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Philosophy
Copenhagen University
Philosophy Department

Date: _____5th January, 2012___________________

Name: HENRY MMADUEKE OKAFOR __________

Student ID: __7001820065_________________________

Phone: ___71541811________________________

E-mail: _____________ Mansinkwa@yahoo.com _____

Teachers name: _________________DAN ZAHAVI

Masters: PHENOMENOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY OF

MIND

Course: _MODULE 3: SHAME AND SELF EXPERIENCE_

Number of Standard pages: ___20_____

Number of Keystrokes: ___________

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TOPIC: Osu Caste System in Africa: A Philosophical Appraisal

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The problem of shame has aroused considerable speculations on the part of sociologists
psychologists and Philosophers. Despite that all hands have been on deck since the inception
of this problem, there is still no consensus about what Shame is all about. There are various
shame theories but none of these theories have been able to give an exhaustive account of
shame. Some are able to account for few shame episodes and lie at the mercy of myriads of
angry critics who would always point out several weak points of such postulations. Most of
these shame theories disagree with one another on core issues due to the differences in their
schools of thoughts and doctrines.

But in any case, there are still some issues that all philosophers of Shame cannot run away
from. These include issues of responsibility, nature of shame, forms or types of shame etc.
However, each person approaches these variously. Nevertheless, the issue of Osu Caste
system is a problem that has generated so much debate. It is an African problem that has
attracted the attention of Africans as well as their western sympathizers. Osu caste system is a
case of Shame experience whose attempt to arrive at a resolution has been rendered
impossible by a good number of these same very concepts that render the problem of shame
unsolvable.

However, in this paper, I intend to find out what explains the kind of emotion that is
associated with the people that are labeled Osu in Africa with particular emphasis on the Igbo
people of Nigeria. What motivates my research is the complete irony that plays itself out with
regard to these people called Osu. Now, in many cases of shame episodes, such as in the
various cases of war criminals, those who have inflicted injustice on their people are usually
the ones who feel shame for committing such offenses. They betrayed their people and as
expected, feel shame for their actions. Not many people would doubt if they feel shame
because that is almost taken for granted .Similar betrayal plays itself out in the case of Osu
caste system but in a reverse manner. Those who are referred to as Osu were betrayed by their
own people. They were overpowered, kidnapped, forced and made slaves to their local deities.

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Like in the case of Nazi incidence, it is expected that the perpetrators of these heinous acts are
the ones who should feel shame, but the contrary is the case. I think, the problem of Shame in
Osu caste system is a case of Irony. It is a case of “some people have eaten sour grapes while
the teeth of the innocent ones are set on edge”. Here the Osus were the ones who were
kidnapped and forced by their own people to be servants or slaves of their gods. Simply put,
their people betrayed them. Now instead of those who committed this evil to feel shame for
having done such a grievous act, the opposite is the case. Osu victims are the ones feeling
shame. This poses a very serious problem for the mind to grasp. The questions come: Will it
then be possible that the kidnapped innocent young men and women are the ones feeling
shame? These descendants of Osus are still the present Osu people .The people that are still
referred to as Osus today, are people whose ancestors(the original Osus) lived some centuries
or millennia ago.

Many people have tried to really demystify this kind of rational contradiction.People have
taken up varied positions in this regard. However, I have classified these into two main
positions .The first position represents the people who are aware that there is some sort of
negative strange feelings that are associated with the people called osu and this feeling has all
it takes to be called shame, but they simply refuse to accept to call it shame because for them,
there is no ground or reason why the osu people should feel shame. The representatives of the
second position just like the previous one, are quite convinced that there is a kind of negative
feeling that is associated with the Osus, and this people admits that this feeling has all it takes
to be called a shame feeling and so they do not hesitate to call it shame. But they do not again
have the explanation as to why the osus feel shame.1

Their behaviors bear witness to the fact that these people live and die in shame. They are
mainly wanderers: they abandon their homeland and keep migrating to foreign lands. Those
who are unable to leave their homeland are often associated with serial incidences of
emotional outbursts that express themselves in a sort of revolutionary upheavals against their
communities .They are often too cold when they are in the midst of the nwadialas.
Nevertheless, they are known to be exceptionally hardworking. In the course of this paper, I
will expose the general understanding of shame .This will be followed by a treatment of what

1
Analysis is mine drawn from Personal Research and Interviews with Dr.Azuka, A traditional Igbo Chief,2006.

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is Osu caste system in Africa with Particular reference to Igboland where I come from.I will
try to find out if the shame Osu caste system fits into any kind of the various shame postulates
that are normally treated in shame studies. In the process, I will try to find out if there is any
shame theory that better explains why Osus in Africa should ever feel shame since the whole
scenario seems absurd to many minds.

