The Faculty of Health Law and Humanities at University of Medical Sciences successfully hosted a thought-provoking webinar titled “Verse and Vitality: Poetry’s Hidden Power in African Healthcare” on Monday, May 11, 2026.
The virtual event attracted over 30 participants, including academics, students, healthcare professionals and lovers of literature, who gathered to explore the intersection between poetry, medicine and human wellbeing in African healthcare systems.
The webinar featured insightful presentations from renowned scholars across the globe. Speakers included Iheanacho Metuonu of the Department of Humanities, General Studies and Bioethics, UNIMED; Emmanuel Omobowale of the Department of English, University of Ibadan; Femi Oyebode, United Kingdom; and Ekechi Stella Amadi of Rivers State University, Port Harcourt and the University of South Wales.
A major highlight of the webinar was a poetry reading session from the UNIMED Students’ Poetry Portfolio. The audience applauded outstanding performances by Ayobami Olowojola, a 300-level MBBS student, who presented “Melody of My Becoming”; Toluwanimi Shalom Omisore, also a 300-level MBBS student, who recited “Where Dreams Meet Reality”; and Amudipe Adesola, a 200-level Nursing student, who performed the poem “Different.”
Speaking during the event, the Dean of the Faculty, Leroy Edozien, who anchored the webinar, described poetry as “a powerful tool for empathy, healing and reflective medical practice.”
Professor Edozien added that the webinar demonstrated the importance of integrating the humanities into healthcare education, noting that “medicine is not only about science but also about understanding the human experience through creativity and compassion.”
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