Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade

[Ikhide]

"There are some fundamental facts. First, no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production. Africa has produced no economies based on slavery. It was left to Europe to create a system of slavery where humans were chattel to be used as tools in the development of wealth. Secondly, in all massive enterprises where there are oppressors and the oppressed there will be collaborators. It is no secret that some of Afriica’s best minds, Fanon, Memni, Karenga, have isolated incidents of collaboration among victims of oppression. Blacks were police officers in the white minority regime of South Africa but one cannot blame apartheid on black people. So when Gates claims that Africans were involved in the slave trade one can accept this, but what one cannot accept is that Africans were equally culpable for the slave trade. Nor should one blame the Judenrats (Jewish Councils) of Germany for Nazi atrocities although they often collaborated with the Germans. Indians collaborated with the British colonialists in India and some Chinese collaborated with the Japanese in occupied China, and while there is no excuse there is certainly explanation for collaboration."

- Molefi Kete Asante

http://www.asante.net/articles/44/where-is-the-white-professor-located/

Hmmm/ It is incorrect that "no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production." That is silly hagiography. There are many ways to counter Bill Gates without minimizing the role of Africans in the transatlantic slave trade. Africans are just as culpable as those that came to take away our siblings. *cycles away slowly*

 

- Ikhide

 

Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com

Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide

Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide

[kenneth harrow]

this is "tendentious" commentary, not serious history. why do we have this?
in a way, we use history as a kind of football for kicking around our views and opinions, leaving us with hot air. so here is a guide: whenever anyone says, "history shows that...," dodge quickly.
ken

On 3/18/13 7:53 PM, Ikhide wrote:

"There are some fundamental facts. First, no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production. Africa has produced no economies based on slavery. It was left to Europe to create a system of slavery where humans were chattel to be used as tools in the development of wealth. Secondly, in all massive enterprises where there are oppressors and the oppressed there will be collaborators. It is no secret that some of Afriica�s best minds, Fanon, Memni, Karenga, have isolated incidents of collaboration among victims of oppression. Blacks were police officers in the white minority regime of South Africa but one cannot blame apartheid on black people. So when Gates claims that Africans were involved in the slave trade one can accept this, but what one cannot accept is that Africans were equally culpable for the slave trade. Nor should one blame the Judenrats (Jewish Councils) of Germany for Nazi atrocities although they often collaborated with the Germans. Indians collaborated with the British colonialists in India and some Chinese collaborated with the Japanese in occupied China, and while there is no excuse there is certainly explanation for collaboration."

- Molefi Kete Asante

http://www.asante.net/articles/44/where-is-the-white-professor-located/

Hmmm/ It is incorrect that "no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production." That is silly hagiography. There are many ways to counter Bill Gates without minimizing the role of Africans in the transatlantic slave trade. Africans are just as culpable as those that came to take away our siblings. *cycles away slowly*

�

- Ikhide

�

Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com

Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide

Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide

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-- 
kenneth w. harrow 
faculty excellence advocate
distinguished professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
619 red cedar road
room C-614 wells hall
east lansing, mi 48824
ph. 517 803 8839
har...@msu.edu

[Anunoby, Ogugua]

“whenever anyone says, "history shows that...," dodge quickly”.

 

Not all the time. Not if history is the study of past events. History shows… It does just as experience teaches… Which is why we study and seek to learn from history. As George Santayana famously reminds us “those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it” Is history sometimes abused or misused? Can history be “tendentious”? Yes of course.

 

oa

 

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of kenneth harrow
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 8:16 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade

 

this is "tendentious" commentary, not serious history. why do we have this?
in a way, we use history as a kind of football for kicking around our views and opinions, leaving us with hot air. so here is a guide: whenever anyone says, "history shows that...," dodge quickly.
ken

On 3/18/13 7:53 PM, Ikhide wrote:

"There are some fundamental facts. First, no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production. Africa has produced no economies based on slavery. It was left to Europe to create a system of slavery where humans were chattel to be used as tools in the development of wealth. Secondly, in all massive enterprises where there are oppressors and the oppressed there will be collaborators. It is no secret that some of Afriica’s best minds, Fanon, Memni, Karenga, have isolated incidents of collaboration among victims of oppression. Blacks were police officers in the white minority regime of South Africa but one cannot blame apartheid on black people. So when Gates claims that Africans were involved in the slave trade one can accept this, but what one cannot accept is that Africans were equally culpable for the slave trade. Nor should one blame the Judenrats (Jewish Councils) of Germany for Nazi atrocities although they often collaborated with the Germans. Indians collaborated with the British colonialists in India and some Chinese collaborated with the Japanese in occupied China, and while there is no excuse there is certainly explanation for collaboration."

- Molefi Kete Asante

http://www.asante.net/articles/44/where-is-the-white-professor-located/

Hmmm/ It is incorrect that "no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production." That is silly hagiography. There are many ways to counter Bill Gates without minimizing the role of Africans in the transatlantic slave trade. Africans are just as culpable as those that came to take away our siblings. *cycles away slowly*

 

- Ikhide

 

Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com

Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide

Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide

 

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-- 

kenneth w. harrow 

faculty excellence advocate

distinguished professor of english

michigan state university

department of english

619 red cedar road

room C-614 wells hall

east lansing, mi 48824

ph. 517 803 8839

har...@msu.edu

--

[Ibrahim Abdullah]

Skip gates is not bill gates. And a slave mode of production was not dominant in any african society by 1500. It became dominant and hegemonic in some societies only in nineteen century--a result of their involvement in the european slave trade.

History does not repeat itself: you do not swim in the same river twice. Agents of /in history make mistakes but it is not the historical process that is being reproduced. You cannot drink in the same cup twice!

Ib Abdullah

------

[kenneth harrow]

hi oa
i hate that santayana quote. it seems increasingly meaningless to me.
let's say it is a temptation, like a large coke. drink more and more, and you get unhealthy and obese, not smarter.
so, to cut to the chase: there is no such thing as history; there are, rather, historical accounts. no history, just accounts of history. can we learn from accounts? of course. but they are as useful or useless as the intelligence of the author of the accounts, not as the "history" teaches us.
my little response, then, was to molefi asante's account, which seemed to me of little historical use or even accuracy, but rather, was there to preach to the unwashed.
ken

[kenneth harrow]

exactly. it is abdullah's 2nd sentence which prompted my intemperate comment
ken

On 3/19/13 2:48 PM, Ibrahim Abdullah wrote:

Skip gates is not bill gates. And a slave mode of production was not dominant in any african society by 1500. It became dominant and hegemonic in some societies only in nineteen century--a result of their involvement in the european slave trade.

History does not repeat itself: you do not swim in the same river twice. Agents of /in history make mistakes but it is not the historical process that is being reproduced. You cannot drink in the same cup twice!

Ib Abdullah

------

On Mar 19, 2013 10:45 AM, "Ikhide" <xok...@yahoo.com> wrote:

"There are some fundamental facts. First, no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production. Africa has produced no economies based on slavery. It was left to Europe to create a system of slavery where humans were chattel to be used as tools in the development of wealth. Secondly, in all massive enterprises where there are oppressors and the oppressed there will be collaborators. It is no secret that some of Afriica�s best minds, Fanon, Memni, Karenga, have isolated incidents of collaboration among victims of oppression. Blacks were police officers in the white minority regime of South Africa but one cannot blame apartheid on black people. So when Gates claims that Africans were involved in the slave trade one can accept this, but what one cannot accept is that Africans were equally culpable for the slave trade. Nor should one blame the Judenrats (Jewish Councils) of Germany for Nazi atrocities although they often collaborated with the Germans. Indians collaborated with the British colonialists in India and some Chinese collaborated with the Japanese in occupied China, and while there is no excuse there is certainly explanation for collaboration."

- Molefi Kete Asante

http://www.asante.net/articles/44/where-is-the-white-professor-located/

Hmmm/ It is incorrect that "no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production." That is silly hagiography. There are many ways to counter Bill Gates without minimizing the role of Africans in the transatlantic slave trade. Africans are just as culpable as those that came to take away our siblings. *cycles away slowly*

�

- Ikhide

�

Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com

Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide

Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide

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[OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU]

I read  somewhere that the Asante used slaves in clearing the forests on which they built their communities.

Is that true?

What about the osu cast system in Igboland? To what degree were the osu not slaves? I know little about this but a pic I saw of an osu and a dibia on the Igbocybershrine blog  a powerful and  unforgettable pic, suggested  something that reminded me of slavery.

toyin

--
Compcros

Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems

"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"

[Biko Agozino]

Wow Ken! Molefi Asante, with more than 70 books and counting, cannot be dismissed as preaching to the 'unwashed'. You are free to disagree with him but you cannot ridicule his claim that there is no record of an African society that depended on a slave economy as a dominant mode of production the way European chattel slavery did. If you and Ikhide know of such an African history, then try and contradict him with the evidence. The thrust of Asante's argument three years ago is to support the call for reparations from European nations that paid compensations to slave traders but have refused to consider reparations for people of African descent. If you are opposed to reparations for Africans, then say why. Gates' thesis appears to suggest that the demand for reparations is a blame game and that blame is an equal opportunity employer but I contributed to the debate back then by reminding Gates that the demand for reparations is not a game; it is a matter of justice that has been rendered to almost every group that suffered historic wrongs, except to people of African descent due to racism-sexism-classism (according to Chinweizu). Of course, history teaches great lessons although some people remain unteachable because of their selfish interests. Yet the whole world will benefit when the wrongs done to people of African descent are acknowledged and appropriate reparations made in accordance with historical precedence. Yes, history teaches that!

Biko

---

From: kenneth harrow <har...@msu.edu>
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, 19 March 2013, 14:35

[Edward Mensah]

That is true, according to historical accounts.  But these slaves soon became citizens, married Asante women, and acquired properties.  In fact, it is said that the mighty Asante army that fought and even defeated the mighty British army on a few occasions, had slave fighters and officers, who also became citizens, married Asante women, had families and properties.  It is no secret that members of certain Asante royal families are descendants of former soldiers who themselves were slaves.   All societies, especially the militarily successful empires, had slaves in one form or the other.  But  treatment of African slaves in North Americas for over 4 centuries  elevated cruelty to a new level.  Yes, the Asantes hasd slaves.

 

Kwaku Mensah

Chicago

 

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 3:37 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade

 

I read  somewhere that the Asante used slaves in clearing the forests on which they built their communities.

[kenneth harrow]

someone other than myself already gave the response. this is what ib abdullah wrote:

Skip gates is not bill gates. And a slave mode of production was not dominant in any african society by 1500. It became dominant and hegemonic in some societies only in nineteen century--a result of their involvement in the european slave trade.

History does not repeat itself: you do not swim in the same river twice. Agents of /in history make mistakes but it is not the historical process that is being reproduced. You cannot drink in the same cup twice!