2.0. WHAT IS SHAME

Shame is studied from different angles and approaches. These approaches fall into various
cadre. Shame is studied therefore in terms of emotions, cognitions and beliefs about the self,
behaviors and actions, evolved mechanisms as well as interpersonal dynamic
interrelationships. Tangney for example holds that shame experiences are basically those of
emotion. He tries to separate between shame experiences from shame precursors such as low
self esteem, and from post shame affect such as depression, irritability and
withdrawal.2Emotions are classified into basic and secondary types. Shame falls into the
category of secondary emotions. At the centre of any discussion about shame is the self.
Shame has to do with an entire self that feels damaged by some condition. It involves a
damaged self and a spoilt identity. In shame, the whole self is perceived as bad. Here the
whole self is spoilt by some condition or behavior. “In shame, the self is affected by a global
devaluation: it feels defective, objectionable, condemned”3

Michael Lewis sees Shame as an intense negative emotion having to do with the self in
relation to standards, responsibility and such attributions as global self failure4.While shame
focuses on the self, guilt focuses on the act. Shame is often seen as a failure in relation to
standard personal societal or both. Bradshaw talks about a form of shame he tags toxic shame.
For him, in such case, one feels flawed and defective as a human being. It stops being an
ordinary emotion but a state of being and a core identity. Such type of shame represents a
rupture of the self with the self. Where guilt says ‘you made a mistake’, toxic shame would

2
Paul Gilbert,What is Shame ?:Some Core Issues and Controversies in, Shame: Interpersonal Behaviour,
Psychopathology and Culture,eds;Paul Gilbert et al.,1998,p.4
3
Dan Zahavi, Shame And the Exposed Self in Reading Sartre: On Phenomenology and Existentialism,2010,p.2
4
.Lewis, Shame And Stigma in Paul Gilbert, Shame: Interpersonal Behaviour,Psychopathology and
Culture,eds;Paul Gilbert et al.Oxford University Press, New york,1998,p.126

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rather say ‘you are a mistake’5. Shame is also prohibitive. It is helpful in describing and
understanding phenomena at different levels such as internal self-experiences, relational
episodes and cultural practices for maintaining honor and prestige. The various approaches
from which shame is approached makes it very difficult for everybody to arrive at a consensus
as every theory or formulation tries to maintain its tenets and principles to the detriment of
others’ approach.

As an emotion, Shame is often marked with four important elements Anxiety, Anger,
Humiliation, and Disgust. Anxiety is very basic to shame. In such situations, one feels his
mind going blank, feels rooted to the spot, wishes the ground would open for him to
disappear. In moments of shame, anxiety is what makes one feels like melting away. This
very element explains why Osus always feel like disappearing when they suddenly find
themselves in the presence of Nwadiala(the freeborn).This also explains why they leave their
homeland for other places where they will not continue to be reminded that they are inferior
human beings. Again, anxiety is perhaps the negative feeling that convinces some people that
the osus feel shame indeed. Osus are very anxious about this continuous feeling of being
negatively evaluated by the Nwadiala. Gilbert is of the view that social anxiety has much to
do with the fear of feeling ashamed, fear of being shamed or even both.6

Anger is another important aspect of shame. Most people share the opinion that anger and
rage are subsequent responses to shame. Anger is also one of those elements that support the
fact that the victims of osu do feel shame. They try to release this emotion through anger
which is manifested in the occasional communal wars that they organize against their
communities. This gives credence to the fact that they do in fact have shame. This is a result
of what is termed bypassed shame. Tangney is of the view that while shame is associated with
anger proneness, guilt is not. Shame –anger is related to disruptions from a social bond in
many cases. In the same vein, Lewis holds that shame –anger arises in some what a protest
anger related to the breaking of a bond. The osu feels the he has been separated from the
original bond that binds him to his society such that he is being discriminated against. He

5
Bradshaw,John,Healing The Shame That Binds You, Deerfield Beach,FL:Health
Communications,Doc.,1988p.10
6
Paul Gilbert,What is Shame ?: Some Core Issues and Controversies in Paul Gilbert, Shame: Interpersonal
Behaviour,Psychopathology and Culture,eds;Paul Gilbert et al.Oxford University Press,New york,1998,p.6

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reacts so as to regain his initial status. Face saving is the covering or hiding of possible shame
with anger, and this accounts for the major sources of male violence. The next is Humiliation.
It focuses on the other person as bad and not on the self. It is characterized by a burning desire
to revenge. The next element is disgust.

Disgust seems to have the closest link with Shame. It is sometimes seen as the root of shame
while some others see it as a separate affect system. Some people hold that shame is derived
from self-disgust. Disgust itself is subject to cultural practices. The social context plays a role
in determining the nature of other affects that are associated with shame. Shame associated
with sexual activity or bodily functions and appearances may be judged as dirty disgusting.
Osus are alleged to possess an inherent odour, whether this is real or this is superstitious is
what we shall find out later. But shame associated with betrayal and breaking royalties or
shame associated with cowardice are not likely to be classified as disgust. People don’t like to
trigger disgust in others. This is because to be seen as an object of disgust is to be seen as
unattractive and undesirable. The osus are made to feel that they are a source of disgust to
their communities. Most times they are being told such to their faces as we shall see later.

Nevertheless, shame is most often than not embedded in other affects such that it needs a
great deal of hard work to be able to single out when shame is really being experienced. Most
affect combinations occur in adults. A baby experiences mainly single affects like anger.
Many are of the opinion that the case of what is generally called bypassed shame which
account for some instances of violence results from a combination of affects. Bypassed shame
leads to communal wars engineered by the osus as a reaction to shame they live with. Here
one cannot really single out what particular emotion is the subject experiencing since; there
are many of them combined.7With these, one should be able to see that the feeling associated
with the Osus is not far from shame feeling. At this point we now turn to one of the corner-
stones of any discussions about shame namely; the question of responsibility.

