Records show that about six centuries ago, there was increase in the growth of powerful deities that led to the need for more hands in working at the shrines. The “indigenous monks” upon learning the act to worship the gods were just and erroneously labeled Osu, Ume, or Ohu arusi (slave of the deities/gods or shrines). The relic of the indigenous religions of the Igbo people called Osu caste system varied in names. It is referred to as Achi-Ebo in Nzam in Onitsha while in Nsukka area, it is known as Oruma. It is also called Nwani or Ohualusi at Agwu area. These names – Osu, Ume, Ohu, Oru, Ohu Ume, Omoni(Okpu Aja)–have the same connotation in Igboland.
Saturday Tribune investigations revealed that those referred to by the names mentioned are regarded as sub-human beings, the unclean class, or slaves by the people who called themselves Diala (free born). In a paper presented to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in August 2002 by one Victor ****, titled: “Working globally against discrimination by work and descent”, he described the Osu caste system as a societal institution borne out of a primitive traditional belief system coloured by superstition and propagated by ignorance. The Osu, the author argued, is a people sacrificed to the gods in Igboland and they assist the high priest of the traditional religion to serve the deities or gods in their shrines.
There is another oral tale coloured by misconception, saying how a man who was chosen by a community was eventually picked to perform the task of serving the gods. The descendants of the man from that day inherited the status of Osu. Further checks show that many Igbo people, nowadays, shy away from discussing the obnoxious traditional belief largely due to the fact that the system has not only outlived its usefulness but is also uncivil. Indeed, the Osu caste system, which is a form of discrimination, has caused inter-communal clashes and wars between the Osu and the Diala in Igboland. For instance, the people of Umuode in Nkanu-East Local Government Area of Enugu State, who were said to be descendants of the Osu, are being treated as second class citizens.
Sadly enough, victims of the Osu caste system, even those at high places, appear to be helpless, as they have no legal recourse in Igboland. It was gathered that in Oruku community made up of three clans, namely, Umuode, Umuchiani and Onuogowu, the people of Umuode have limited social interaction with the rest of the community because of their ascribed Osu status. In fact, the system involves inequality of movement and choice of residence, inequality in the right of peaceful association, marriage and establishing a family. An incident that occurred at Oruku community in 1995 was barbaric enough to attract attention to the area as youths from two clans in the area that claimed to be freeborn disrupted the reception organized in honour of a world acclaimed professor of robotic engineering, Bath Nnaji, who flew into the country from United States to take up an exalted ministerial position as the Secretary of Science and Technology under the Chief Ernest Shonekon interim government.
Investigations revealed that the two villages at Oruku community do not inter-marry with people of Umuode. It was learnt that irrespective of Osu’s social status in the community, the local churches hardly appoint them to the positions of responsibility. A staff of the Federal Ministry of Information, Enugu who preferred anonymity told ST that the degree of ostracism is so high in Oruku that the state government had to build a separate area for the victims, adding that any person from freeborn villages that talks or greets a person from Umuode clan stands to pay a fine as much as N1,000.
To further highlight the savage practice of Osu caste system, the people of Umuode create their own market quite different from the Eke Oruku market, owned exclusively by Umuchiani and Onuogowo clans. Comrade Njoku Emeka, a law student at the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus (UNEC) and founder of Change Initiative Agent, a non-governmental organization in Enugu, said “if we try to relate the issue pertaining to caste system to contemporary Nigeria, it seems as if it is drift or disparity between what the constitution says and peoples custom. “In Igboland, the Osu caste system has come to stay in the sense that it is silent. It operates within the sub-conscious of the people. It operates within the people willingly and it is not pronounced. You do not see it or touch it”
Citing an instance in Imo State , specifically in Isi Ala Mbano of the state, Emeka said “It is evident that they do not inter-marry even as they live together as neighbours. So, the worrisome aspect of it all is their conjugal rejection. Some go as far as claiming ownership over the Osus. It is common to hear of “Ndia bu ndi Osu anyi” meaning these are our own slaves. He disclosed that the freeborn see the Osus as property that should be owned, adding that the implication is that the people referred to as Osu in Igboland do not attain “Ezeship”, that is kingship, in some parts of Igboland.