Ib Abdullah

I added to his posting that his� sentence about 19th century production (in northern nigeria) confirmed my own thoughts
ken

On 3/19/13 3:58 PM, Biko Agozino wrote:

Wow Ken! Molefi Asante, with more than 70 books and counting, cannot be dismissed as preaching to the 'unwashed'. You are free to disagree with him but you cannot ridicule his claim that there is no record of an African society that depended on a slave economy as a dominant mode of production the way European chattel slavery did. If you and Ikhide know of such an African history, then try and contradict him with the evidence. The thrust of Asante's argument three years ago is to support the call for reparations from European nations that paid compensations to slave traders but have refused to consider reparations for people of African descent. If you are opposed to reparations for Africans, then say why. Gates' thesis appears to suggest that the demand for reparations is a blame game and that blame is an equal opportunity employer but I contributed to the debate back then by reminding Gates that the demand for reparations is not a game; it is a matter of justice that has been rendered to almost every group that suffered historic wrongs, except to people of African descent due to racism-sexism-classism (according to Chinweizu). Of course, history teaches great lessons although some people remain unteachable because of their selfish interests. Yet the whole world will benefit when the wrongs done to people of African descent are acknowledged and appropriate reparations made in accordance with historical precedence. Yes, history teaches that!

Biko

---

From: kenneth harrow <har...@msu.edu>
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, 19 March 2013, 14:35
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade

hi oa
i hate that santayana quote. it seems increasingly meaningless to me.
let's say it is a temptation, like a large coke. drink more and more, and you get unhealthy and obese, not smarter.
so, to cut to the chase: there is no such thing as history; there are, rather, historical accounts. no history, just accounts of history. can we learn from accounts? of course. but they are as useful or useless as the intelligence of the author of the accounts, not as the "history" teaches us.
my little response, then, was to molefi asante's account, which seemed to me of little historical use or even accuracy, but rather, was there to preach to the unwashed.
ken

On 3/19/13 1:04 PM, Anunoby, Ogugua wrote:

�whenever anyone says, "history shows that...," dodge quickly�.

�

Not all the time. Not if history is the study of past events. History shows� It does just as experience teaches� Which is why we study and seek to learn from history. As George Santayana famously reminds us �those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it� Is history sometimes abused or misused? Can history be �tendentious�? Yes of course.

�

oa

�

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of kenneth harrow
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 8:16 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade

�

this is "tendentious" commentary, not serious history. why do we have this?
in a way, we use history as a kind of football for kicking around our views and opinions, leaving us with hot air. so here is a guide: whenever anyone says, "history shows that...," dodge quickly.
ken

On 3/18/13 7:53 PM, Ikhide wrote:

"There are some fundamental facts. First, no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production. Africa has produced no economies based on slavery. It was left to Europe to create a system of slavery where humans were chattel to be used as tools in the development of wealth. Secondly, in all massive enterprises where there are oppressors and the oppressed there will be collaborators. It is no secret that some of Afriica�s best minds, Fanon, Memni, Karenga, have isolated incidents of collaboration among victims of oppression. Blacks were police officers in the white minority regime of South Africa but one cannot blame apartheid on black people. So when Gates claims that Africans were involved in the slave trade one can accept this, but what one cannot accept is that Africans were equally culpable for the slave trade. Nor should one blame the Judenrats (Jewish Councils) of Germany for Nazi atrocities although they often collaborated with the Germans. Indians collaborated with the British colonialists in India and some Chinese collaborated with the Japanese in occupied China, and while there is no excuse there is certainly explanation for collaboration."

- Molefi Kete Asante

http://www.asante.net/articles/44/where-is-the-white-professor-located/

Hmmm/ It is incorrect that "no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production." That is silly hagiography. There are many ways to counter Bill Gates without minimizing the role of Africans in the transatlantic slave trade. Africans are just as culpable as those that came to take away our siblings. *cycles away slowly*

�

- Ikhide

�

Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com

Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide

Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide

�

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-- 

kenneth w. harrow 

faculty excellence advocate

distinguished professor of english

michigan state university

department of english

619 red cedar road

room C-614 wells hall

east lansing, mi 48824

ph. 517 803 8839

har...@msu.edu

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-- 
kenneth w. harrow 
faculty excellence advocate
distinguished professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
619 red cedar road
room C-614 wells hall
east lansing, mi 48824
ph. 517 803 8839
har...@msu.edu

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[Dr. Emmanuel Franklyne Ogbunwezeh]

Mr. Adepoju;

One wonders the mental hinterland which could empower such a misintepretation of an issue that dwarfs one's competence. If you know little about the Osu caste system in Igboland, why don't you go do some research before coming here to empanel hearsay. The Osu caste System is not slavery. Next topic please!!!

Dr. Franklyne Emmanuel Ogbunwezeh 

[Akurang-Parry, Kwabena]

I believe that we have to operationalize "slave mode of production:" it would help us to better understand the roles of slaves in pre/colonial African political economies.  I humbly ask those who have already submitted perspectives on this topic to define it for us.  

 

I was one of those who countered Gates' essay that appeared in the New York Times and which in my considered opinion sought to put the blame for the Atlantic slave trade at the doors of Africans. My response is posted below.

 

MY RESPONSE BELOW:

 

LET me state some caveats that my effort at interrogating the conclusions of Professor Henry Louis Gates does not mitigate the marginality and chattel nature that reconfigured the lived-experiences of enslaved Africans worldwide, nor does it exonerate slave-holding societies in Africa as well as some African states’ participation in the Atlantic slave trade. Second, I do understand Gates to mean that the blame for the Atlantic slave trade should be debited to both Africans and Europeans/Americans, consequently reparations should also be the responsibility of Africans. Third, this is not about reparations, but more so about querying and rethinking some of Gates’ historical arguments and conclusions from the standpoints of “Akan” oral history wedded to “Western” sources, indeed, a bold departure from most of the commentaries framed around “Western” sources.

 

CAREFUL readings of Gates’ efforts at illuminating the Atlantic slave trade and the quest for reparations, pivoted on Obama’s presidency, illustrate Gates’ subtle preoccupation with blaming Africans for the slave trade. Gates’ present essay, full of inaccuracies and spiced with dizzying barber-shop narratives, revisits his perspectives on Africa and the Atlantic slave trade couched during his Conradian scholarly-tour of Africa, packaged as <Wonders of the African World,> and standardized as homegrown African history for his conservative audience and sponsors.

 

THE viewpoint that “Africans” enslaved “Africans” is obfuscating if not troubling. The deployment of “African” in African history tends to coalesce into obscurantist constructions of identities that allow scholars, for instance, to subtly call into question the humanity of “all” Africans. Whenever Asante rulers sold non-Asantes into slavery, they did not construct it in terms of Africans selling fellow Africans. They saw the victims for what they were, for instance, as Akuapems, without categorizing them as fellow Africans. Equally, when Christian Scandinavians and Russians sold war captives to the Islamic people of the Abbasid Empire, they didn’t think that they were placing fellow Europeans into slavery. This lazy categorizing homogenizes Africans and has become a part of the methodology of African history; not surprisingly, the Western media’s cottage industry on Africa has tapped into it to frame Africans in inchoate generalities allowing the media to describe local crisis in one African state as “African” problem.

 

GATES writes that “Slaves were the main export of the kingdom of Kongo; the Asante Empire in Ghana exported slaves and used the profits to import gold.” Gates must know that Asante dominated the Akan gold trade and exported gold overseas; thus, they didn’t have to sell slaves to import gold. In sum, Asante had access to gold in the area described by Kwame Arhin as Greater Asante. Absolutely, the slave trade contributed to the expansion of Asante, but Asante’s political economy was not wholly dependent on the export of slaves. What is also clear is that the profit from the sale of slaves was used in purchasing guns, the most important commodity that facilitated both the military defense of individual African states as well as the supply of slaves to the Europeans. For its part, the Kongo state was already prosperous before the advent of the Portuguese in 1483. Although, slavery and slave trade were a part of the political economy of the Kongo, it was by no means the dominant one. The people of the Kongo dealt in iron, copperware, pottery, and textile goods, and had extensive markets as well. It was the Portuguese presence that intensified the incidence of slavery and eclipsed other forms of economic ventures just as much as the Portuguese, British, Dutch, etc. presence increased and reconfigured the institutional mechanisms of enslavement in West Africa.

 

ADDITIONALLY, Gates notes that “some African monarchs also sent their children along these same slave routes to be educated in Europe. And there were thousands of former slaves who returned to settle Liberia and Sierra Leone. The Middle Passage, in other words, was sometimes a two-way street. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to claim that Africans were ignorant or innocent.” Even if Africans knew about the conditions of slaves in the Americas, there was very little that the so-called 90 percent of “Africans” enslaved by fellow “Africans” could do to thwart their enslavement. In other words, they did not choose enslavement over freedom. Besides, Africans educated in Europe were pedagogically conditioned to accept the demonization of people of African descent in currency, and when they returned home imputed similar inferiorization to other Africans. For example, Gates should know that Jacobus Eliza Johannes Capitein, an African intellectual giant educated overseas had even defended the slave trade. Capitein was born in 1717 in the Gold Coast and sold into slavery to Jacob van Goch, an official of the Dutch West Indian Company then operating in the Gold Coast. Capitein accompanied his master to the Netherlands, studied and attained advanced degrees, and in 1742 chronicled <The Agony of Asar: A Thesis on Slavery…1717-1747.> One of the most covered themes in the book is Capitein’s sustained perspectives on compatibility of slavery and Christianity. Thus, it is fair to conclude that some of those who had acquired European higher education like Capitein had assimilated dosages of Eurocentric pedagogies and epistemologies then in currency and which had informed their education. This should not be difficult to understand: throughout the early colonial period some Africans who hailed colonialism belonged to the educated elite. In contemporary Africa, it is the educated elites that have increasingly championed the movement away from composite African values by happily latching onto neocolonial tastes and values, in fact, seismic cultural shifts called Globalization in some quarters.

 

THERE are a number of subtle suggestions which undergird Gates’ essay of blame-game that are plucked from the works of Linda Heywood and John Thornton whose conclusions are shaped by the extant Eurocentric records. One is the notion that wars in precolonial Africa were mostly geared toward the acquisition of slaves for the Atlantic market. Oral history/traditions amply illustrate that some wars in precolonial Africa, even during the period of the Atlantic slave trade, also served as conduits of freeing slaves. Historians of slavery in Africa, mostly non-Africans, have overemphasized the colonial conquest and its consequent wars as auspicious moments that enabled slaves in Africa to take to the pathways of freedom. Conversely, warfare among precolonial African states and African wars of resistance to incipient European domination in the precolonial 19^th-century, both of which contributed to slave flights and reunited deserting slaves with their families, have not garnered the attention they deserve. For example, in 1730-31, when Akyem Abuakwa assisted the region of Akuapem to wean the inhabitants off Akwamu domination, a large number of Akuapems, who had been enslaved by the Akwamus, returned to their families in Akuapem and public celebrations were used to welcome them home. Also in the aftermath of the Asante resistance to the budding British imperialism in 1873-74, “slaves,” according to colonial and Christian missionary reports as well as newspaper accounts, left their slave-holders in Greater Asante and its coterminous regions, including Bono, Adansi, Asante-Akyem, Denkyira, etc. and returned to their families and communities. Of course, not all fleeing slaves were able to return to their respective homes in a timely fashion, and about this, the reports describe massive “refugee” movements in the area between the Pra, Ofin, Birim, and Densu Rivers, notably encompassing parts of Akyem Abuakwa, Denkyira, Gomoa, Agona and Fante territories. Even war-scares, such as the ones which occurred between the Akuapems and Krobos in the ^l8th and 19^th centuries, also triggered slave flights and some of the fleeing slaves found their way home, or built slave villages that would form the nucleus of some Krobo and Akuapem satellite communities.