7
Paul Gilbert,What is Shame ?:Some Core Issues and Controversies in Paul Gilbert, Shame: Interpersonal
behaviour,Psychopathology and Culture,eds;Paul Gilbert et al.Oxford University Press,New york,1998,p.14

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3.0. SHAME AND RESPONSIBILITY

Nevertheless, the position of some thinkers implicitly shows that responsibility has no role to
play in shame. Some people are of the opinion that one can feel shame (irrespective of his
personal opinion) simply because others evaluate him negatively .Sartre’s definition of shame
as a pre-reflective emotion implicitly point to the fact that shame does not have much to do
with whether one is responsible for the action that brings one shame. On the other hand, there
are others who are of the view that Responsibility is very central to any shame experience.
Holders of this view are also divided on what they mean when they say that one is responsible
for a particular action. I will here consider its two main forms: Collective (shared)
responsibility and personal responsibility.

Personal responsibility is what people generally refer to when statements like this is made, ‘I
am responsible’ in everyday life and particularly in law. It is almost taken for granted that
when one says ‘I killed the fowl’ it points to personal responsibility. This action is strictly
applied to the subject and does not extend to any other person. For responsibility to properly
apply to a person, he/she must have been in the position of an agent in the matter at stake. In a
situation where my father committed some atrocities before my birth or when I was very
small it is something that I might regret but of which I should not feel any shame. I could not
have done anything to stop him8. Nevertheless, the people who hold this opinion would
definitely not reconcile the reasons why it is said that the Osu victims feel shame. Since they
have been in no way responsible for the situations that make them osu.

With regard to Collective responsibility, there are people that feel responsible for past events
or actions of which they could not have had any personal connection with. They feel ashamed
of their humble origins or proud of their noble links with their family or their past. Such
people feel ashamed of their parents and are uncomfortable about the past records of their
country. In any case the fact remains that they do not have any direct connections with those
events with regard to personal efforts. Walsh who is a strong proponent of this view gave
instances with the members of government, directors of public company, military
commanders etc whose public actions are their own, only in a very restrictive sense. In this

8
W.H Walsh,Pride,Shame and Responsibility,in The Philosophical Quarterly,vol 20(78) p.3

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same vein, David Yau-Fai Ho thinks that a person may bring pride to a group no matter how
humble in origin. Shame intensifies when the leader, upon whom the group’s reputation
hinges, is humiliated because the leader represents not just an individual, but the embodiment
of the group’s collective good. David notes that the higher the status of the humiliated person
within the group, the greater the intensity is likely to be. One would experience greater shame
when one’s father, compared with one’s son, is humiliated9.In this regard, Walsh argues that
the criminal who is caught brings punishment upon himself but he also brings shame and
obloquy on his family and friends who are also saddled with the consequences of deeds they
did not do themselves. Having laid this foundation, I now turn a very important issue in
shame: Forms of Shame.

4.0. FORMS OF SHAME

There are two forms of shame that most shame episodes fit into, namely: Internal and
External
 Internal shame
It is a form of shame that cannot be ignored in any discussion about shame. Gilbert is of the
view that shame can be totally internal. Here it means that one’s shame has nothing to do with
real or imagined audience. One is purely evaluating himself and does not care about how
others evaluate his actions or opinions. It always has a place in the thoughts of many treatises.
For instance, Deonna and Teroni treat it as deep shame .Internal Shame can also be situated in
Calhoun’s treatment of Autonomy wherein there are two different categories: shame of the
moral pioneer strategy and the shame of the discriminating social factor. The shame of moral
pioneer holds that mature ethical agent will only care about standards that she autonomously
set for herself, which would also be those of conventional social morality so long as the agent
adopts them for her own. Such standards or values can also be idiosyncratic, the ones that no
one else shares10.What others might think of him/her is irrelevant.

Here shame does not require a real or imagined social others. An instance is that depressed
people can feel intense pain even though others make efforts to convince them that such
perceptions are mistaken and that they are the ones accusing themselves. Internal Shame also

9
David Yau-Fai Ho Guilt ,Shame and Embarrasment:Revelations of Face and Self,in Culture and
Psychoogy,Sage Publications.London.2004.Vol 10(1),64-68
10
Chechire Calhoun,An Apology for Moral Shame in The Journal of Political Philosophy,vol.12(2),2004, p130

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has a place in Scheler’s idea of shame. Max Scheler in his essay Scham und Schamgefull tries
to differentiate between two forms of the painful experience of the repenting burning
Shame(Schamreue) which is a burning shame that is looking backward and characterized by
piercing sharpness and self-hatred. The second one is the protecting shame of the blushing
virgin which is characterized by lovely warmth11

 External shame
This is also another form of shame that has received much attention among philosophers. I
would also associate this with Deonna and Teroni’s superficial form of shame. Just like one
can have internal shame without having an external shame, one can as well have an external
shame without having an internal shame. If I am convinced that Smoking is something good
in a society where it is seen as bad, even if I am caught, I will not experience any internal
shame though I may feel ashamed by the views of the people in that society. Now, one needs
to distinguish between the fact of being shamed and of feeling ashamed. Consider a situation
where one is falsely accused of a crime that he knows very well that he never committed, but
he is also quite sure that those who accuse him believe that he committed the crime. Does
such a person feel shame or is he being shamed? Opinions are divided on this. Some would
say that they would be shamed without feeling shame while another view may be that they are
ashamed and also feel shame even when they do not think or feel any responsibility for those
actions.

