CONFRONTING THE OSU PROBLEM IN NIGERIA.

By Leo Igwe
There was a time in Igbo land when all human beings were born equal in dignity and right. People lived and interacted with one another in the spirit of brotherhood. Everybody was free to reside and relate with others without discrimination. There were no outcasts. There were no untouchables. Nobody lived in a state of permanent social disability. The Igbo society was a casteless society.
But some centuries ago, things changed. The caste system was introduced. And since then, human rights, dignity and respectability have not been the same again especially for those who belong to the Osu caste. No one knows exactly when this leprous system started.
Some people say that it must have started two centuries ago. Others argue that it has been on for six centuries. But whatever the case, at a point in the history of the Igbos in southern Nigeria, people started being born, described and divided into two groups- the Diala (Nwadiala) and the Osu. The Diala are called the sons of the soil. They are the freeborns. The Diala are the masters. The have and exercise their full rights as human beings.
While the Osu are the slaves, the strangers and the outcasts. They are accorded inferior and sub human status. They are treated the way blacks were treated in America before the civil rights era. They suffer oppression the way Africans suffered in South Africa under the apartheid regime.
The Osu are perceived and regarded as unclean and capable of defiling others - the freeborns. Hence they are called the untouchables. They are the 'dalits' of the Nigerian society
The Osu caste system is a tradition, which has been going on for generations in Igboland. According to this tradition, the Osu relate with and marry Osu and Diala relate with and marry Diala. It is an abomination for the Diala to relate with or marry Osu. The Diala relate with Osu as a master relates with a slave - as a healthy person interacts with a leper -to avoid social defilement and contamination.
But a freeborn person can become Osu by being dedicated to a local god or spirit. Many gods and spirits abound in Igboland, which the people believed in, worshipped and made sacrifices to before the coming of Christianity - even till date. So traditionally, the Osu live close to the shrines of these gods and the local markets. A freeborn also becomes an Osu if he/she is acquired or adopted as a slave. To distinguish the status of the slave from that of other members of the community, the slave and his/her descendents are regarded as Osu. The Osu is not allowed to marry from the community. He or she can only marry an Osu from elsewhere.And the children and all the generations are and remain UNTOUCHABLES.
Today in Igboland, many people are Osu by inheritance. In fact there are no longer `original Osu'. Instead what we have are millions of innocent human beings who are alleged to be Osu just because they were born into a family or a lineage of someone once regarded as Osu. These millions of people in Igboland live with this Osu stigma which haunts, hurts and hamper their lives, self-esteem and development till death. The Osu status is permanent, irremediable and irreversible. Though in some communities there are rituals to cleanse, reverse or redeem the Osu disability. But these have been largely ineffective and have not succeeded in ridding the thoughts and minds of Igbos of this social disease.
Also some Christian churches have preached against the Osu practice. But these sermons have fallen on deaf ears and have not in any way impacted on this despicable belief and practice. In fact the Osu caste system is now practiced in the churches. In some churches, some freeborns avoid sitting or holding hands with those alleged to be Osu during services. And there are reports that in some churches the harvests of the Osu are kept separate from that of the freeborn.
In the 50s, the government of then Eastern Nigeria attempted to eradicate this obnoxious practice. It passed a legislation abolishing the Osu caste system. But this legislation was not and could not be enforced. At best it drove the practice underground. Hence today, many people are afraid of calling or addressing others openly and publicly as Osu. Beside that, the Osu prejudice is very much alive in Igbo communities.
The Osu are still hated, despised and discriminated against as before. The Osu discrimination has caused division, divorce and death in families and communities across Igboland. The maltreatment meted out to Osu has forced many of them to migrate to cities or to other countries or communities outside Igboland. Many development projects have been abandoned, marriages have been dissolved, and pregnancies have been terminated.
In fact so many crimes against humanity have been committed against individuals and groups in Igboland in the name of Osu caste system.
Unfortunately the government has done virtually nothing to address the injustices perpetrated against the Osu in Igboland. Both the Federal and state governments have continued to maintain a criminal silence on the Osu issue.
The irony of it all is that today there are many young and growing Igbo persons who do not understand what the Osu issue is all about and why it is still practiced. Many of them are perplexed to know that such primitive custom obtains in Igbo communities in this 21st century.
Because of the vexing nature of the Osu tradition, three schools of thought representing three different dispositions on the issue have emerged in Igbo commmunities. They are the denialist, the apathetic and the realist.
The denialists claim that the Osu caste system has been abolished. That it is no longer practiced in Igboland. Unfortunately this is not true. The law abolishing the Osu caste system has been a paper tiger. It has not stopped people from discriminating against the Osu. So the denialist position in deceptive and misleading and would not in any way help in eradicating this obnoxious custom.
The apathetics tell us to ignore the practice and pretend as if it does not exist. They adopt this indifferent attitude became they find the practice very embarrassing. Hence for them, the Osu practice should be ignored so that it would fizzle out on its own. But they have forgotten that there has not been any case in history where oppressive traditions just fizzled out that way. In most cases they are consciously and conscientiously fought, rooted out and defeated. And that should be the case with the Osu caste system. So the apathetic disposition is cowardly and would not in anyway help in combating this vicious tradition.
Then we have the realists, these are those who acknowledge that this Osu practice obtains and exists in Igbo communities. They admit that Osu discrimination is complex and would require a lot of time, education, reorientation,social, political, and cultural will to stop.
Whatever the school of thought one may belong, we must face this shameful, bitter and brutal fact. Osu caste system is alive in Igbo land. We must admit that Osu discrimination is evil, primitive, inhuman and barbaric. It is the Igbo version of racism and apartheid. The Osu caste system is one practice Igbo communities must do away with in order to experience true modernity, enlightenment and civilization in this 21st century.
And the time to do that is NOW