 

ECONOMIC motives, according to Gates, are what compositely explain the “role Africans themselves played” in the Atlantic slave trade as suppliers of the European slave traders’ appetite for slaves. Although, direct economic reasons may be used to explain the European involvement in the age of capitalism and slavery, it does not fully explain African states’ participation in the Atlantic slave trade. More than economic gain was the pernicious gun-slave-cycle that compelled African states to arm themselves with European-made guns, the most important commodity of the Triangular Trade to West and West-Central Africa, both for protection and as a means of acquiring war captives to sell to European slave traders in order to paradoxically procure more guns for protection. In my view the participation of African states was conditioned more by political motives for protection than short-term economic gains.

 

GATES argues that since European slave traders lived in the coastal trading posts, the blame for the Atlantic slave trade wholly lies with Africans who captured fellow “Africans” in the interior and sold them to Europeans. His argument is an attractive proposition obviously quarried from the historiography. Unlike “Western” sources that inform much of the historiography, the use of oral history allows us to interrogate Gates’ conclusions at several levels. First, 1871, Gates’ date for the so-called European exploration of the interior of Africa, is wrong: long before 1871, Europeans had visited the interior parts of the continent. Oral history collected by scholars at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, shows that during the era of the Atlantic slave trade, “aborofo/oburoni”[whites] visited the interior of what is today Ghana, broadly defined as the region between Greater Asante and the littoral stretching from Edina [Elmina] in the west to Keta in the east.  Even granted that Europeans never set foot in the interior of West Africa and West-Central Africa, there is no doubt that their presence in the trading posts along the coast enabled them to influence politics that led to wars of enslavement, and the example of Portuguese predatory activities in the Kongo may be summoned to elucidate this conclusion. Second, oral history shows that some indigenous rulers in the Gold Coast and European agents held regular meetings regarding the on-going slave trade in the precincts of the castles and forts. During such durbars or “palavers” Asafo Mma [so-called Companies] or lineage-based warrior groups exhibited their weaponry and demonstrated their military skills defined by warrior “traditions” to the delight of all. Third, the extant literature illustrates that the forts and castles served as permanent hegemonic sites that enabled some European states to influence economic, social, and political developments in both the coastal and immediate interior regions. Finally, the bolts of supply and demand were not tied to space and physical presence: some European/American states’ demand for slaves existed and African states like Asante and Dahomey supplied it; more importantly, the Asante and Dahomian supply curves met the European/American slave traders’ demand along the lines of proliferation of European-made guns which fueled the political economy of destructive gun-slave-cycles in much of West and West-Central Africa.

 

FURTHERMORE, Gates, like most Western interpreters of slavery, slave trade, and abolition, attributes abolition solely to non-African agency. The Atlantic slave trade was as much a trade in “commodities” as it was in diffusing prevailing osmotic abolition ideologies in the Atlantic world. Even if we assumed that abolition began in the West as a staple pearl of the historiography would have us believe, the movement of osmotic ideas was also assimilated by Africans, unless Gates and others want to argue that Africans did not know the meaning of freedom, or were incapable of constructing and applying freedoms during the global abolition epoch. In fact, recent research amply suggests that the seeds of abolition in the Gold Coast had been nursed by the Gold Coast educated elite long before the British colonial agents implemented abolition in 1874-75, and the Gold Coast educated elite led by Timothy Hutton Brew, for example, argued that the British colonial government’s abolition policy was woefully inadequate.

 

LIKE most of Gates’ applications of episodic and evanescent evidence, he cites the example of a few African leaders’ acknowledgements of African participation in the Atlantic slave trade as evidence that Africans have accepted blame for the trade. Indeed, he stretches the facts to suit his conclusions. African leaders have not accepted wholesale blame for the Atlantic slave trade. Rather, Jerry Rawlings of Ghana and others commented on the role of Africans in the Atlantic slave trade, but did not impute blame to Africans.  Additionally, Gates does not explain the diplomatic contexts in which such apologies were demanded and rendered. The more important question that Gates should examine in juxtaposition with the African leaders’ acknowledgement of the role of Africans in the Atlantic slave trade is this: has any European/American leader,

to borrow his words, “fall[en] to his/her knees and beg[ged] African-Americans' forgiveness for the ‘shameful’ and ‘abominable’ role [Europeans/Americans] played in the trade”?  The answer is a resounding no!

 

I SUPPORT reparations in the sense of creating equal opportunities for all, for instance, access to social mobility in the form of better educational facilities for the descendants of enslaved Africans worldwide. In my view, instead of UNESCO and Western governments and their capitalist institutional agents, the beneficiaries of the Atlantic slave trade, using millions of dollars to fund numerous, albeit recycled, conferences on slavery in Africa, Atlantic slave trade, abolition, slave routes, etc. that use mostly European/American sources to marginalize African voices, such “global-family” funds should rather be used to improve educational facilities, etc. for the victims of the Atlantic slave trade in Africa, the Americas, Europe, Middle East, etc. This approach would help restore the voices of the descendants of the victims of the Atlantic slave trade to history.

 

FINALLY, let me reminisce over what my late father, who was a repository of oral history, told me when I returned to my beloved Ghana to gather oral history for my Ph. D. dissertation. We were discussing the relevance of my topic, which was abolition of domestic slavery in the Gold Coast, when the question of reparations came up. The Old Man ran his fingers through his lush, but savannah-like beard, and said that “Present-day Africans and African Americans descended from both the African slave-traders and the enslaved Africans so why should one group apologize to the other for the sins of their “fathers” [Nananom a won ako won akyi]? To this day, I have not found answers to that question, but what I can infer from it is that Africans and African Americans, in fact, people of African descent worldwide, should build bridges of “racial” harmony that speak truth to hegemonic powers and their institutional enclaves instead of stoking fires that have the potential to burn such needed bridges! May be Professor Henry Louis Gates has all the answers.

 

 

Kwabena 

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From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [usaafric...@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Dr. Emmanuel Franklyne Ogbunwezeh [ogbun...@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 7:39 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade

[Assensoh, Akwasi B.]

As a historian, I echo Obarima Kwaku Mensah's very brief but useful explanation below about indigenous slavery among the Asante people (or Ashantis). However, I learned a lot more from my own research about the topic of indigenous enslavement and comparative slavery (studying with Jamaican-born Professor Olando Patterson of Harvard University). Interviewing several Asante royal family members and chieftains (including the current Nana Juabenhene, who buried History Professor Albert Adu-Boahen with honor and fanfare at Juaben, Ashanti Region), I was shocked to learn that most of those ensalved in Asante (or Ashanti) areas of the former Gold Coast were ex-convicts, who had committed such heinous crimes as rape with violence (or Monaatofo, in Twi Language), armed robbery, capital murder, etc. In fact, some of these convicted persons were, allegedly, enslaved by Ashantis and, during commercial slavery, others were sold to Europeans to be taken away. I also learned that civil war captives were, instead of being killed by opposing Ashanti armies, later "pardoned" and made slaves. The issue then became: one has been convicted and sented to be hanged; does he/she like being hanged or to be enslaved? 

 

In my own town, in Ashanti Region of Ghana, we saw some of these enslaved ex-convicts, who had names or designations like Akoa Kofi or Kwame, Donkor or Donkorba, Adwoa or Ama Moosi, et al. However, they were treated with respect, as some of them eventually married free Ashanti men and women. For example, my grandparents or elders never allowed us to refer to such enslaved or previously enslaved persons as slaves (or akoa).

 

Sadly, revisionist Western Historians often like to misuse the above-mentioned information to indicate that there is a lot of crime or violence among today's Blacks in the Caribbean or in Black ghettos because of the scenario of ex-convicts or criminals being sold into slavery during the Cross-Atlantic Slave Trade. In order not to buy into these unfortunate mischaracterization, I rfeused to do my master's degree thesis on the suject of indigenous enslavement. Of course, Professor Akosua Pabi (or Peri) and others in Ghana do a lot of research on the topic. By the way, one can read a lot more aout some of these slave topics in Professor Orlando Patterson's seminal book, Slavery and Social Death: Compartaive Slavery (Harvard University Press).   

 

I also know a few things about the Osu caste system that I learned from some Igo brothers, sisters, some Osus as well as from books, but I prefer for Igbos to narrate their own story!

 

A.B. Assensoh, Eugene, Oregon.

  

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From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [usaafric...@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Edward Mensah [deha...@uc.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 7:26 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade

[OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU]

I am informed on the Osu caste system.

It does demonstrate elements of slavery.

I can provide evidence if required.

Anyone who wants to challenge what I have written should present their case.

Shouting insults is meaningless.

Toyin

[Chika Onyeani]

DECLARATION OF THE GLOBAL AFRICAN DIASPORA SUMMIT, SANDTON, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA, 25 MAY 2012

March 20, 2013 By conyeani Leave a Comment

Page 1

DECLARATION OF THE GLOBAL AFRICAN DIASPORA SUMMIT

 

WE, the Heads of State and Government of the African Union, the Caribbean and South America

RECOGNIZING the important presence of Heads of State and Government from the Caribbean Community, South and Latin America and representatives of the African Diaspora;

EXPRESSING our appreciation to His Excellency, President Jacob Zuma, the Government and People of the Republic of South Africa and the African Union for the warm reception and for hosting and conducting this Summit; (Read More)

 

6th Joint Annual Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development

March 20, 2013 By conyeani Leave a Comment

JOINT MEDIA ADVISORY

Sixth Joint AUC/ECA/ Annual Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development

THEME: “Industrialisation for an Emerging Africa”

INVITATION TO REPRESENTATIVES OF THE MEDIA

 

Chika A. Onyeani
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
African Sun Times: www.africansuntimes.com
Host: All Africa Radio: www.allafricaradio.com
Tel.: 973-675-9919
Fax: 973-675-5704
Cell: 917-279-4038

[Rex Marinus]

Toyin Adepoju,
Would you consider a monk in a Catholic monastry a slave?  I should actually advise you to be a bit more circusmspect on things you know very little about. You have no idea what the Osu is. You do not know anything about Igbo cultural and religious practices and it is actually degrading to jump too fervently into a dance whose steps you have not mastered. The Osu is not a slave. S/he is actually traditionally a sacred being made into a living companion to the gods. The actual meaning of the Igbo word "Osu" is "Sacred to the gods" or "beloved of the gods" or "dedicated to the gods." Over the years, Christianity and other alien ideas desacralized the intent of the institution and made it antinomic. But the status of the "Osu" is sometimes entered voluntarily, particularly when the individual feels himself or herself no longer able to depend on the protection of the ordinary community; s/he hands the self to the gods for protection through servuice and eternal obligation. They become guardians of the altars and the sacred groves of the deities to which the pledge themselves; they take the oaths of perpetual allegiance; they live in ritual isolation; they grow their hair long as an act of self-mortification; they are also thus, in pledging themselves and being ritually dedicated to the altar and service of the gods and the shrines of the land down generations, they become "publicly protected citizens." No man could therefore, on pain of retribution, kill, draw blood, or cause an "Osu of the gods" to cry. The only barrier is in choosing that life, or being dedicated to that life as a pledge from their families to the gods, the Osu can no longer be expected to live a secular life; aspire to the titles of the land, or even participate in the commerce of daily enterprise. They are fully provisioned through the offerings brought to the altars by the communities; they are in charge of all the votary animals, and assist the high priests in the ritual process. In a society where meat was rather a luxury, the Osu had a constant supply through these sacrifices, of which they were the only ones permitted to partake of the animals offered to the gods. Usually in Communities that instituted the Osu system, the best and most fertile public land, often called "Ohia Agbara" are farmed by the Osu; they are given the best portion of the land because they are the human links to the gods. In the years of yore, an Osu may decide to "free himself" of his obligation, but it often required such an expensive ceremony in that halcyon past, that no Osu could afford to conduct the ceremony. In any case, I'll urge you to read Sylvia Leith-Ross' "Notes on the Osu System amomg the Ibo of Owerri Province" (Journal of the International African Institute," 1937) for starters. There have been terrible terminological errors in describing the Osu as a "cult slave" - an English/christian term that avoids a simple fact: the Osu was on many instances a voluntary act of escaping from the secular self into a more isolate world. It is not slavery. It is the Igbo equivalent of the monastic life. You have what the romantics would sometimes call "enthusiasm," Adepoju, but you also are terribly careless and presumptuous as a scholar, and in fact self-regarding  by the ways in which you assume authority over issues that are far beyond your immediate apprehension. If you want to study the Osu cult system, take a chill pill, and start again, and this time with clear intent.
Obi Nwakanma
 

