Young woman holding twins, Nigeria, ca. 1925

Black and white photograph showing a young woman holding twin girls on a grassy area, possibly at the Ama Achara Methodist Hospital run by the Primitive Methodist Missionary Society. The birth of twins was considered an ill omen in certain Nigerian groups, with twin children being left to die by abandonment. Mission groups often cared for such abandoned children. This image comes from a photograph collection kept by Emily Godfrey, Matron of the Methodist Hospital at Ama Achara, southeast Nigeria, from 1921 to 1944.