Meet the woman leading the fight against casteism in Nigeria

In ancient Igbo, people were divided into four social hierarchies: the diala, who were the only community considered freeborn, and three hierarchies of enslaved castes—the ohu, the osu and the ume. The ohu were owned by the so-called freeborns and were the only enslaved caste to socially coexist with the diala. The osu were ‘dedicated’ to the gods, which referred to an act by which a community or family enslaved an individual to a traditional deity to avert a calamity or ill fate. Meanwhile, the ume were individuals who offered themselves to the deities to avoid certain societal punishment for a crime.

The osu and ume were treated as untouchables. Moreover, dedication was not the only way a person became enslaved. A widow who sought protection from a deity for property from greedy in-laws also automatically condemned herself and her household to osuship. The osu had no privilege, maintaining little or no interactions with the rest of the community. They lived near the shrine of the deities they were enslaved to. According to traditional beliefs, the generational curse of the osu is transmitted to the next generations, making the caste system not only hierarchical but also hereditary.

As such, it was considered taboo for the diala to marry with the other castes. In most rural communities across Igbo communities, it is believed that nuptial union with persons of osu descent would result in terrible luck in business and marriage. A 1956 law by the then-defunct Eastern House of Assembly abolished the osu caste system, but it was never implemented. Unfortunately, more than six decades after, discrimination and stigma of the caste system, the practice  is still prevalent in different parts of Igboland.
Moved by the experience of her friend, Maduagwu, a diala herself, founded her non-profit organisation, Initiative for the Eradication of Traditional and Cultural Stigmatisation in our Society or IFETACSIOS in April 2017. Six years later, she continues the fight to change the narrative and abolish the system.

An epiphany 

Stories of ill treatment of the persons of Osu caste are often, but only, heard in hush tones and in close quarters. While most person would not want to be accused of referring to anyone as less human, before any marriage, Igbo families still conduct the social custom of “Iju ajuju”—which roughly translates to “asking questions”—an investigation to trace the ancestry of the couples. It is at this stage that engagements fail and stigmatisation takes centre stage. People are called outcasts and slaves that are unfit to marry with a freeborn. It is what broke Maduagwu’s friend’s engagement.

“After the incident with my friend, I began thinking about how to help bridge the gap between my people,” Maduagwu said. She began creating audio messages she shared as WhatsApp broadcasts to her contacts and on Facebook.  But even then, Maduagwu said she was scared of the implications of the fight she had taken up and distorted her voice in her message.

“After the incident with my friend, I began thinking about how to help bridge the gap between my people.”

 

Few weeks later, it became obvious that distorting her voice had not been sufficient when she started facing threats from community members for disrupting Igbo culture. The 47-year-old make-up artist turned activist is the youngest of seven siblings and recalled how she got a call from her sister asking her to stop out of concern for her safety. But Maduagwu did not. “I understood this was a serious issue,” she said. “Somebody had to fight the fight.”

For the aggrieved community members to make their point, the IFETACSIOS boss said she was advised to go ahead and marry an Osu if she wished, and to leave their culture alone. But committed to her purpose, Maduagwu continued sending the messages out, and it received massive engagements from the public. “This was how what you now know as IFETACSIOS began in 2017,” she said.

Since the cat was out of the bag, Maduagwu began sending correspondence to traditional leaders in communities where the practice was still adhered to. In Nigeria, traditional leaders effectively form a parallel government; holding significant political and economic influence without any actual formal power, and preside over cultural norms, including matters of caste.

However, the commotion on the outside was nothing compared to the storm that consumed her inside. Omenala is the set of traditional, cultural beliefs of the Igbo community, and it is the guiding principle of any Igbo individual. The people are strong adherents of their culture. At the height of the threats, Maduagwu even feared that in the absence of any conventionally agreed process to abolish the caste system, she may be called upon to offer a human sacrifice. Traditionally, the Osu were considered dead in the physical world, and merely the properties of deities, and as such, she feared that the leaders may argue that to abolish the practice and treat them as living individuals would require a human sacrifice on her part. “I thought, what if I become the scapegoat? What if I am asked to be the sacrifice to abolish the system in my place,” Maduagwu told aidóni.