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Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:47:24 +0000

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade

From: tva...@gmail.com
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com; ogbun...@yahoo.com

[Akurang-Parry, Kwabena]

 

You should read such observations and conclusions with care. How did Barth determine that the African kings had thousands of slaves to work their fields? Were they really slaves or some of them belonged to other categories of labor recruitment, for example, junior kin groups, pawns working to pay off debt, debtor-prisoners, or communally drafted labor? Some of the Christian missionary accounts are full of inaccuracies and exaggerations. For example, in the 1860s, a Basel missionary visited the palace of the Okyehene [King] of Akyem Abuakwa in the then Gold Coast. After spending about three days in the precincts of the palace, the Basel missionary came away with the knowledge that the Okyehene was using the services of numerous slaves. But the Basel missionary was wrong. He mistook the King's courtiers, servants, musicians and dancers, sentinels, cooks, etc. as slaves simply because they were poorly dressed. Thus his delineation of who was a slave was based what the people in the palace were wearing: the king and his top officials wore resplendent royal kente and headgears, while the so-named slaves wore “tattered cotton-like outfits that exposed some parts of their body.”

 

Kwabena 

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From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [usaafric...@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Einar Schlereth [einar.s...@glocalnet.net]
Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2013 3:24 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade

I just read the great biography by Steve Kemper (A Labyrinth of Kingdoms) of 'Heinrich Barth' - ,a German 'explorer' of the central African kingdoms like Bornu etc, and the only one of the bunch of explorers who was not a racist, but a great humanist  and revered still in Africa but hated in the West., His 4 big volumes are online to read at google books. Read it: African kings, had thoausands of slaves to work their fields and made big money by selling slaves to Arabs, Whities etc. Neverthelsse there were differences. It was mostly not a question of racism but of money. Slaves were often adopted ,and could inherit the slave owner etc  So they were 'just the same' as the Whities.
Einar Schlereth

http;//einarschlereth.blogspot.se

[Pablo Idahosa]

Kwabena,
Thanks for the wonderful essay, and the contributors of others, especially Biko and Ibrahim.� My two cents are, to begin with Ikhide, that Asante's position (Molefi's, that is) is not hagiography, but based upon a vast literature about understanding slavery . Further,� citing a biography on Barth, while not irrelevant, is part a simplistic, visceral analytical and conceptual impressionism that has characterized many of the discussions of slavery. Without wishing to minimize the impact of slavery for those who were subjected to it (to what degree was it, a la Hegel via Patterson social death?),� the issue is NOT that there were slaves, who have been historically and globally ubiquitous, but, as Abdul says,� what the character of slave system they were a part of--what economically underpinned it, and the wider network of commercial, social and political relationships supporting it.

In addition to the quote below, I� attach here a� dense piece here by Amin. This was one of the first pieces that came out of the early collection from the same series on UNESCO Routes etc.,� and about which I broadly agree with you about diminishing utility of, Kwabena, and about where the resources should go-- for another debate that I am sure others have somethings to say� about, like� Toyin (Falola),� and others on this list, among others, like Moses, John Edward Philips, along� with some of my colleagues at York who are invested in the venture.� For another time.�

In any event, there is also Amin's chapter, "The ancient world systems versus the modern capitalist world system" in his Global History A View from the South, which is an edited version of a paper that was first published in 1991 as �The ancient world systems versus the modern capitalist world system�, Review, vol. XIV, no. 3, pp. 349�85. This position, yes, for those who will be scared away by his Marxism, is a discussion about understanding the differences between forms of tributary modes of producing wealth and trying to understand most earlier forms of slavery within those systems, and how they might, perhaps be differentiated from those and ancient slavery, as well as its, among others, modern Atlantic forms.

There's also Joe Inikori's masterful discussion piece,� "Slavery in Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade� in The African Diaspora, by Joseph E. Harris... [et al ); Texas A&M University Press 1996, It can also be� found at� http://books.google.ca/books?id=8h9fNVDacKwC&pg=PA39&lpg=PA39&dq=Joseph+E.++Inikori,+in+%22Slavery+in+Africa+and+the+Transatlantic+Slave+Trade%E2%80%9D+in+The+African+Diaspora,+by+Joseph+E.+Harris...&source=bl&ots=86orgJnTz9&sig=H-QjwhBC6qLH9-t930HN9DVNx6U&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Twm1UL-nGOat2QXolICwBA&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAg

Part of his discussion is about understanding the different forms of servitude, about which there have been major debates for a long time, how there are too many elisions from one form to another, and how so many "systems" characterized as slavery, are more likely approximate forms of servitude found in northern and eastern Europe-- labour compelled by force�� (+ slavery), or ��free and unfree labour under conditions" Inikori's work has recently been contended by Mohammed Bashir Salau's The West African Slave Plantation: A Case Study, for a region of the Sokoto Caliphate, and its plantation "systems" (what Inikori called slave villages). His concern is whether these constituted forms of slavery as part of a system,� but it neither alters the fact about when theses systems came into place, nor� the degree to which they were part of a wider networks of modes of producing wealth. His main point is about the extent, or absence of manumission and� the severity of punishment, etc.

For a recent and interesting survey/summary of some of these issues, and that� I cite inter alia here, see Micheal Zuske (2012) "Historiography and Research Problems of Slavery and the Slave Trade in a Global-Historical Perspective", Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis �57 pp. 87�111.

Kwabena, you rightly refer to the Eurocentrism of so much of this historiography, but it is also compounded by the fact that what Gates represents is one recent commentator also called� "The hegemony of Anglo-American historiographies [that] threatens a canonization, which is further promoted by a theoretizing history of historiography in central Europe, fixed on the USA, which basically rejects empirical research." That empirical research is partly oral, but also requires more of the kinds of social science work that many historians have not always been engaged in, testing their historiographical categories and concepts. It is also� linguistically limited. How many people on this list, for example read German, Dutch Portuguese, Spanish Danish, Russian,� and/or have a working knowledge of other African languages other than their own to do the kinds of interviews that you might?

Below is one way to begin a serious discussion, not the sinister name-blaming� that has been Gates' cynical realpolitik modus operandi� for the last twenty years. My fear is that he has not so much sparked a genuine debate, but has purposely preempted one, and set back the idea, principle and practice of reparations, which, to use the language of my favorite Eurocentric thinker, challenges the forces the balances of (oh yes, race and) class power.

Best,
Pablo

"The expression �slave system� refers to the scholarship.... in that
it describes a self-contained, self-sustaining set of organic relationships,
both at the economic and at the social level. In this case, though, at the
heart of this set of relationships was the institution of slavery, whose
influence pervaded nearly every aspect of at least some of the cultures
that were integrant parts of the few historically known �slave systems� �
especially the ones flourishing in the ancient Mediterranean and the modern
Atlantic. Much like feudalism defined the feudal system, therefore, slavery
defined a �slave system� by providing the foundation of an economy in
which (a) elite wealth and slave ownership were two notions inextricably
connected to each other, (b) a large part of the trade revolved around
buying and selling slaves, (c) a high percentage of the workers were enslaved
labourers, and/or (d) states and other types of institutions relied on the
profits made with slavery for their prosperity. Also, within a �slave system�,
the social hierarchy mirrored the economic one based on slave ownership,
while slavery influenced relationships equally within the family and in
society at large in some particular cultures.
By using the term �slave system�, we intend to refer explicitly to the
pervasiveness of the institution of slavery � an institution based on the
�slave mode of production� and system of labour � in the economy and
society of those regions, countries, and states that were interconnected
parts of a unified market area." (Intro to Slave Systems, Ancient and Modern,
�ed by Enrico lago and Constantina Katsari CUP 2005

On 2013-03-19 9:48 PM, Akurang-Parry, Kwabena wrote:

I believe that we have to�operationalize "slave mode of production:" it would help us to better understand�the roles of slaves in pre/colonial African political economies.��I humbly ask those who have already�submitted perspectives on this topic to define it for us. �

�

I was one of those who�countered�Gates' essay that appeared in the New York Times and which in my considered opinion sought to put the blame for the Atlantic slave trade at the doors of Africans. My response is posted below.

�

MY RESPONSE BELOW:

�

LET me state some caveats that my effort at interrogating the conclusions of Professor Henry Louis Gates does not mitigate the marginality and chattel nature that reconfigured the lived-experiences of enslaved Africans worldwide, nor does it exonerate slave-holding societies in Africa as well as some African states� participation in the Atlantic slave trade. Second, I do understand Gates to mean that the blame for the Atlantic slave trade should be debited to both Africans and Europeans/Americans, consequently reparations should also be the responsibility of Africans. Third, this is not about reparations, but more so about querying and rethinking some of Gates� historical arguments and conclusions from the standpoints of �Akan� oral history wedded to �Western� sources, indeed, a bold departure from most of the commentaries framed around �Western� sources.

�

CAREFUL readings of Gates� efforts at illuminating the Atlantic slave trade and the quest for reparations, pivoted on Obama�s presidency, illustrate Gates� subtle preoccupation with blaming Africans for the slave trade. Gates� present essay, full of inaccuracies and spiced with dizzying barber-shop narratives, revisits his perspectives on Africa and the Atlantic slave trade couched during his�Conradian scholarly-tour of Africa, packaged as <Wonders of the African World,> and standardized as homegrown African history for his conservative audience and sponsors.

�

THE viewpoint that �Africans� enslaved �Africans� is obfuscating if not troubling. The deployment of �African� in African history tends to coalesce into obscurantist constructions of identities that allow scholars, for instance, to subtly call into question the humanity of �all� Africans. Whenever Asante rulers sold non-Asantes into slavery, they did not construct it in terms of Africans selling fellow Africans. They saw the victims for what they were, for instance, as Akuapems, without categorizing them as fellow Africans. Equally, when Christian Scandinavians and Russians sold war captives to the Islamic people of the Abbasid Empire, they didn�t think that they were placing fellow Europeans into slavery. This lazy categorizing homogenizes Africans and has become a part of the methodology of African history; not surprisingly, the Western media�s cottage industry on Africa has tapped into it to frame Africans in inchoate generalities allowing the media to describe local crisis in one African state as �African� problem.