Findings revealed that in Amufie village in Enugu Ezike, Enugu State, an Osu is not allowed to ascend the throne of an “Onyishi” a position kept sacred for the eldest man in the community. In Alor Agu community near Nsukka, also in Enugu State, a deity called “Adere’ is feared by the people as the god is said to be powerful. To appease the deity, “offending person or family offers animals including human beings to the gods” willingly. Three years ago, a woman evangelist (now deceased) took it as a task to destroy some shrines in Nsukka area with a view to putting to an end the worship of idols in the land. The lady, whose name was simply given as Ngozi Aro, reportedly died in the struggle.
Historical records also have it that late Nnamdi Azikiwe fought vehemently against the Osu caste system as he told members of the defunct Eastern House of Assembly on March 20, 1956 that, “it is devilish and most uncharitable to brand any human being with a label of inferiority, due to the accidents of history”. While seconding the motion for the second reading of the abolition of the Osu caste system, the late Owelle of Onitsha noted, “The objects and reasons for the bill are humanitarian and altruistic.” According to Zik, “The bill seeks to abolish the Osu system and its allied practices including the Oru or Ohu system, to prescribe punishment for their continued practice, and to remove certain social disabilities caused by the enforcement of the Osu and its allied system.
“I will not join in the encouragement of a system of society where one stratum can superciliously claim to be descended from the best brain and would therefore consign the others to a scrap heap of their own invention and ostracize them socially”, he added. But, why has Osu caste system continued to exist in Igboland despite the fact that it was abolished by the Zik government? Are the proponents of the Osu caste ignorant of the Abolition of Slavery Act of 1806 and the Magna Carta of 1215? To non-Igbos, the story that an Igbo stock is treated as a social pariah in Igboland sounds strange, particularly in the 21st century. Even during the late Dr Sam Mbakwe government in Imo State, the civilian regime of Nigeria Peoples Party ( NPP) banned the Osu caste system but the law did not prevent the existence of the savage custom.
Defiant as some could be, a spinster from Enugu State, who simply gave her name as Nkechi, said she would never marry an Osu even at gun point, stressing that she preferred remaining single to living with an Osu as husband and wife. “I do not care if I remain single all my life instead of me marrying an Osu. I cannot stand the humiliation in my village. No matter how wealthy an Osu could be, I will not marry him. It is an abomination in my village to go out with Osu as friends, how much more to talk of going to the altar with him”, she stated. As a matter of fact, eastern government at various times in the past had tried to use legislation and sometimes, coercion, to abolish the Osu caste system. Apart from the Mbakwe regime, late Air Commodore Emeka Omeruah while serving as the military governor of old Anambra State moved against the Efuru deities in Ukehe in Igbo-etiti Local Government Area, destroying the shrines with bulldozer.
But the irony of it all is that the people referred to as Osu flourish in business and politics to the extent that some of them occupy exalted positions in government as governors, commissioners and permanent secretaries, to mention but a few. Interestingly, in Arochukwu, the traditional base of the slave merchants of the old, the issue of Osu caste system is not well pronounced as both the Amadis (freeborn) and the non-Amadis (settlers) inter-marry and live together. Mr. Chris Oji, a journalist, said that Aros, however, only allow Amadis to be in-charge of their ancestral deity at Arochukwu known as “Ibinukpabi” otherwise called “Long juju” by the white man.
According to Oji, the Aros during the slave trade went into the evil forest at Arochukwu to “liberate” the Osus who were thrown away to die for alleged capital offence. They were subsequently sold into slavery. “ The intelligent ones were sent back to their communities and planted as surrogates to serve the interest of the Aros, especially in slave trading. Today, the Aros are scattered all over the eastern states and even beyond the Igbo enclave”, he added. ST learnt that many traditional rulers in Igbo land also shy away from discussing openly the issue of Osu caste system as they regard it as a matter that could create disaffection in their domains.
A paramount ruler in Enugu-Ezike, Igwe Simeon Itodo, who did not talk much on the caste system, told ST that Osu system should be rejected and cast to the dust bin of history as all men are equal before God. Barrister Celestine Abugu, a law teacher at the University of Abuja, wondered why wherever issues of segregation around the world are discussed at international level, the Osu caste system in Igboland is never mentioned. Abugu who hails from Amachalla, Enugu-Ezike in Igbo-eze Local Government Area of Enugu State, described the Osu caste system as not only dehumanizing but outdated and should be discarded by every right thinking member of the society.
Will the indigenous traditionalists allow the Osu caste system give room to a civilized way of life? The Igbo traditional beliefs, no doubt, have some positive influence on the culture and social lives of the people, but, the truth is that Ndigbo needs a rebirth in this millennium.
Please you are wasting a whole lot of space here, can't u try sumtin else? haww.....
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