However, there have been efforts to demonstrate that people can still feel shame for actions
that they were not involved in or responsible for. Shame can be totally external as in when
someone is falsely accused and he feels shame even when he does not accept the evaluation of
his accuser. The thoughts of some thinkers like Sartre implicitly dismiss responsibility as a
necessary aspect of shame. This follows from the fact that for him, shame is pre-reflective. He
defines shame as ‘an immediate shudder which runs through me from head to foot without
any discursive preparation”12One experiences it before one even starts to consider if he should
really be responsible for what he is feeling shame about. External shame in which one feels
shame even when he is convinced that his evaluators are wrong in their judgment, but he
simply feels shame because he senses that they are convinced in their (wrong) judgment. This
11
Scheler,1957, p.140
12
Jean Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 246

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points to a form of Autonomy of shame namely; shame of discriminating social factor actor
strategy. In ‘discriminating social factor actor strategy’, the claim here is that shame is always
shame in the eyes of real social others. Again, the eyes of some respected others have the
power to shame independently of their exactly mirroring the agent’s eyes. Those with whom
we share a moral practice have the power to shame whether we regard their evaluation or not.
This is also a position that is still associated with Osu caste system.

Here, those who hold to this view agree out rightly that the osus do feel shame; they feel
shame not because they are responsible for what brings them shame, rather, they are aware
that they are not the cause of what brings them shame. Nevertheless, the reason why they feel
shame is because they are convinced that their evaluators believe that they are the cause of
what brings them shame. Shame is thus an inner experience of self as an unattractive social
agent who is under pressure to curtail possible damage to self through escape or appeasement.
Having said these, let us now look at what Osu caste system in Africa is all about.

5.0. OSU CASTE SYSTEM

Osu caste system is an indigenous discriminatory religious belief system practiced in Africa
with particular reference to countries like Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau,
Ivory Coast, Niger, Burkinafasso ,Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leon, Algeria, Nigeria,
Chad, Ethiopia and Somali.13 Its practice in these countries basically follows the same
principles of segregation, oppression and marginalization. In Rwanda, the Burundi and the
Eastern Congo, there are three main classes of human beings; the Tutsi, the Hutu, and the
Twa. Among the Borana people of North Eastern Kenya and South Ethiopia, there are four
caste classes- the Borana Hutu (pure) are followed by Gabbra, the Sakuye and Watta. The
Watta are condemned to a lifelong servitude of the higher castes14In Nigeria and Southern
Cameroun for example, Osu caste system is traceable to an indigenous religious belief system
practiced within the Igbo nation. Osu is a people sacrificed to the gods in Igbo community.
They assist the high priest of the traditional religion to serve the deities or the gods in their
shrine .In some situations, the free citizens (Nwadiala) can also be transformed to descend to
13
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_system_in_Africa,accessed ,28th October,2011
14
Ibid

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the status of Osu when they have committed certain atrocities.15 But in the present day, one
could mostly acquire the status of Osu through inheritance and or simply by interaction with
the members.

There are two classes of human beings in Igbo land-the Nwadiala and the Osu. The Nwadiala
are the sons of the soil; they are the masters while the Osus are the people dedicated to the
gods; they are regarded as slaves, strangers, outcasts and the untouchables. Osu has been
defined as a cult slave of the deity. Dike defines Osu caste system as a societal institution
borne out of primitive traditional belief system, colored by superstition and propagated by
ignorance.16 In the same vein, Achebe writes “Our fathers in their darkness and ignorance
called an innocent man Osu, a thing given to the idols and his children’s children forever”17.
Socializing with the Osu would contaminate, pollute and transform the Diala (free born) into
an Osu. The Osus thus socialized among themselves. They had and still have a separate area
mapped out in the communities where they interacted and procreated among themselves.
They are made to live separately from the freeborns, they reside very close to shrine and
market places. The osus are not allowed to dance, hold hands, associate or have sexual
relationship with the nwadiala. They are not allowed to break cola nut at meetings or pour out
libations or pray to God on behalf of the freeborn at the community gathering. Osu can neither
present or be presented with Kola nut. It is a misdeed for a person to show kola nut to an osu
in the presence of visitors or to give a kola nut to an osu in the presence of visitors or to give a
kola nut to an osu who is visited by a freeborn.