�

GATES writes that �Slaves were the main export of the kingdom of Kongo; the Asante Empire in Ghana exported slaves and used the profits to import gold.� Gates must know that Asante dominated the�Akan gold trade and exported gold overseas; thus, they didn�t have to sell slaves to import gold. In sum, Asante had access to gold in the area described by�Kwame�Arhin as Greater Asante. Absolutely, the slave trade contributed to the expansion of Asante, but Asante�s political economy was not wholly dependent on the export of slaves. What is also clear is that the profit from the sale of slaves was used in purchasing guns, the most important commodity that facilitated both the military defense of individual African states as well as the supply of slaves to the Europeans. For its part, the�Kongo state was already prosperous before the advent of the Portuguese in 1483. Although, slavery and slave trade were a part of the political economy of the Kongo, it was by no means the dominant one. The people of the�Kongo dealt in iron, copperware, pottery, and textile goods, and had extensive markets as well. It was the Portuguese presence that intensified the incidence of slavery and eclipsed other forms of economic ventures just as much as the Portuguese, British, Dutch, etc. presence increased and reconfigured the institutional mechanisms of enslavement in West Africa.

�

ADDITIONALLY, Gates notes that �some African monarchs also sent their children along these same slave routes to be educated in Europe. And there were thousands of former slaves who returned to settle Liberia and Sierra Leone. The Middle Passage, in other words, was sometimes a two-way street. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to claim that Africans were ignorant or innocent.� Even if Africans knew about the conditions of slaves in the Americas, there was very little that the so-called 90 percent of �Africans� enslaved by fellow �Africans� could do to thwart their enslavement. In other words, they did not choose enslavement over freedom. Besides, Africans educated in Europe were pedagogically conditioned to accept the demonization of people of African descent in currency, and when they returned home imputed similar�inferiorization to other Africans. For example, Gates should know that�Jacobus Eliza Johannes Capitein, an African intellectual giant educated overseas had even defended the slave trade.�Capitein was born in 1717 in the Gold Coast and sold into slavery to Jacob van Goch, an official of the Dutch West Indian Company then operating in the Gold Coast.�Capitein accompanied his master to the Netherlands, studied and attained advanced degrees, and in 1742 chronicled <The Agony of Asar: A Thesis on Slavery�1717-1747.> One of the most covered themes in the book is�Capitein�s sustained perspectives on compatibility of slavery and Christianity. Thus, it is fair to conclude that some of those who had acquired European higher education like�Capitein had assimilated dosages of Eurocentric pedagogies and epistemologies then in currency and which had informed their education. This should not be difficult to understand: throughout the early colonial period some Africans who hailed colonialism belonged to the educated elite. In contemporary Africa, it is the educated elites that have increasingly championed the movement away from composite African values by happily latching onto neocolonial tastes and values, in fact, seismic cultural shifts called Globalization in some quarters.

�

THERE are a number of subtle suggestions which undergird Gates� essay of blame-game that are plucked from the works of Linda Heywood and John Thornton whose conclusions are shaped by the extant Eurocentric records. One is the notion that wars in�precolonial Africa were mostly geared toward the acquisition of slaves for the Atlantic market. Oral history/traditions amply illustrate that some wars in�precolonial Africa, even during the period of the Atlantic slave trade, also served as conduits of freeing slaves. Historians of slavery in Africa, mostly non-Africans, have overemphasized the colonial conquest and its consequent wars as auspicious moments that enabled slaves in Africa to take to the pathways of freedom. Conversely, warfare among�precolonial African states and African wars of resistance to incipient European domination in the�precolonial 19^th-century, both of which contributed to slave flights and reunited deserting slaves with their families, have not garnered the attention they deserve. For example, in 1730-31, when�Akyem�Abuakwa assisted the region of�Akuapem to wean the inhabitants off�Akwamu domination, a large number of Akuapems, who had been enslaved by the Akwamus, returned to their families in�Akuapem and public celebrations were used to welcome them home. Also in the aftermath of the Asante resistance to the budding British imperialism in 1873-74, �slaves,� according to colonial and Christian missionary reports as well as newspaper accounts, left their slave-holders in Greater Asante and its coterminous regions, including Bono, Adansi, Asante-Akyem, Denkyira, etc. and returned to their families and communities. Of course, not all fleeing slaves were able to return to their respective homes in a timely fashion, and about this, the reports describe massive �refugee� movements in the area between the Pra, Ofin, Birim, and�Densu Rivers, notably encompassing parts of�Akyem Abuakwa, Denkyira, Gomoa,�Agona and�Fante territories. Even war-scares, such as the ones which occurred between the�Akuapems and�Krobos in the�^l8th and 19^th centuries, also triggered slave flights and some of the fleeing slaves found their way home, or built slave villages that would form the nucleus of some�Krobo and�Akuapem satellite communities.

�

ECONOMIC motives, according to Gates, are what compositely explain the �role Africans themselves played� in the Atlantic slave trade as suppliers of the European slave traders� appetite for slaves. Although, direct economic reasons may be used to explain the European involvement in the age of capitalism and slavery, it does not fully explain African states� participation in the Atlantic slave trade. More than economic gain was the pernicious gun-slave-cycle that compelled African states to arm themselves with European-made guns, the most important commodity of the Triangular Trade to West and West-Central Africa, both for protection and as a means of acquiring war captives to sell to European slave traders in order to paradoxically procure more guns for protection. In my view the participation of African states was conditioned more by political motives for protection than short-term economic gains.

�

GATES argues that since European slave traders lived in the coastal trading posts, the blame for the Atlantic slave trade wholly lies with Africans who captured fellow �Africans� in the interior and sold them to Europeans. His argument is an attractive proposition obviously quarried from the historiography. Unlike �Western� sources that inform much of the historiography, the use of oral history allows us to interrogate Gates� conclusions at several levels. First, 1871, Gates� date for the so-called European exploration of the interior of Africa, is wrong: long before 1871, Europeans had visited the interior parts of the continent. Oral history collected by scholars at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, shows that during the era of the Atlantic slave trade, �aborofo/oburoni�[whites] visited the interior of what is today Ghana, broadly defined as the region between Greater Asante and the littoral stretching from Edina [Elmina] in the west to�Keta in the east.� Even granted that Europeans never set foot in the interior of West Africa and West-Central Africa, there is no doubt that their presence in the trading posts along the coast enabled them to influence politics that led to wars of enslavement, and the example of Portuguese predatory activities in the�Kongo may be summoned to elucidate this conclusion. Second, oral history shows that some indigenous rulers in the Gold Coast and European agents held regular meetings regarding the on-going slave trade in the precincts of the castles and forts. During such durbars or �palavers��Asafo�Mma [so-called Companies] or lineage-based warrior groups exhibited their weaponry and demonstrated their military skills defined by warrior �traditions� to the delight of all. Third, the extant literature illustrates that the forts and castles served as permanent hegemonic sites that enabled some European states to influence economic, social, and political developments in both the coastal and immediate interior regions. Finally, the bolts of supply and demand were not tied to space and physical presence: some European/American states� demand for slaves existed and African states like Asante and�Dahomey supplied it; more importantly, the Asante and�Dahomian supply curves met the European/American slave traders� demand along the lines of proliferation of European-made guns which fueled the political economy of destructive gun-slave-cycles in much of West and West-Central Africa.

�

FURTHERMORE, Gates, like most Western interpreters of slavery, slave trade, and abolition, attributes abolition solely to non-African agency. The Atlantic slave trade was as much a trade in �commodities� as it was in diffusing prevailing osmotic abolition ideologies in the Atlantic world. Even if we assumed that abolition began in the West as a staple pearl of the historiography would have us believe, the movement of osmotic ideas was also assimilated by Africans, unless Gates and others want to argue that Africans did not know the meaning of freedom, or were incapable of constructing and applying freedoms during the global abolition epoch. In fact, recent research amply suggests that the seeds of abolition in the Gold Coast had been nursed by the Gold Coast educated elite long before the British colonial agents implemented abolition in 1874-75, and the Gold Coast educated elite led by Timothy Hutton Brew, for example, argued that the British colonial government�s abolition policy was woefully inadequate.

�

LIKE most of Gates� applications of episodic and evanescent evidence, he cites the example of a few African leaders� acknowledgements of African participation in the Atlantic slave trade as evidence that Africans have accepted blame for the trade. Indeed, he stretches the facts to suit his conclusions. African leaders have not accepted wholesale blame for the Atlantic slave trade. Rather, Jerry Rawlings of Ghana and others commented on the role of Africans in the Atlantic slave trade, but did not impute blame to Africans.� Additionally, Gates does not explain the diplomatic contexts in which such apologies were demanded and rendered. The more important question that Gates should examine in juxtaposition with the African leaders� acknowledgement of the role of Africans in the Atlantic slave trade is this: has any European/American leader,

to borrow his words, �fall[en] to his/her knees and beg[ged] African-Americans' forgiveness for the �shameful� and �abominable� role [Europeans/Americans] played in the trade�?� The answer is a resounding no!

�

I SUPPORT reparations in the sense of creating equal opportunities for all, for instance, access to social mobility in the form of better educational facilities for the descendants of enslaved Africans worldwide. In my view, instead of UNESCO and Western governments and their capitalist institutional agents, the beneficiaries of the Atlantic slave trade, using millions of dollars to fund numerous, albeit recycled, conferences on slavery in Africa, Atlantic slave trade, abolition, slave routes, etc. that use mostly European/American sources to marginalize African voices, such �global-family� funds should rather be used to improve educational facilities, etc. for the victims of the Atlantic slave trade in Africa, the Americas, Europe, Middle East, etc. This approach would help restore the voices of the descendants of the victims of the Atlantic slave trade to history.

�

FINALLY, let me reminisce over what my late father, who was a repository of oral history, told me when I returned to my beloved Ghana to gather oral history for my Ph. D. dissertation. We were discussing the relevance of my topic, which was abolition of domestic slavery in the Gold Coast, when the question of reparations came up. The Old Man ran his fingers through his lush, but savannah-like beard, and said that �Present-day Africans and African Americans descended from both the African slave-traders and the enslaved Africans so why should one group apologize to the other for the sins of their �fathers� [Nananom a won�ako won akyi]? To this day, I have not found answers to that question, but what I can infer from it is that Africans and African Americans, in fact, people of African descent worldwide, should build bridges of �racial� harmony that speak truth to hegemonic powers and their institutional enclaves instead of stoking fires that have the potential to burn such needed bridges! May be Professor Henry Louis Gates has all the answers.

�

�

Kwabena�

---

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [usaafric...@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Dr. Emmanuel Franklyne Ogbunwezeh [ogbun...@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 7:39 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade

Mr. Adepoju;

One wonders the mental hinterland which could empower such a misintepretation of an issue that dwarfs one's competence. If you know little about the Osu caste system in Igboland, why don't you go do some research before coming here to empanel hearsay. The Osu caste System is not slavery. Next topic please!!!

Dr. Franklyne Emmanuel Ogbunwezeh�

Am 19.03.2013 um 21:37 schrieb OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tva...@gmail.com>:

I read �somewhere that the Asante used slaves in clearing the forests on which they built their communities.

Is that�true?

What about the osu cast system in Igboland? To what degree�were�the osu not slaves? I know little�about�this but a pic I saw of an osu and a dibia on the Igbocybershrine blog �a powerful and �unforgettable pic, suggested �something�that�reminded�me of slavery.

toyin

On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 6:48 PM, Ibrahim Abdullah <ibdu...@gmail.com> wrote:

Skip gates is not bill gates. And a slave mode of production was not dominant in any african society by 1500. It became dominant and hegemonic in some societies only in nineteen century--a result of their involvement in the european slave trade.

