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I’ll be writing about some of our traditions that we still uphold till today. I did something like this about Religion, Christianity to be precise.
I’ll be focusing on the ones I’ve seen (not hearsays) and since I’m Igbo, I’ll stick to Igbo traditions.
Hopefully they’ll be interactive, interesting and educative and not something that would brew unnecessary bile.
Episode 1: The Osu/Ohu/Ume Caste system
These are the major lower caste groups in Igboland. In most places they mean the same thing; Outcast, Pariah. But from where I come from they have very distinct meanings.
1. Osu: This is a group of 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.
Making of Osus:
A. When clans fight, the winning community takes some captives from the losing clan. Now from their captives, they sacrifice the strongest and healthiest humans to the gods as special slaves. Apart from being strong and healthy, they also have to be virgins. They are kept to serve the deity and as such cannot marry or have an affair with the freeborn (nwadiala).
B. In some special circumstances, those who hold the traditional beliefs of the Igbos (the elders), could transform a Diala who committed certain atrocities against the land, into an Osu. This process involves intricate rituals (offering of libations and sacrificing animals to the earth goddess).
C. Some communities or people who were at risk of extermination either because they were weak or committed a crime would run to the shrine and ask the gods for succour. They automatically become Osus and no matter the crime, become untouchable.
D. A Diala could sacrifice his headstrong child or his personal slave to the gods to attract favour. Such person and his descendants automatically becomes Osu.
E. Getting married to, interacting with or killing an Osu automatically makes a Diala an Osu.
The ancestors of the present-day Osu people inherited their dehumanizing social status through any of these.
Presently, one could acquire the Osu status through inheritance and marriage.
2. Ohu: This group of people are slaves too but unlike the Osus, they are owned by their fellow man not gods. They too are discriminated against but certainly not like the Osus.
Making of Ohus:
A. After the cream of the crop has been taken for the gods, the royal home, elders, warriors and the affluent get to share the remaining captives of war as slaves.
Strong men for farming and beautiful women as handmaids are chosen.
B. A Diala could become an Ohu if he fails to pay off an outstanding debt. He becomes a slave to the person he is indebted to or he could give a member of his family in his stead.
This is mostly where the culture of exorbitant brideprice was gotten from. But I digress.
C. Kidnapped children from distant communities are either given to the gods or sold as slaves. Also a man can sell his headstrong child to another Diala as an Ohu.
3. Ume: This group of people are those who did despicable things and were ostracized for their deeds. The most notable atrocious act that could make one an Ume is incest. So any family guilty of incest was classified as Ume.
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Today, Ume and Ohu caste are all but wiped out because of religion but the Osu caste is very much strong. In towns where it is very much practised, Dialas do not marry Osus or take favours from them. In some places it is forbidden for a Diala to kill an Osu because they are the property of the gods. Some people do not eat food prepared by Osus or even shake their hands. Doing any of these makes you an Osu.
In the late 1980s, the Osu people in Umuaka village in Imo state revolted. They physically assaulted a couple of women from the Diala section of the community, with the intention of transforming the women to Osu so that the Diala would reject them. The action would also give them the taste of the pains and humiliation of the Osu status. The brouhaha that followed this action was short-lived, as the Diala in the community responded with counter forces.
In Imo State alone over 60 of such incidents have been reported.
Despite all the attempts by religion to end it, the Osu caste system is very much strongly practised and the Osus discriminated.
What do you think about it? How can it be effectively stopped?
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