Nonkululeko Tyehemba

Master Midwife, Activist, and Educator Nonkululeko Tyehemba was said to consider herself part of a long tradition of Black Midwifery, known to many as Grand Midwives (as opposed to a more diminutive term, “Granny Midwives”).

Mama Nonkululeko was an internationally renowned midwife who would have celebrated her 50th anniversary as a Registered Nurse and her 35th Anniversary as a Certified Midwife. She was an extraordinary Women’s Reproductive Health Activist and an integral part of the group of community organizers concerned with addressing the poor birth outcomes and high infant & maternal mortality rate affecting Black people in Harlem. Because of her love and devotion to Women of Color and her desire to see change, she co-founded the Global Birth Action Collective and The Harlem Birth Action Committee (HBAC). Her legacy extends internationally as a midwife to women in communities all over the world, from the Navajo and Hopi of Tuba City, Arizona to the Garifuna midwives of Honduras, to the beautiful women of Somaliland, and beyond. She also advocated for a USPS stamp to honor the Black Grand Midwife, and worked alongside midwives in Somalia.