History does not repeat itself: you do not swim in the same river twice. Agents of /in history make mistakes but it is not the historical process that is being reproduced. You cannot drink in the same cup twice!

Ib Abdullah

------

On Mar 19, 2013 10:45 AM, "Ikhide" <xok...@yahoo.com> wrote:

"There are some fundamental facts. First, no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production. Africa has produced no economies based on slavery. It was left to Europe to create a system of slavery where humans were chattel to be used as tools in the development of wealth. Secondly, in all massive enterprises where there are oppressors and the oppressed there will be collaborators. It is no secret that some of Afriica�s best minds, Fanon, Memni, Karenga, have isolated incidents of collaboration among victims of oppression. Blacks were police officers in the white minority regime of South Africa but one cannot blame apartheid on black people. So when Gates claims that Africans were involved in the slave trade one can accept this, but what one cannot accept is that Africans were equally culpable for the slave trade. Nor should one blame the Judenrats (Jewish Councils) of Germany for Nazi atrocities although they often collaborated with the Germans. Indians collaborated with the British colonialists in India and some Chinese collaborated with the Japanese in occupied China, and while there is no excuse there is certainly explanation for collaboration."

- Molefi Kete Asante

http://www.asante.net/articles/44/where-is-the-white-professor-located/

Hmmm/ It is incorrect that "no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production." That is silly hagiography. There are many ways to counter Bill Gates without minimizing the role of Africans in the transatlantic slave trade. Africans are just as culpable as those that came to take away our siblings. *cycles away slowly*

�

- Ikhide

�

Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com

Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide

Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide

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[Ibrahim Abdullah]

Barth was NOT a RACiST? You have NOT read him. Perhaps you read commentaries on his four volumes. Barth was a quintessential RACIST of the first order. It was Barth who invented the pseudo- scientific classification of peoples in kasar hausa--northern nigeria-- based on race. He was resident in Katsina city for years and deserves the imfamy of being the father of the hamitic hypothesis. For a critique of Barth and his virulent racist nonsense see the selected works Y.B. Usman, the Nigerian radical historian who passed away seven ago.
Ib Abdullah
------------

On Mar 20, 2013 12:41 PM, "Einar Schlereth" <einar.s...@glocalnet.net> wrote:

I just read the great biography by Steve Kemper (A Labyrinth of Kingdoms) of 'Heinrich Barth' - ,a German 'explorer' of the central African kingdoms like Bornu etc, and the only one of the bunch of explorers who was not a racist, but a great humanist  and revered still in Africa but hated in the West., His 4 big volumes are online to read at google books. Read it: African kings, had thoausands of slaves to work their fields and made big money by selling slaves to Arabs, Whities etc. Neverthelsse there were differences. It was mostly not a question of racism but of money. Slaves were often adopted ,and could inherit the slave owner etc  So they were 'just the same' as the Whities.
Einar Schlereth

http;//einarschlereth.blogspot.se


On Tuesday, March 19, 2013 12:53:02 AM UTC+1, Ikhide wrote:

[Anunoby, Ogugua]

Ken and I must respectfully agree to disagree. That a quote seems increasingly meaningless to one is not to say that it is to all. He says that “there is no such thing as history”. I say that there is. He says that what there is , is “just accounts of history”. I suspect that it will be a while before I figure out how there can be “accounts of history” if there is no history. I know for example that there cannot be accounts of a transaction if there was no transaction. I would never hate a quote. I may disagree with it.

[La Vonda R. Staples]

And don't think I forgot the Dutch.  

On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 1:47 PM, La Vonda R. Staples <lrst...@gmail.com> wrote:

And it's sad, again, that I have to step in.  I'm the young child at the table and you big kids have got this thing more screwed up than a god damned tar baby on meff.  

It's true that the TAST was NEVER a principal mode of creating capital or an economy for ANY African nation.  

One simple fact:  By the end of the 100 years way and the Treaty of Utrecht Britain was given the assiento for slave importation.  This period, the last two decades of the 17th century, would see the beginning of international trade in humans and enslaved Africans as the first fruits of industrialized capitalism (see La Vonda R. Staples, "Psychological Effects of Close-Quarters Slavery" and Staples, "The Failed State of (Black) America").  At this point the primary ports of slavery into Europe, Ghana and Senegambia, were forced by ships' guns to continue (even after the legal end in 1808) to deliver people into the bowels of slave ships which were now being made SPECIFICALLY for the purposes of transported masses of people as if they were nothing more than inanimate objects.  Before this time (1441-1687) the trade was a tool of monarchy and not merchant commerce.  Slaves brought into Europe were either gifts or bought on cash.  They were the oddities and eccentricities of kings, the top echelons of clergy, and aristocracy.  Even the millions of souls taken into South America and the Caribbean were labouring to create wealth for kings.  

At no time did any African monarch become fully cognizant of the conditions under which Africans died under in the most brutal grounds of slavery which were the Caribbean and South America.  There was no way to even make a cultural or historical cross or comparison.  It is an effort in futility to attempt to find a segment of West African history where wars were fought, servants obtained, and sent to do labor which would have resulted in quick death.  Going further, at no juncture can you illustrate a practice of descending miscegenation or failure to train a servant to his/her best use or potential (these are just a few of the characteristics of Old World slave systems vs. New world slave systems).  

That's enough.  I would like for someone to refute my research and/or my claims.  

La Vonda R. Staples

Independent Historian and Author

St. Louis MO

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“If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.”

 

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[kenneth harrow]

hi ogugua
first, the santayana quote has been used so much, so pompously over time, that it has become impossible to hear any more except as a cliched notion. to say there are only accounts of history, not history itself, is not to deny there are events, there is a materiality in which they occur, that they are usually perceptible (except i suppose for most dark matter); but that the only way we can make sense of them is to put them into discourses. i learned long ago that we americans will never agree over what really happened in vietnam. i would say, absolutely, that there will always be disagreements over how the events in the colonial archive fit into a meaningful discourse. having read derrida on the archive, i can now say that the discourses are already always prejudiced by what is considered to be in the archive or out of it, and that there are various powers that come into play, always, in constructing an archive.
you want a case in point? slavery: all the thread on slavery presupposes so much on one side or another than there is , really, no way to discuss it without agreeing to set aside the presuppositions that are in contradiction. reading about the algerian revolution this week, seeing how the fln and its allies were divided, murderously, even in 1958-9, astonished me, and i thought that it was enough to have read fanon to understand the conflict.
there is no history: there are differing accounts, and, i would say, some more credible to an educated reader than others. and importantly for me, there are presuppositions that color all readings, and our job is to determine the presuppositions if we are to even imagine we can come to terms with the events.
what is credible or not is where we can debate our views.
ken

[OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU]

                                             The Osu Phenomenon

                                  Denigrated Outcast or Venerated Isolate?

                                                Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

Thanks, Obi Nwakanma, for providing an opportunity for a comparative study  in the sociology of religion by presenting, for the second time in my encounters with you in discussing this subject, your unequivocal valorisation of the Osu phenomenon, and now, foregrounding that valorisation  in the stark manner of equating the characteristics of the  Osu phenomenon with those   of   Catholic monasticism.

Brother, I wont stoop to the  tendency to invoke credentials of knowledge  where what is needed are authentication of claims.

The essay you recommend actually debunks your position.

The essay you suggested does not support your unequivocal valorisation of Osu, and makes clear that your equating the institution with Catholic monasticism is a distortion of the nature and history of that monasticism in the name of uncritical parallels which can be easily  shown to be problematic, if not false.

You choose to isolate one account, and one of doubtful certainty from the way it is described in the essay,  of the origin and social characterization   of Osu and ignored all the other accounts in the same essay  and the careful contextualization of the subject provided by the author.

That is not scholarship. It is at best a form of revision of evident reality which anyone can easily puncture even by reading the essay you recommend.

My immediate summation is that your unequivocal valorisation of the Osu phenomenon is counter to Igbo history and culture and cannot be sustained.

Your uncritical effort to equate Catholic monasticism and the Osu phenomenon suggest that you are engaged in a romanticisation of Osu that suggests a need to better understand the character and role of Catholic monasticism  as one of the formative  institutions  of the Western cultural tradition as well as to better understand  Igbo cultural history.

Can you please tell us how you came by a conception of Osu that has little relationship with Igbo culture and history as represented by  the extensive literature on the  Osu phenomenon, both scholarly and general, along with accounts by Osu themselves,  such as the various  groups on Facebook directed at putting and end to the horrors resented by the Osu phenomenon?

What are your sources?

Are your sources based on personal encounters with Osu, experiences not replicated by the broad stream of discourse on the subject?

What is your rationale for crediting this personal experience, if you have such,  as the norm?

Have you researched  the phenomenon in its origins,development and particular configurations in various Igbo communities?

Can you refer us to any texts that support your opinion  on this subject?

Just refer us to any texts, then we can compare your sources with others to see how representative your views are.

I would have liked to go into detail on this right now, since deconstructing your strategy  here will provide rich reflections  in the sociology of religion but I need to rush to something else right now.

I will return to this later to show how your correlation of Osu and Catholic monasticism is facile,  and in a fundamental sense,  false,  in the way your frame it.

 I will also show how your framing foregrounds questions about the conditions for developing a spiritual tradition that energizes a culture,conditions present in Catholic monasticism but seemingly suppressed or absent in the social framing of the Osu institution.

I attach the essay you recommended along with   others on Osu.

Meanwhile, anyone who is keen can do both a Facebook search for 'Osu, to see the groups formed to contributing to eradicating  this terrible tradition as well as a  Google and JSTOR search. The literature is very rich.

Thanks

Toyin

[Olayinka Agbetuyi]

I think it is not fair to attack Adepoju's views as a deliberate attempt to ridicule the Osu system.  Such views are the  result of decades of misinformation and misrepresentation of what the Osu system is to outsiders (including yours truly) and even uneducated igbos... For a long time i have been a victim of the misrepresentation that compares the Osu system to the Indian pariah system of the untouchables.  The colonial mentality during the period of the eradication of slavery must be in large part responsible for this.  The current state of knowledge shows that experts such as the Nwakammas and Ogbunwezes still have much to do change the outsiders perception of the system.

As for what current Osus say and how they see themselves, this may be the result of new realities of modern societal  expectations and mentality that are incompatible with traditional roles.

---

Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:07:35 +0000

[kenneth harrow]

this picture of the osus dedicated to god and positively presented as a specially favored group is as far from achebe's depiction of them in tfa and no longer at ease as possible. i confess to knowing absolutely nothing about osus except from achebe's novels, which apparently are not very accurate. i know many will tell me i am misreading achebe, but i think his depiction is quite transparent, and he presents their turning to christianity as a way of escaping their wretched lot.
please show me if i am wrong in this impression of achebe's depiction of them
ken

On 3/21/13 7:53 PM, Olayinka Agbetuyi wrote:

I think it is not fair to attack Adepoju's views as a deliberate attempt to ridicule the Osu system. �Such views are the �result of decades of misinformation and misrepresentation of what the Osu system is to outsiders (including yours truly) and even uneducated igbos... For a long time i have been a victim of the misrepresentation that compares the Osu system to the Indian pariah system of the untouchables. �The colonial mentality during the period of the eradication of slavery must be in large part responsible for this. �The current state of knowledge shows that experts such as the Nwakammas and Ogbunwezes still have much to do change the outsiders perception of the system.

