The Igbo Concepts of Citizenship: Nwadiala and Osu: Why the Difference?

Abstract

This paper examines the concepts of citizenship dichotomy between nwadiala and Osu in traditional Igbo culture with reference to a particular group of people classified as Osu an outcaste (a total stranger to the custom of the land) and the other as nwadiala – citizen (free born-bona-fide custodian of the custom) of the community. This citizenship dichotomy explains why a particular group of people in Igbo culture are socially referred to as ‘outcaste’ osu stigmatized with negative attributes like untouchable ‘demigod’ elements in the community. Osu is faced with problems of dehumanization, discrimination, exploitation and stigmatized in the community. The questions are: who is the Osu person? What is his social status in the community? What are his rights and obligations in the community? And where did he come from? To answer these questions, the study employed ethnographic (qualitative) methods of key informant interview, in-depth interview and focus group discussions. This touches on citizenship structure-functionalists construction and deconstruction to make a departure from a mere negative perspective of Osu as a subject of inhumanity in the community he lives in the modern Igbo society, arguing that a more satisfactory way of constructing new citizenship status and destroying the Osu stigmatization is to articulate his free-born citizenship status rights and obligations in the society.