{"id":208,"date":"2024-03-03T02:47:40","date_gmt":"2024-03-03T01:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weareaidoni.org\/?p=208"},"modified":"2024-03-03T02:47:40","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T01:47:40","slug":"meet-the-woman-leading-the-fight-against-casteism-in-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/?p=208","title":{"rendered":"Meet the woman leading the fight against casteism in Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the hustle and bustle of Nigeria\u2019s commercial hub, Lagos state, Maduagwu Ogechukwu strove to build a brand as a celebrity make-up artist and videographer partnering with globally recognised acts and record labels. But in 2017, she left the glamour of the entertainment industry to fight for \u201ca divine assignment\u201d\u2014 casteism across Nigeria states. Her friend\u2019s marriage failed due to the stigma against people of her caste; she was an osu, who were descendants of enslaved persons dedicated to traditional deities.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Jennifer Ugwa. Edited by Arshu John<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Casteim exists in different forms in small communities across Nigeria. Among the Igbo community, slavery dates back to before transatlantic slavery. However, unlike the transatlantic slave trade, the enslaved maintained their connection to their ancestral roots.\u00a0 The Igbo community are one of the majority ethnic groups of Nigeria, predominantly from the south-eastern states of Anambra, Abia, Imo, Ebonyo and Enugu. Igbo is the native tongue of around 25 million Nigerians and is spoken by 40 million people globally.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In ancient Igbo, people were divided into four social hierarchies: the\u00a0diala<\/em>, who were the only community considered freeborn, and three hierarchies of enslaved castes\u2014the\u00a0ohu<\/em>, the\u00a0osu\u00a0<\/em>and the\u00a0ume.\u00a0<\/em>The\u00a0ohu\u00a0<\/em>were owned by the so-called freeborns and were the only enslaved caste to socially coexist with the\u00a0diala<\/em>. The\u00a0osu\u00a0<\/em>were \u2018dedicated\u2019 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\u00a0ume<\/em> were individuals who offered themselves to the deities to avoid certain societal punishment for a crime.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0osu<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0ume\u00a0<\/em>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\u00a0osuship.\u00a0<\/em>The\u00a0osu<\/em>\u00a0had 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\u00a0osu<\/em>\u00a0is transmitted to the next generations, making the caste system not only hierarchical but also hereditary.<\/p>\n

As such, it was considered taboo for the\u00a0diala<\/em>\u00a0to marry with the other castes. In most rural communities across Igbo communities, it is believed that nuptial union with persons of\u00a0osu<\/em>\u00a0descent 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\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>is still prevalent in different parts of Igboland.
\nMoved by the experience of her friend, Maduagwu, a\u00a0diala\u00a0<\/em>herself, founded her non-profit organisation, Initiative for the Eradication of Traditional and Cultural Stigmatisation in our Society or\u00a0IFETACSIOS<\/a>\u00a0in April 2017. Six years later, she continues the fight to change the narrative and abolish the system.<\/p>\n

An epiphany\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stories of ill treatment of the persons of\u00a0Osu<\/em>\u00a0caste 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 \u201cIju ajuju\u201d<\/em>\u2014which roughly translates to \u201casking questions\u201d\u2014an 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\u2019s friend\u2019s engagement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the incident with my friend, I began thinking about how to help bridge the gap between my people,\u201d Maduagwu said. She began creating audio messages she shared as WhatsApp broadcasts to her contacts and on Facebook.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAfter the incident with my friend, I began thinking about how to help bridge the gap between my people.\u201d<\/h2>\n

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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. \u201cI understood this was a serious issue,\u201d she said. \u201cSomebody had to fight the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the aggrieved community members to make their point, the IFETACSIOS boss said she was advised to go ahead and marry an\u00a0Osu\u00a0<\/em>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. \u201cThis was how what you now know as IFETACSIOS began in 2017,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

However, the commotion on the outside was nothing compared to the storm that consumed her inside. Omenala<\/em>\u00a0is 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. \u201cI thought, what if I become the scapegoat? What if I am asked to be the sacrifice to abolish the system in my place,\u201d Maduagwu told aid\u00f3ni.<\/p>\n

Building a movement<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00a0TedXTalk<\/a>\u00a0on the sensitive issue. \u201cI am beaming my light at the dark corners of your heart where love and equality are trapped,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cWe have achieved over a dozen re-orientation and reconciliation programmes across the southern state communities,\u201d Maduagwu said. In August, IFETACSIOS carried out major outreaches across three southeastern states\u2013Imo, Anambra and Ebonyi states.<\/p>\n

The NGO is also partnering with the group of legal practitioners in\u00a0Nneji \u2013<\/em>roughly translated as born from the same mother\u2014 a global group that represents the interests of\u00a0Osu\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>on reviewing an unimplemented 1956 law. There is no data on the number of\u00a0Osus<\/em>\u00a0in Nigeria, but it is estimated that millions of people of Osu and Ohu descent live within and outside the country.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI am beaming my light at the dark corners of your heart where love and equality are trapped.\u201d<\/h2>\n

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With just N85,000\u2014approximately $108\u2014Maduagwu 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 \u201cwish to assist victims financially, especially the single mothers who their partners abandoned.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Osu.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0However, Maduagwu notes while they are making strides it is discouraging that at the top cadre of government, issues on casteism are not a priority.<\/p>\n

Bringing social change<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00a0Osu\u00a0<\/em>in her community, in the Oguta town of Nigeria\u2019s Imo state. Following joint community meetings organised by IFETACSIOUS, twenty-four traditional leaders\u00a0endorsed<\/a>\u00a0a formal declaration to abolish the caste system in Oguta.<\/p>\n

The same year, IFETACSIOS also facilitated another intervention in Enugu\u2019s Nsukka town, where the discrimination is primarily against the\u00a0Ohu\u00a0<\/em>community. In the following years, 119 villages in nine autonomous communities in Nsukka have\u00a0reportedly<\/a>\u00a0formalised the eradication of the caste system in their communities. In 2021, the Ogbor Autonomous community in the Imo state abolished the system as well.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Ohu<\/em>\u00a0were slaves were purchased by the masters, Maduagwu said a tradition of a monetary exchange between the descendants of\u00a0Ohu<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Diala<\/em>\u00a0would nullify the age-long casteism in the communities. \u201cOsu<\/em>\u00a0abolition would be done through a proclamation of the elders using the \u2018offor,<\/em>\u2019\u201d she said. The offor is a staff of the office of a traditional custodian, and supposedly embodies spiritual powers that makes any vow binding.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cWitnessing abolition ceremonies, people regaining their fundamental human rights and dignity is the high point for me in what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Top image: Maduagwu Ogechukwu, founder of IFETACSIOS<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the hustle and bustle of Nigeria\u2019s commercial hub, Lagos state, Maduagwu Ogechukwu strove to build a brand as a celebrity make-up artist and videographer partnering with globally recognised acts and record labels. But in 2017, she left the glamour of the entertainment industry to fight for \u201ca divine assignment\u201d\u2014 casteism across Nigeria states. Her … Continue reading Meet the woman leading the fight against casteism in Nigeria<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.aidoni.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}