As for what current Osus say and how they see themselves, this may be the result of new realities of modern societal �expectations and mentality that are incompatible with traditional roles.

---

Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:07:35 +0000
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade
From: tva...@gmail.com
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

�������������������������������������������� The Osu Phenomenon

��������������������������������� Denigrated Outcast or Venerated Isolate?

����������������������������������������������� Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

Thanks, Obi Nwakanma, for providing an opportunity for a comparative study� in the sociology of religion by presenting, for the second time in my encounters with you in discussing this subject, your unequivocal valorisation of the Osu phenomenon, and now, foregrounding that valorisation� in the stark manner of equating the characteristics of the� Osu phenomenon with those�� of�� Catholic monasticism.

Brother, I wont stoop to the� tendency to invoke credentials of knowledge� where what is needed are authentication of claims.

The essay you recommend actually debunks your position.

The essay you suggested does not support your unequivocal valorisation of Osu, and makes clear that your equating the institution with Catholic monasticism is a distortion of the nature and history of that monasticism in the name of uncritical parallels which can be easily� shown to be problematic, if not false.

You choose to isolate one account, and one of doubtful certainty from the way it is described in the essay,� of the origin and social characterization � of Osu and ignored all the other accounts in the same essay� and the careful contextualization of the subject provided by the author.

That is not scholarship. It is at best a form of revision of evident reality which anyone can easily puncture even by reading the essay you recommend.

My immediate summation is that your unequivocal valorisation of the Osu phenomenon is counter to Igbo history and culture and cannot be sustained.

Your uncritical effort to equate Catholic monasticism and the Osu phenomenon suggest that you are engaged in a romanticisation of Osu that suggests a need to better understand the character and role of Catholic monasticism� as one of the formative� institutions� of the Western cultural tradition as well as to better understand� Igbo cultural history.

Can you please tell us how you came by a conception of Osu that has little relationship with Igbo culture and history as represented by� the extensive literature on the� Osu phenomenon, both scholarly and general, along with accounts by Osu themselves,� such as the various� groups on Facebook directed at putting and end to the horrors resented by the Osu phenomenon?

What are your sources?

Are your sources based on personal encounters with Osu, experiences not replicated by the broad stream of discourse on the subject?

What is your rationale for crediting this personal experience, if you have such,� as the norm?

Have you researched� the phenomenon in its origins,development and particular configurations in various Igbo communities?

Can you refer us to any texts that support your opinion� on this subject?

Just refer us to any texts, then we can compare your sources with others to see how representative your views are.

I would have liked to go into detail on this right now, since deconstructing your strategy� here will provide rich reflections� in the sociology of religion but I need to rush to something else right now.

I will return to this later to show how your correlation of Osu and Catholic monasticism is facile,� and in a fundamental sense,� false,� in the way your frame it.

�I will also show how your framing foregrounds questions about the conditions for developing a spiritual tradition that energizes a culture,conditions present in Catholic monasticism but seemingly suppressed or absent in the social framing of the Osu institution.

I attach the essay you recommended along with�� others on Osu.

Meanwhile, anyone who is keen can do both a Facebook search for 'Osu, to see the groups formed to contributing to eradicating� this terrible tradition as well as a� Google and JSTOR search. The literature is very rich.

Thanks

Toyin

On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 2:34 PM, Rex Marinus <rexma...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Toyin Adepoju,
Would you consider a monk in a Catholic monastry a slave?� I should actually advise you to be a bit more circusmspect on things you know very little about. You have no idea what the Osu is. You do not know anything about Igbo cultural and religious practices and it is actually�degrading to jump too fervently into a dance whose steps you have not mastered. The Osu is not a slave. S/he is actually traditionally a sacred being made into a living�companion to the gods. The actual meaning of the Igbo word "Osu" is "Sacred to the gods" or "beloved of the gods" or "dedicated to the gods." Over the years, Christianity and other alien�ideas�desacralized the intent of the institution and made it antinomic. But the status of the�"Osu" is sometimes entered�voluntarily, particularly when the individual feels himself or herself no longer able to depend on the protection of the ordinary community; s/he hands the self to the gods for protection through servuice and eternal obligation. They become guardians of the altars and the sacred groves�of the deities to which the pledge themselves; they take the oaths of perpetual allegiance; they live in ritual isolation; they grow their hair long as an act of self-mortification; they are also thus, in pledging themselves and being ritually dedicated to the altar and service of the gods and the�shrines of the land down generations, they become "publicly protected citizens." No man could therefore, on pain of retribution, kill, draw blood, or cause an "Osu of the gods" to cry. The only barrier is in choosing that life, or being dedicated to that life as a pledge from their families to the gods, the Osu can no longer be expected to live a secular life; aspire to the titles of the land, or even participate in the commerce of daily enterprise. They are fully provisioned through the offerings brought to the altars by the communities; they are in charge of all the votary animals, and assist the high priests in the ritual process. In a society where meat was rather a luxury, the Osu had a constant supply through these sacrifices, of which they�were the only ones permitted to�partake of�the animals offered to the gods. Usually in Communities that instituted the Osu system, the best and�most fertile�public land, often called "Ohia Agbara" are farmed by the Osu; they are given the best portion of the land because they are the human links to the gods. In the years of yore, an Osu may decide to "free himself" of his obligation, but it often required such an expensive ceremony in that halcyon past, that no Osu could afford to conduct the�ceremony.�In any case, I'll urge you to read Sylvia Leith-Ross' "Notes on the Osu System amomg the Ibo of Owerri Province" (Journal of the International African Institute," 1937) for starters. There have been terrible terminological errors in describing the Osu as a "cult slave" - an English/christian term that avoids a simple fact: the Osu�was on many instances a voluntary act of escaping from the secular self into a more isolate world. It is not slavery.�It is the Igbo equivalent of the monastic life. You have what the romantics would sometimes call "enthusiasm," Adepoju, but you also are�terribly careless and presumptuous as a scholar, and in fact self-regarding� by the�ways in which you assume authority over issues that are far beyond your immediate apprehension. If you want to study the Osu cult system, take a chill pill, and start again, and this time with clear intent.
Obi Nwakanma
�

---

Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:47:24 +0000

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade

From: tva...@gmail.com
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com; ogbun...@yahoo.com

I am informed on the Osu caste system.

It does demonstrate elements of slavery.

I can provide evidence if required.

Anyone who wants to challenge what I have written should present their case.

Shouting insults is meaningless.

Toyin

On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 11:39 PM, Dr. Emmanuel Franklyne Ogbunwezeh <ogbun...@yahoo.com> wrote:

Mr. Adepoju;

One wonders the mental hinterland which could empower such a misintepretation of an issue that dwarfs one's competence. If you know little about the Osu caste system in Igboland, why don't you go do some research before coming here to empanel hearsay. The Osu caste System is not slavery. Next topic please!!!

Dr. Franklyne Emmanuel Ogbunwezeh�

Am 19.03.2013 um 21:37 schrieb OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tva...@gmail.com>:

I read �somewhere that the Asante used slaves in clearing the forests on which they built their communities.

Is that�true?

What about the osu cast system in Igboland? To what degree�were�the osu not slaves? I know little�about�this but a pic I saw of an osu and a dibia on the Igbocybershrine blog �a powerful and �unforgettable pic, suggested �something�that�reminded�me of slavery.

toyin

On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 6:48 PM, Ibrahim Abdullah <ibdu...@gmail.com> wrote:

Skip gates is not bill gates. And a slave mode of production was not dominant in any african society by 1500. It became dominant and hegemonic in some societies only in nineteen century--a result of their involvement in the european slave trade.
History does not repeat itself: you do not swim in the same river twice. Agents of /in history make mistakes but it is not the historical process that is being reproduced. You cannot drink in the same cup twice!
Ib Abdullah
------

On Mar 19, 2013 10:45 AM, "Ikhide" <xok...@yahoo.com> wrote:

"There are some fundamental facts. First, no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production. Africa has produced no economies based on slavery. It was left to Europe to create a system of slavery where humans were chattel to be used as tools in the development of wealth. Secondly, in all massive enterprises where there are oppressors and the oppressed there will be collaborators. It is no secret that some of Afriica�s best minds, Fanon, Memni, Karenga, have isolated incidents of collaboration among victims of oppression. Blacks were police officers in the white minority regime of South Africa but one cannot blame apartheid on black people. So when Gates claims that Africans were involved in the slave trade one can accept this, but what one cannot accept is that Africans were equally culpable for the slave trade. Nor should one blame the Judenrats (Jewish Councils) of Germany for Nazi atrocities although they often collaborated with the Germans. Indians collaborated with the British colonialists in India and some Chinese collaborated with the Japanese in occupied China, and while there is no excuse there is certainly explanation for collaboration."

- Molefi Kete Asante

http://www.asante.net/articles/44/where-is-the-white-professor-located/

Hmmm/ It is incorrect that "no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production." That is silly hagiography. There are many ways to counter Bill Gates without minimizing the role of Africans in the transatlantic slave trade. Africans are just as culpable as those that came to take away our siblings. *cycles away slowly*

�

- Ikhide

�

Stalk my blog at www.xokigbo.com

Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide

Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide

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[Olayinka Agbetuyi]

I think most history scholars will disagree with the blanket statement: there is no history.  Indeed it is the composite picture of the different accounts that is meant when people declare, history has shown..'  Of course, it depends which accounts they have been reading and which interpretations are given to events.

As for what Asante said, they are not empty, but a a result of divergence of opinions on slavery by African-Americans of the Atlantic tradition.   Some African-Americans disagree with reparations because they think it serves the descendant of Africans right.  Others think reparations will result in capital flight from their beloved America (their present home) abroad

---

Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:27:06 -0400
From: har...@msu.edu

[Chidi Anthony Opara]

("A Scion Of A Sacred Order" By Chidi Anthony Opara)

On the priestly podium
He stands firm.
He proclaims aloud;
“I am an Osu!”
“I am a scion of a sacred order!”
“I am sanctified for sacred service!”
His voice firm,
His face
With pride aglow.

Eyes
Dart for signs of curse,
Nostrils
Nose for whiff of Satan,
None is found.

His priestly ancestry
Pokes
At the veil of ignorance,
The veil falls.

Voices proclaim aloud;
“You are indeed
A scion of a sacred order!”
“You are indeed
Sanctified for sacred service!”

On 22 Mar, 01:08, kenneth harrow <har...@msu.edu> wrote:
> this picture of the osus dedicated to god and positively presented as a
> specially favored group is as far from achebe's depiction of them in tfa
> and no longer at ease as possible. i confess to knowing absolutely
> nothing about osus except from achebe's novels, which apparently are not
> very accurate. i know many will tell me i am misreading achebe, but i
> think his depiction is quite transparent, and he presents their turning
> to christianity as a way of escaping their wretched lot.
> please show me if i am wrong in this impression of achebe's depiction of
> them
> ken
>
> On 3/21/13 7:53 PM, Olayinka Agbetuyi wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > I think it is not fair to attack Adepoju's views as a deliberate

> > attempt to ridicule the Osu system.  Such views are the  result of

> > decades of misinformation and misrepresentation of what the Osu system
> > is to outsiders (including yours truly) and even uneducated igbos...
> > For a long time i have been a victim of the misrepresentation that
> > compares the Osu system to the Indian pariah system of the

> > untouchables.  The colonial mentality during the period of the

> > eradication of slavery must be in large part responsible for this.