The reason for this discrimination is because there is never a time an osu is welcome in the
house of the Nwadiala. In many social gatherings, by the time Kola nuts are broken and eaten,
an Osu is made to be aware that he is a stranger being merely tolerated. Kola nut is the centre
of the culture, cosmology and theology of the Igbo man. One would better appreciate the
maltreatment meted out against the Osus if one understands what Kola nut means to the Igbo
people .To deny a man of the right to break kola nut amounts to denying him everything that

15
Victor E.Dike, The Osu Caste System in Igboland Discrimination Based on DescentA Paper Presented to the
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) Sixty-first session 8-9 August 2002,p.1
16
Ibid,p.2
17
Chinua Achebe, No Longer at Ease, East African Educational Publishers L.t.d Nairobi,1966, p.121

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makes him a man, at best he is a woman or anything less18. They go to this length because
they believed that such prayers will bring calamity and misfortune. Osu cannot belong to the
same age grade or group, cultural dancing groups, and the same market with the Nwadiala.
Under no circumstance does a nwadiala run for safety into the compound of an Osu, even if
he is faced with death threat. The diala prefers to die than to get contaminated and perpetuate
such a curse throughout his generation.

Ezeala notes that ‘the Osus were socially avoided discounted, isolated, denigrated ,victimized,
abused, dehumanized and denied fundamental human rights. In some schools, the children of
Osus are cajoled, mocked, spat upon, ridiculed by pupils and their leaders while in villages;
they suffer all sorts of opprobrium and odium.19 The Osu cannot marry a freeborn. The belief
is that any freeborn that marries an osu defiles the family .Thus, freeborn families always do
everything they can to stop any of their members who wants to marry an osu. Because of this,
marriages are preceded by investigations; and once it is found out that one of the partners is
an osu, the plan is automatically aborted. Chinua Achebe also used the character of Okonkwor
to portray this in his No Longer at Ease. When Okonkwor discovered that his son wants to
marry Clara, who was an Osu, Okonkwor lamented:

Osu is like a leprosy in the minds of my people. I beg of you my son not to bring the mark of shame and leprosy
into your family. If you do, your children and your children’s children unto the third and fourth generations will
curse you and your memory”. It is not for myself I speak, my days are few. You will bring sorrow on your head
and on the heads of your children. Who will marry your daughters? Whose daughters will your sons marry?
Think of that my son. We are Christians but we cannot marry our own daughters.” 20

Osu caste system has its roots in supernaturalism and theism and religious practice of human
sacrifice in Igboland. Some of the gods in Igbo land demanded human sacrifices during their
festivals to remove the abominations committed in the communities within the past years. The
failure to comply to the demand of the gods may bring about several problems and in order to
avoid the misfortune the people would contribute money to the general purse for the
purchasing of a slave from the slave market or the kidnapping of a slave which may be either

18
Overcoming Women Subordination In the Igbo African Cultuer and In the Catholic Church,:Envisioning an
Inclusive Theololgy With Reference To Women,Desertation.om,USA,2001, P.60
19
Ezeala, J. O. I. “A Lecture on the discrimination in Nigeria Society – a step on the United Nations effects”
in African Concord 7th January, 1988,6
20
Chinua Achebe, No Longer At Ease, East African Educational Publishers L.t.d Nairobi,1966, p.121

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man or woman depending on the one demanded by the gods. The person bought or kidnapped
is referred to as osu whom after his /her sacrifices to the deity, will be seen as carrying the
iniquity of the people. Osu is seen as an accursed human being sacrificed to a deity. He is also
made to take on himself the death of the freeborn. Osus are regarded as unclean or
untouchable because they are alleged to be dedicated to the gods. It is this dedication to gods
that makes the Osu practice religious21.

An Osu especially those ones whose dedications are celebrated can be identified in several
ways. Most of them have cuts in their body for identification. Apart from this, an osu is
believed to have an inherent devastating body odour. The question of body odour needs to be
given more attention because it relates to a very important aspect of shame namely
disgust.The question remains whether the osus really possess body odour or is it part of the
superstition that defines its practice. They can also be identified by their locations. Any group
of people found to be living near a shrine; market, stream etc are most likely to be osus. They
are found around this zone for some historical reasons. They are located near shrines because
shrine is the home of the gods they served. They are found near market places since that are
where slaves were displayed for sales. Osus are also usually located near streams or rivers
because streams were also homes of certain water deities and also serve as a means of
transporting various slaves (merchandise) from one point to the other. Again, osus are also
generally known for their riches, development and education.

There are several opinions regarding this. Some argues that since osus do not have lands to
farm and do other local activities as a result of the fact that they are continually marginalized
and disinherited; most of their fathers gave their children to the early white missionaries who
took them to their land to educate them. Most of them became educated, rich and more
developed by the freeborn22.The other explanation follows from the first. They argue that the
feeling of inferiority and shame motivates the osus to work very hard to make up for their
inferiority.

Amadife, “The Culture that must Die” In Sunday Times March 23, 1988 ,p.3
21

22
Francis Onwubualiri, Appraising The Osu Caste SystemIn IgboLand Within The Context
OF Complementary Reflection in Complimentary Reflection,African Philosophy And
General Issues in Philosophy, 2.7

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6.0. OSU CASTE SYSTEM AND SHAME EXPERIENCE
The analysis of shame is hydra-headed in the sense that there are many opinions regarding
what shame is all about. At this juncture, I will like to pass the issue of osu caste system
through the frameworks of some various modern theories of shame. I intend to do so using
some of the relevant theories considered by Deonna and Teroni. But my approach will be
quite different in the sense that while they try to analyze and criticize these theories to find out
if they are able to explain shame as a social emotion, I will rather use them as a spring board
for appraising Osu caste system in Africa.

