRI), ensuring that everyone can engage with our collections, research, and cultural programming. Join before 12/31/2025 and earn an AIMM Founding Museum Member cowry and virtual badge!

COMMUNITY MEMBER

$65/year

Designed for individuals and families seeking regular access to AIMM.

  • Unlimited free admission for 2 adults + children under 18
  • Full access to LRI reading room & on-site research materials
  • 10% discount in the Museum Shop
  • Discounted admission to special events, workshops, and lectures
  • Quarterly members-only newsletter with behind-the-scenes content
  • One-time welcome gift (AIMM tote or enamel pin)
  • Eligibility for reciprocal museum discounts through partner networks
  • Gift Memberships available for friends and family
BECOME A MEMBER

Most popular!

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Midwife Cultural Heritage Contributor

$150/year

For those who want to go deeper into AIMM’s cultural work.

  • All Community Member benefits, plus:
  • Invitation to Members-Only Exhibit Previews & Receptions
  • 20% discount on AIMM workshops, programs, and events
  • One guest pass for friends/family
  • Priority registration for AIMM events
  • Early access to Digital Member Portal featuring select LRI archives and curated content
BECOME A MEMBER

Ancestral Midwife Circle Patron

$500/year

Our premier tier for cultural scholars, birth workers, and community visionaries.

  • All Heritage Contributor benefits, plus:
  • Unlimited research appointments in the LRI (virtual or in-person)
  • Private behind-the-scenes tour with AIMM curator/archivist
  • Name recognized on AIMM Donor Wall and annual report
  • 25% discount on AIMM publications, exclusive merchandise, and select events Complimentary admission to one premium AIMM masterclass or workshop annually
BECOME A MEMBER

BECOME A MEMBER

Museum Membership
Annual Cost: $65.00
$65.00 for each year
Annual Cost: $150.00
$150.00 for each year
Annual Cost: $500.00
$500.00 for each year
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AIMM ADVISORY COUNCIL

Okunsola Amadou Midwife

Okunsola Amadou

Midwife, Museum Founder, Curator & Folklorist

themidwiferyfolklorist.com

Sara Makeba Daise

Sara Makeba Daise

M.A. Author, Griot, Diviner & Public Historian

saramakeba.com

Linda Janet Holmes

Linda Janet Holmes

Writer, Biographer, Oral Historian & Curator

lindajholmes.net

Janet Sula Evans

Janet Sula Evans

B.A. Mamissi, Cultural Preservationist & Doula

sulaspirit.com

Jamrah Amani LM

Jamrah Amani LM

LM- Pioneer Midwife & Co-Founder of National Black Midwives Alliance

blackmidwivesalliance.org

Mama Sarahn Henderson

Mama Sarahn Henderson

Elder Traditional Midwife & Midwife Historian

birthinthetradition.com

Mother Health International

Mother Health International

Traditional Midwifery & Birth Center in Uganda

motherhealth.org

VISION

To become a globally recognized cultural and research institution that preserves the wisdom, resilience, and sacred knowledge of African Indigenous midwifery, inspiring future generations of midwives, scholars, and families to reclaim birth as a site of cultural power, dignity, and justice.

SUPPORT OUR WORK

DONATE TODAY

GRATITUDE TO OUR FISCAL SPONSOR:

Praxis+Logo+Final

MEMBER ASSOCIATIONS