Discursive Adjudication of Posthumous Status in Nsirimo Igbo Funeral Dirges

This article examines how cultural values such as morality, kinship, leadership, and reciprocity, as well as gender, relationships between mourners and the deceased, and social position shape posthumous status adjudication in Nsirimo Igbo funeral dirges. Drawing on the contextual beliefs model, the study analyses how linguistic choices acquire evaluative force through shared beliefs. Data were collected through qualitative ethnography using participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 24 participants, as well as recordings of 13 funeral dirges. Six dirges were selected for analysis. The findings show that funeral dirges function as sites of evaluation in which posthumous status is affirmed, diminished, or reclassified, while gender shapes the categories through which deceased persons are represented. Metaphors, proverbs, kinship expressions, praise terms, repetition, and direct address acquire their evaluative meanings through contextual knowledge. The study contributes to scholarship on contextual meaning and funeral discourse by examining how culturally shared beliefs mediate posthumous evaluation in Nsirimo Igbo.