The proponents of social nature of shame are divided into four categories as presented by
Deonna and Teroni. This division is based on their various points of emphasis which include
the object of emotions, the genesis of emotions, the types and properties of their cognitive and
contexts or situations that elicit the emotions. With regard to the object of emotions, Lamb
and Tangney represent the major proponents. For them the object is the self that is evaluated
as degraded or lacking in value. The self is the object of the emotion. Here one (the self)
could be ashamed because someone else is messing up. One can feel shame because the friend
or his brother is performing an act that brings shame. In the case of osu caste system, could it
be really said that the victims of are being shamed because some people are truly messing up?
I will return to this shortly, but let me quickly look into Genesis of shame.

Genesis of shame has proponents like Calhoun, Williams and Wolleim. Here, it holds that we
learn to feel shame because we belong to specific communities and that the members of these
communities play an essential role in our acquiring the values. All share in the same moral
practice also as Wolleim himself would particularly stress. In fact anything done in the name
of religion is right. Osu caste system is rooted in religion. This conception is in the mentality
of both the nwadiala and the osus. Consequently, Onwubualiri notes that

“One becomes an osu due to the conventional pronouncement of the stigma on the person. For instance, a slave
bought from a far land is never known as an Osu until when the community started calling him or her an Osu.
Also an ostracized person is not an osu until when the entire community started conceiving him or her as an osu.
More so, a person that committed adultery and capital crimes like killing may also be dedicated to the gods
through a unanimous consensus, and when this is done, he becomes a pronounced Osu” 23.

23
Op.cit, Francis Onwubualiri, 2.5

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However, due to education and learning, most African societies are fast breaking away from
oppressive religious bonds. Yet they still feel shamed by the osu factor. The shame
experienced by the present or modern day osu victims needs a different account. Genetic
claim does no longer hold water as it was able to account for why most osus of the previous
era could feel shame but not all osus of the modern day.

Cognitive antecedents: The proponents are divided into three social theses; the first thesis has
it that the reasons that leads us to apprehend ourselves as degraded consists in taking a
perspective “from the outside” on what we or who we are. As I have tried to show, there is a
mind gap between the primitive osu system and the modern day osus. It may be right to say
that the osus of the ancient era took their perspective from outside; the societal norms and
religious practice in particular .Nevertheless, the same cannot be said about the osus of the
present era. These people still feel shame. They are widely educated and learned that they do
not believe and accept the fact that they are osus. But they still feel shame because they are
being regarded as osu. ‘Taking perspective from outside’ theory is incomplete therefore.

The second thesis holds that these reasons are judgments regarding failures that the subject
feeling shame does not think he has or does not conceive as failings. This thesis is a sort of
complementary to previous thesis. It addresses the challenge it just posed; namely; accounting
for why the osus of the modern day feel shame even when they do not accept the judgment of
their evaluators. Here one feels shame even when he disagrees with the judgment of his
evaluators. Those who hold to this view would not find it difficult to understand and explain
why the osus of the modern day feel shame. They certainly don’t share or accept the
judgments of the society that see them as inferior or degraded. Yet the shame of being Osu
haunts them everywhere. Nevertheless, this position does not explain still why it is possible
for one to feel shame even when one does not share view taken about him by his viewers.
This theory sound more like a dogma of religious faith.

The third holds that shame relates essentially to our social selves. That is those properties that
relates to the standing we have in the eyes of others. The name Osu stands for the inferior
group, the outcast, the slaves, the second class citizens. This thesis would hold therefore that
the osu feel shame simply because they are seen as outcasts. This theory does not specify

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whether it is about the ‘eyes of the others’ whom we regard or not. The next theory is the one
that is based on Context. Here we have two possibilities namely; the real and the imagined
audience. With regard to Real presence, it is here assumed that shame is elicited by the real
presence of others. This may not essentially apply to all osus. Even when some of them find
themselves in an environment where they are not identified or recognized, the feeling still
consumes them from time to time .Granted that the feeling is more when they are in a place
where they are identified and recognized but they feel shame where nobody knows them.
Therefore this theory fails to explain this scenario.

Now, with regard to Imagined Audience, Ruth Benedict is of the opinion that imagining our
superior or some beloved criticizing us is required in order for one to feel shame. I will view
this from two angles. This may adequately explain why some of the osus who have left their
home land for distant lands feel shame when they imagine that someone who knows them is
there with them while nobody is actually there .However, the issue of imagined audience
cannot explain why the osus who do not value or accept the opinion of any audience real or
imagined still feel shame. Among the modern day osus, a great number of them who are well
exposed would accept none of this, and so the question of real or imagined audience should
not therefore come in, yet they cannot evade this shame. On this Deonna and Teroni also
criticize the imagined audience theory saying that we need to know who is criticizing us
before we could feel shame.

