Thomas Adeoye Lambo, (March 29, 1923 – March 13, 2004) was a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

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, administrator and

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

. He is credited as the first

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

trained psychiatrist in Nigeria and

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. Between 1971 and 1988, he worked at the

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, becoming the agency's Deputy Director General.

Early life

Lambo was born in

Abeokuta Abeokuta is the capital city of Ogun State in southwest Nigeria. It is situated on the east bank of the Ogun River, near a group of rocky outcrops in a wooded savanna; north of Lagos by railway, or by water. , Abeokuta and the surrounding are ...

Ogun State Ogun State is a state in southwestern Nigeria. Created on 3 February 1976 from the former Western State. Ogun State borders Lagos State to the south, Oyo State and Osun State to the north, Ondo State to the east, and the Republic of Benin to the ...

. He attended the famous

Baptist Boys' High School Baptist Boys’ High School is a secondary school in Abeokuta, Ogun State, south-west Nigeria. It had a student body of 1,100 students as of the 2011–12 academic year.The Trumpeter (2012) ‘Students in the boarding house’, The Trumpeter, Vol ...

, Abeokuta from 1935 to 1940. He then proceeded to the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

, where he studied medicine. To further his studies and become specialized, in 1952, he enrolled at the

Institute of Psychiatry The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) is a research institution dedicated to discovering what causes mental illness and diseases of the brain. In addition, its aim is to help identify new treatments for them and ways ...

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

. Adeoye Lambo in due time became famous for his work in ethno-psychiatry and psychiatric

epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population. It is a cornerstone of public health, and shapes policy decisions and evidenc ...

Career

In 1954, after studying and working as a surgeon in

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, Dr Lambo returned to Nigeria where he was soon made the specialist in charge at the newly built Aro psychiatric hospital, Abeokuta. By then, Nigeria was undergoing a transition towards political independence which had hastened a culture of

innovation Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or services or improvement in offering goods or services. ISO TC 279 in the standard ISO 56000:2020 defines innovation as "a new or changed entity ...

and change instead of a period of feared stagnation or even regression. Prior to the independence movement, the

Federal Government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

had tried to replicate the

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an system of creating asylums in the cities for lunatics and mentally ill individuals who were regarded as a social nuisance in the streets of many

urban area An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, t ...

s. The need to put the social anomalous individuals under control, sometimes care and confinement was initiated and a few asylums including one at Yaba were built. However, the institutionalization of

mental health Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making. Mental health ...

was viewed with suspicion by many Nigerians and many still depended on native medicines and

herbalists Herbal medicine (also herbalism) is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. With worldwide research into pharmacology, some herbal medicines have been translated into modern remed ...

for care. Adeoye Lambo sensing a ground for development, used the opportunity of an independent regional government to start his own out-patient treatment services, the Aro village, pioneering the use of modern curative techniques combined with traditional religion and native medicines. Adeoye, while at Aro, sought the help of farmers near the asylum to take some of the patients as

laborers A laborer (or labourer) is a person who works in manual labor types in the construction industry workforce. Laborers are in a working class of wage-earners in which their only possession of significant material value is their labor. Industries e ...

, while they simultaneously underwent medical treatment, and the patients also paid for any extra services required, such as housing. He traveled around the country and brought in a few traditional healers from different parts of Nigeria as practitioners. His style helped relieve public mistrust of mental health

hospitals A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...

and introduced to public discourse the care and treatment of mentally ill citizens. He is credited as providing a platform for re-integrating mentally ill patients into a normal setting and environment and to a certain extent shedding at least some of the stigma associated with those suffering from mental illness. Dr. Lambo was

Vice Chancellor A chancellor is a leader of a college or university, usually either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system. In most Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations, the chancellor is ...

at the

University of Ibadan The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public research university in Ibadan, Nigeria. The university was founded in 1948 as University College Ibadan, one of many colleges within the University of London. It became an independent university in 196 ...

from 1967 to 1971, during which a student, Adekunle Adepeju, was killed by the

Nigerian Police Force The Nigeria Police Force is the principal law enforcement and the lead security agency in Nigeria. Designated by the 1999 constitution as the national police of Nigeria with exclusive jurisdiction throughout the country, as at 2016 it has a s ...

at a protest. Dr. Lambo was the visiting Hannah Professor of History of Medical and Related Sciences at Queen's University in the late 1970s. The W.D. Jordan Rare Books and Special Collections Library at Queen's holds his personal library.

References

*Vanguard, Renowned Psychiatrist, March 16, 2004 *Jonathan Sadowsky, ''Imperial Bedlam: Institutions of Madness in Colonial Southwest Nigeria''. University of California Press, 1999

External links

Obituary in Psychiatric Bulletin (2004) 28: 469

* ''In memoriam'', TWAS Newsletter Vol.17 No.1, 2005 accessed a

April 11, 2007
W.D. Jordan Rare Books and Special Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lambo, Thomas Adeoyo Nigerian psychiatrists 1923 births 2004 deaths Yoruba physicians People from Abeokuta Alumni of the University of Birmingham Alumni of King's College London 20th-century Nigerian medical doctors Vice-Chancellors of the University of Ibadan TWAS fellows Baptist Boys' High School alumni Nigerian expatriates in the United Kingdom Fellows of the African Academy of Sciences Founder Fellows of the African Academy of Sciences