Building a movement

Fortunately, this fear never came true. Maduawgu persisted, slowly and consistently expanding the reach of her mission for social justice. In 2019, Maduagwu delivered a TedXTalk on the sensitive issue. “I am beaming my light at the dark corners of your heart where love and equality are trapped,” she said in her opening remarks. The video on YouTube has over 9,000 views. But for all its acclaim, the talk received almost as much criticism from people who believe IFETACSIOS advocacy contradicts tradition. But Maduagwu said the negative feedback fuels her drive.

IFETACSIOS currently boasts a team of eight staff members and a growing number of volunteers. The team works with a group of legal practitioners who offer pro-bono services to victims of caste discrimination. “We have achieved over a dozen re-orientation and reconciliation programmes across the southern state communities,” Maduagwu said. In August, IFETACSIOS carried out major outreaches across three southeastern states–Imo, Anambra and Ebonyi states.

The NGO is also partnering with the group of legal practitioners in Nneji –roughly translated as born from the same mother— a global group that represents the interests of Osu’s on reviewing an unimplemented 1956 law. There is no data on the number of Osus in Nigeria, but it is estimated that millions of people of Osu and Ohu descent live within and outside the country.

“I am beaming my light at the dark corners of your heart where love and equality are trapped.”

 

With just N85,000—approximately $108—Maduagwu embarked on her first intervention in 2018. The sum was to cater to her then six team members, logistics. In 2020, the Ford Foundation awarded the NGO a grant, but since then, they have operated on publicly raised funds. IFETACSIOS offers counselling interventions for victims, and Maduagwu “wish to assist victims financially, especially the single mothers who their partners abandoned.”

IFETACSIOS is currently partnering on a Knowledge Exchange project with the University College London and the Bureau for Conflicts and peace resolution in Imo State to stop stigmatisation of the descendants of Osu.  However, Maduagwu notes while they are making strides it is discouraging that at the top cadre of government, issues on casteism are not a priority.

Bringing social change

Yet, despite the lack of political will at the level of the Nigerian government, there have been smaller victories among the traditional leaders. In less than a year, Maduagwu led the first community intervention in 2018 to abolish Osu in her community, in the Oguta town of Nigeria’s Imo state. Following joint community meetings organised by IFETACSIOUS, twenty-four traditional leaders endorsed a formal declaration to abolish the caste system in Oguta.

The same year, IFETACSIOS also facilitated another intervention in Enugu’s Nsukka town, where the discrimination is primarily against the Ohu community. In the following years, 119 villages in nine autonomous communities in Nsukka have reportedly formalised the eradication of the caste system in their communities. In 2021, the Ogbor Autonomous community in the Imo state abolished the system as well.

Maduagwu said one of their biggest challenges has been to get traditional leaders and residents in rural communities where this practice is common to agree to the re-integration and orientation process. Since it assumed that an Ohu were slaves were purchased by the masters, Maduagwu said a tradition of a monetary exchange between the descendants of Ohu and Diala would nullify the age-long casteism in the communities. “Osu abolition would be done through a proclamation of the elders using the ‘offor,’” she said. The offor is a staff of the office of a traditional custodian, and supposedly embodies spiritual powers that makes any vow binding.

Maduagwu is optimistic a massive awakening will spark a national, if not global, conversation on caste discrimination and stigma. While she acknowledged that leaving a thriving career in the fashion industry came at a cost, Maduagwu emphasised that it was one she is happy to have paid. “Witnessing abolition ceremonies, people regaining their fundamental human rights and dignity is the high point for me in what I do.”

Top image: Maduagwu Ogechukwu, founder of IFETACSIOS