Deonna and Teroni’s point here does not win my approval because those of them who do not
regard the opinion of any audience have no such need either.Even those who value the
judgment of others feel shame without even knowing who is criticizing them. They don’t have
to know who are evaluating them. The fact that the elites among the modern day osus who do
not regard the evaluations of their society do not need real or imagined audience and yet they
feel shame goes to cement my stand. Wollheim does not dismiss Ruth Benedict’s position out
rightly, but his position is that imagined audience can act as triggers of shame.

Nevertheless he (like me) is not comfortable with Deonna and Teroni’s position vis-a-vis the
issue of Imagined Audience. For him shame is an alien force. One does not have to know who
is criticizing him before he feels shame. I am sure this is Sartre’s position too. Wollheim still

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concurs that real or imagined audiences are neither necessary nor sufficient for shame.
Real/imagined audiences can be seen as triggers of or aids to the onset of the shame
experience that could have still take place without being aided. An osu who has regard for his
real or imagined audience would normally feel shame just by finding himself in the presence
of such audience or imagining that the audience is around him as the case may be. But he
feels the shame more because of such triggering role of the audience.

Wolleim then employed the issue of phantasized figures which for him need not be real-life
or imagined audience, but should not merely mirror the subject’s own self reflective attitudes
but should have enough authority to induce shame and thus account for the submission that
characterizes this emotion. This is how the criticizing other is not just imagined but it is a
figure the subject has gradually internalized. The fantasized others are required to explain
why we submit in shame. Dealing with the heteronymous nature of shame, Wollheim appeals
to the phenomenology of shame as an assault and secondly as radically heteronymous .Hence,
his position makes it clearer why an Osu still feels shame even when he or she is deeply
convinced that he is a normal or even a better human being than those who criticize him or
her. However ,Deonna and Teroni suggest that the explanation to the essential nature of
shame should not lie in the attitude we take with regard to the criticism that is directed upon
us, but in the specific subject matter that elicit this emotion. I share their view on this matter.

However,Wolleim should be able to state what actually makes an osu to feel shame even
when he does not believe that the judgment of his viewers is right. John Deigh claims that we
are always ashamed because of a perceived threat to our social standing with regard to others.
What is generally seen as their social standing is that they are inferior to the rest. However,
the issue of social standing raises other concerns. Who determines one’s social standing? If
this standing is determined by the society, does this social standing still make sense if one
refuses to accept it? This theory may not have much to do with the modern day osus since
most of them are better exposed and have developed their privately held ideals such that what
others or the society think about them may not speak much to them. In this case, if they feel
shame, it may not arise from what their ‘social standing’ is. However, if we refer to those of
them at the present era that is not well exposed, they may indeed feel shame since they may
still regard the evaluation of the society about them. This theory fits in better with regard to

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the Osu of the primitive era who held religion and culture so tenaciously. Whatever religion
says about them becomes their view about themselves24.

7.0. EVALUATION AND CONCLUSION

It will not be just drawing any conclusion without putting into consideration certain facts. In
the first place, when we talk about osu, we have to take cognizance of the fact that there are
osus of the (A) primitive era and (B) the modern day osu. Within the osus of the primitive era,
we have (Aa)those who became osu because they were overpowered and kidnapped into
slavery and(Ab) there were those who became osu because they committed some heinous
crimes and as a result got demoted to osu class.(Those who hold that Responsibility matters
,would be offended) More so, within the modern day osus, there are basically two groups of
osus: (Ba)the elite osus and (Bb)the illiterate/less exposed osus.One must not have done
justice to the analysis of shame associated with the Osus without putting into consideration
the important differences that exist between Aa and Ab.To treat them as one and the same
shame episodes represents a great injustice done the issues of responsibility. The same holds
for all other distinctions.

As I raised in the introduction, what baffles me and many other people with regard to osu
caste system is the injustice and contradiction that play themselves out. Why should the osus
feel shame? The osus of (B)the modern day mostly derive their status through inheritance.
They became victims simply because they are descendants of ancestors that were osus. Let us
consider a situation whereby they were descendants of those ancestors who became osu for
committing some atrocities and were transformed into osu. Those ancestors can in the true
sense be said to be blame worthy for their status. The shame felt by those ancestors in those
primitive days for being labeled osu can easily be explained just like the normal shame that a
criminal would experience after committing a crime. However, the difficulty might now lie in
explaining the reason why the descendants of such ancestors would still feel shame in the
modern day. But even in this, there are some explanations that would be given by some group
of people which may not normally be accepted by others. Here, those who do hold that shame
is heteronymous would not find it difficult to understand why the modern osus who are
descendants of such ancestors should feel shame.

24
Julien Deonna and Fabrice Teroni,Is Shame a Social Emotion?

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This is because, one can feel shame simply because his evaluators are judging him negatively
whether he accepts their view or not. It does not matter whether one is or is not responsible
for actions that bring him shame.Another position is hinged on responsibility. Here those who
hold to the view that one could be responsible for an action by the virtue of sharing a certain
kind of bond with the executors of those actions would not find it difficult in understanding
why the osus of the modern day who derive their status simply by being descendants of such
ancestor should feel shame. This likened to the case of shame associated with the descendants
of Nazi perpetrators.

More so, when we now consider the(B) modern day osus who derive their status from those
ancestors who became osu because they were forced and kidnapped into the slavery and
service of the deities, we meet a lot of contradictions and perplexities. This is mostly the most
common way of becoming an osu in the primitive age. Almost every modern day osu derive
their status through this means. Whenever osu caste system is mentioned, this is usually what
comes to people’s mind and this is what is generating the whole debates concerning the
system. Now, the issue at stake is that from which ever angle one chooses to approach it, one
ends up not pinning it down. The normal cases of shame that one meets in everyday life takes
certain structure. In the first place, people usually feel shame when they commit certain
crimes, such shame experiences are understood. It can further be understood even if the
shame is transferred to the next generations, as in the cases of shame experienced by the
descendants of Nazis perpetrators.

Their shame was understood. At least their ancestors committed the crime, and so the Nazi
perpetrators have enough ground to feel shame. Their descendants have also a reason to feel
shame at least by the virtue of a collective or shared responsibility. Nevertheless, in the case
of osu caste system, the ancestors who were made osu did not commit any crime, it is rather
the society that committed a heinous crime against them. Those who committed these crimes
are expected to be the ones to feel shame but they do not feel any shame. The innocent ones
(Osus) were the ones who felt shame. In any case, the proponents of Genesis of shame would
not find it difficult to understand why the primitive osus who were made osus in this way
would feel shame. For them, they osus derive their mentality and worldviews from their

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specific community and also share a common moral practice. This community shapes their
cultural and religious beliefs.

Since osu caste system is a system rooted in religion and superstition, their mentality is also
shape by this religion. And among Africans, religious precepts are not to be questioned. They
were all born into the system where they are made to believe that they are inferior. This
becomes their social standing. Since, they are deeply immersed in religion and superstition;
they are condemned to taking their perspective from the outside. (From whatever the religion
says).They feel shame because the society judges them as inferior human beings. They accept
it since they take their perspective from the society.

However, the difficulty now emerges when we consider the modern osus who derive their
status from ancestors of this category. I will consider the modern osus who belong to this
category from two perspectives. Those who hold do not believe responsibility is necessary for
eliciting shame experience and those who sticks to responsibility. Proponents of Heteronomy
are not bothered about the question of responsibility. In the first place, those who hold to
heteronomy of shame would explain the shame of the modern osu based on the notion that
one can still feel shame irrespective of whether the views of one’s evaluators mirrors one’s
views or not. For this people, the modern day osu would feel shame simply because the
society judges him negatively irrespective of whether he is or is not responsible for the actions
that bring him shame. With regard to those who think that responsibility is very necessary for
one to feel shame, we have two groups.

Those who hold that for one to be responsible for an act, one must be personally accountable
for an action that brings him shame. This people who out rightly dismiss the fact that the
modern day osus ever feel shame. At any rate, those who hold that one could be responsible
for an act by the virtue of sharing a kind of bond with those who performed an act would
again not be able to explain why the modern day osu should feel shame. The problem is not
with the bond but with the manner through which the bond is made. Hence, shame feeling of
the osus does not find an explanation from these two notions of responsibility either.

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No one denies the fact that the modern day osu share a kind of bond with both present
members of his community and the past, but it would not be correct either to say that the
modern day osu have a share in the responsibility of the crime committed against him by his
community simply because he is also a member of the same community. In terms of
collective responsibility or shared responsibility, it would not make sense to apportion to osu
people the responsibility of kidnapping and in some cases forcing themselves to be slaves of
the deities simply because they are co- members of a community that committed this heinous
crimes. To kidnap and force oneself is a contradiction in terms so to say. If they were not the
victims of those crimes, it could be acceptable to say that they have a share in that
responsibility. The various discriminatory measures mapped out against them to preserve their
pure lines in history somewhat detach them from any bond to their community (at least in this
context) and exonerates them from such responsibility. The Nwadialas are the ones to feel
shame because of the crimes they have committed against their co-members just as it is the
case with the Nazi descendants. If it were so, then the issue of shared responsibility could
have been rightly applied to them since they share a bond with their ancestors.

Nevertheless, there is one theory that in my own opinion best explains why the modern day
osu feel shame. This has to do with the theory that is based on the object of emotion. Its
proponents are Lamb and Tangney. For them one could feel shame because someone else is
messing up. One can feel shame because the friend or his brother is performing an act that
brings shame. This theory is somewhat hinged on shared responsibility but in a way different
from the one I argued above. Here, the responsibility is shared between the modern day osu
and the modern day nwadiala. Osus share a sort of bond with the communities in which they
live no matter how badly they are being maltreated. At least they have no other place they can
call their own. The next question that begs for an answer is this; do osus feel shame because
the Nwadialas are messing up? One can view it this way. It is possible that the osus, when
they consider the fact that the world is evolving in ideas and epoch, they feel shame for their
brothers who in this present century re-enact what the men (Their ancestors) of fifth century
were practicing. Such that when an osu for instance, seeks the hand of a nwadiala in marriage
and there is refusal on the basis of this discrimination, the osu feels pity not for himself, but
for the backwardness and the baseness of the nwadiala´s mentality that has failed to outgrow
antiquity. On the other hand, this may be far from the real situation.

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