> >  The current state of knowledge shows that experts such as the
> > Nwakammas and Ogbunwezes still have much to do change the outsiders
> > perception of the system.
>
> > As for what current Osus say and how they see themselves, this may be

> > the result of new realities of modern societal  expectations and

> > mentality that are incompatible with traditional roles.
>

> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------

> > Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:07:35 +0000
> > Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong
> > about African Involvement in the Slave Trade
> > From: tva...@gmail.com
> > To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
>

> > *The Osu Phenomenon *
> > *
> >                                   Denigrated Outcast or Venerated
> > Isolate? *

>
> >                                                 Oluwatoyin Vincent
> > Adepoju
>
> > Thanks, Obi Nwakanma, for providing an opportunity for a comparative

> > study  in the sociology of religion by presenting, for the second time

> > in my encounters with you in discussing this subject, your unequivocal
> > valorisation of the Osu phenomenon, and now, foregrounding that

> > valorisation  in the stark manner of equating the characteristics of
> > the  Osu phenomenon with those   of Catholic monasticism.
>
> > Brother, I wont stoop to the  tendency to invoke credentials of
> > knowledge  where what is needed are authentication of claims.

>
> > The essay you recommend actually debunks your position.
>
> > The essay you suggested does not support your unequivocal valorisation
> > of Osu, and makes clear that your equating the institution with
> > Catholic monasticism is a distortion of the nature and history of that
> > monasticism in the name of uncritical parallels which can be easily

> > shown to be problematic, if not false.
>
> > You choose to isolate one account, and one of doubtful certainty from

> > the way it is described in the essay,  of the origin and social
> > characterization   of Osu and ignored all the other accounts in the
> > same essay  and the careful contextualization of the subject provided

> > by the author.
>
> > That is not scholarship. It is at best a form of revision of evident
> > reality which anyone can easily puncture even by reading the essay you
> > recommend.
>
> > My immediate summation is that your unequivocal valorisation of the
> > Osu phenomenon is counter to Igbo history and culture and cannot be
> > sustained.
>
> > Your uncritical effort to equate Catholic monasticism and the Osu
> > phenomenon suggest that you are engaged in a romanticisation of Osu
> > that suggests a need to better understand the character and role of

> > Catholic monasticism as one of the formative  institutions  of the
> > Western cultural tradition as well as to better understand  Igbo

> > cultural history.
>
> > Can you please tell us how you came by a conception of Osu that has

> > little relationship with Igbo culture and history as represented by

> > the extensive literature on the  Osu phenomenon, both scholarly and

> > general, along with accounts by Osu themselves,  such as the various

> > groups on Facebook directed at putting and end to the horrors resented
> > by the Osu phenomenon?
>
> > What are your sources?
>
> > Are your sources based on personal encounters with Osu, experiences
> > not replicated by the broad stream of discourse on the subject?
>
> > What is your rationale for crediting this personal experience, if you

> > have such,  as the norm?
>
> > Have you researched  the phenomenon in its origins,development and

> > particular configurations in various Igbo communities?
>

> > Can you refer us to any texts that support your opinion  on this subject?

>
> > Just refer us to any texts, then we can compare your sources with
> > others to see how representative your views are.
>
> > I would have liked to go into detail on this right now, since

> > deconstructing your strategy  here will provide rich reflections  in

> > the sociology of religion but I need to rush to something else right now.
>
> > I will return to this later to show how your correlation of Osu and

> > Catholic monasticism is facile,  and in a fundamental sense,  false,

> > in the way your frame it.
>

> >  I will also show how your framing foregrounds questions about the
> > conditions for developing a spiritual tradition that energizes a
> > culture,conditions present in Catholic monasticism but seemingly
> > suppressed or absent in the social framing of the Osu institution.
>

> > I attach the essay you recommended along with   others on Osu.

>
> > Meanwhile, anyone who is keen can do both a Facebook search for 'Osu,

> > to see the groups formed to contributing to eradicating  this terrible
> > tradition as well as a  Google and JSTOR search. The literature is
> > very rich.
>
> > Thanks
>
> > Toyin

>
> > On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 2:34 PM, Rex Marinus <rexmari...@hotmail.com
> > <mailto:rexmari...@hotmail.com>> wrote:
>
> >     Toyin Adepoju,

> >     Would you consider a monk in a Catholic monastry a slave?  I

> >     should actually advise you to be a bit more circusmspect on things
> >     you know very little about. You have no idea what the Osu is. You
> >     do not know anything about Igbo cultural and religious practices

> >     and it is actually degrading to jump too fervently into a dance

> >     whose steps you have not mastered. The Osu is not a slave. S/he is

> >     actually traditionally a sacred being made into a living companion

> >     to the gods. The actual meaning of the Igbo word "Osu" is "Sacred
> >     to the gods" or "beloved of the gods" or "dedicated to the gods."

> >     Over the years, Christianity and other alien ideas desacralized

> >     the intent of the institution and made it antinomic. But the

> >     status of the "Osu" is sometimes entered voluntarily, particularly

> >     when the individual feels himself or herself no longer able to
> >     depend on the protection of the ordinary community; s/he hands the
> >     self to the gods for protection through servuice and eternal
> >     obligation. They become guardians of the altars and the sacred

> >     groves of the deities to which the pledge themselves; they take

> >     the oaths of perpetual allegiance; they live in ritual isolation;
> >     they grow their hair long as an act of self-mortification; they
> >     are also thus, in pledging themselves and being ritually dedicated

> >     to the altar and service of the gods and the shrines of the land

> >     down generations, they become "publicly protected citizens." No
> >     man could therefore, on pain of retribution, kill, draw blood, or
> >     cause an "Osu of the gods" to cry. The only barrier is in choosing
> >     that life, or being dedicated to that life as a pledge from their
> >     families to the gods, the Osu can no longer be expected to live a
> >     secular life; aspire to the titles of the land, or even
> >     participate in the commerce of daily enterprise. They are fully
> >     provisioned through the offerings brought to the altars by the
> >     communities; they are in charge of all the votary animals, and
> >     assist the high priests in the ritual process. In a society where
> >     meat was rather a luxury, the Osu had a constant supply through

> >     these sacrifices, of which they were the only ones permitted
> >     to partake of the animals offered to the gods. Usually in
> >     Communities that instituted the Osu system, the best and most
> >     fertile public land, often called "Ohia Agbara" are farmed by the

> >     Osu; they are given the best portion of the land because they are
> >     the human links to the gods. In the years of yore, an Osu may
> >     decide to "free himself" of his obligation, but it often required
> >     such an expensive ceremony in that halcyon past, that no Osu could

> >     afford to conduct the ceremony. In any case, I'll urge you to read

> >     Sylvia Leith-Ross' "Notes on the Osu System amomg the Ibo of
> >     Owerri Province" (Journal of the International African Institute,"
> >     1937) for starters. There have been terrible terminological errors
> >     in describing the Osu as a "cult slave" - an English/christian

> >     term that avoids a simple fact: the Osu was on many instances a

> >     voluntary act of escaping from the secular self into a more

> >     isolate world. It is not slavery. It is the Igbo equivalent of the

> >     monastic life. You have what the romantics would sometimes call

> >     "enthusiasm," Adepoju, but you also are terribly careless and
> >     presumptuous as a scholar, and in fact self-regarding  by the ways

> >     in which you assume authority over issues that are far beyond your
> >     immediate apprehension. If you want to study the Osu cult system,
>

> ...
>
> read more »

[OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU]

                                                             The Osu Caste System

                                                            The Contemporary Situation
                                                                     
                                                                    Ndigbo Testify

                                                                    compiled by
                                                       Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

                                                                         from

                                                                 Facebook group

                                      WAR AGAINST THE OSU CASTE SYSTEM

Note : In contrast to Nwakanma's  questionable, if not outright untrue claim  that the valoristic character of the Osu system has been denigrated by Christianity, these bold Ndigbo speaking out against this horrible system created and still enforced by their elders are using Christian ideology in a powerful way to debunk the dehumanizing ideology in which the Osu system is centered.

Self  description of the Facebook group War Against the Osu Caste System: :

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...Gen1:26
And if we all be of Christ, who's the outcast?

Post your opinions on the OSU caste system!

1. Maurice Akamnonu  

17 May 2012 at 07:27 via Mobile

The Osu caste system in Nigeria, can be traced back to an indigenous religious belief system, practiced within the Igbo nation. It is the lousy belief of many Igbo traditionalists that the Osus are people historically owned by deities, and are therefore considered to be a 'living sacrifice', an outcaste, untouchable and sub-human (similar to the Roman
practice of homo sacer). This system received literary attention when it became a key plot point in No Longer At Ease by Chinua Achebe.
...
The practice continued to this day. An ordinary Igbo person would not marry or permit any of his relations to marry an Osu person. In a few instances where that has happened, every member of that non-Osu who married an Osu became infested and were regarded as Osu. It can be said that the only aspect of Igbo life that keeps the Osu segregation
intact is marriage. An Osu could and could only marry a fellow Osu, and no more. It is a taboo and abhorent for an Osu to marry a non-Osu - love or lust being immaterial.

Some suggest the introduction of modernization, the "osu" system is gradually leaving the Igbo land and tradition. Religion has caused the age-old religion to slowly start leaving its traces in the Igbo land.

Early 2012, I bumped into fresh facts that in Igbo community - especially Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Abia, Ebonyi, Edo and Delta
states of the country - Osu caste system still remains a social issue. The Osu caste is determined by one's birth into a particular family irrespective of the religion practised by the individual.

Once born into Osu caste, this Nigerian person is an outcast, with limited opportunities or acceptance, regardless of his or her ability or merit. The most appaling part is that his caste system- related identity and power is deployed within government, Church and indigenous communities.

Question: Are the supposed owners(deities) of these osu greater than us? My bible tells me that 'The earth is the Lord's and its fullness thereof'. We are made in d image and likeness of God, so spoon the belief. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.

2. Anya Oko

18 May 2012 at 01:24

Zii, thanks for creating this group. One way to demystify a monster is to talk about it. You are wonderful.

3.  Armstrong Udonna Ukachukwu

17 May 2012 at 05:07 via Mobile

Honestly,its quite unacceptable to treat our fellow human beings as though, they are not created in God's image.It's truly a good war indeed.

4. Anya Oko

23 May 2012 at 05:45

My heart goes out for many of our friends and colleagues who live everyday under the weight of the fear of rejection they will face the day we find out they are called Osu.

5. Anya Oko

23 May 2012 at 05:41

It is so sad we have to be talking about this. The Osu thing is totally senseless. How can someone be good enough for a friend but not good enough for a spouse?

6. Onyeze Sibu

20 May 2012 at 10:44

FOOD FOR THOT. If God sees everyone as equal, what right does a man have to do otherwise.

7. Onyeze Sibu

20 May 2012 at 10:44

FOOD FOR THOT. If God sees everyone as equal, what right does a man have to do otherwise.

Zii Ogueri updated the description.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...Gen1:26
And if we all be of Christ, who's the outcast?

Post your opinions on the OSU caste system!

8.

·   Ifeoma Chinweze

18 May 2012 at 12:55

God has made all man in his own image but some defaulted and decided to sell their soul in the past. we should all pity their descendants.

 

On Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 12:59 PM, OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tva...@gmail.com> wrote:

Chidi,

I salute you.

You have spoken much that evokes what I suggest.

Where do we go from here?

It is one thing to engage in creative rethinking of the character and history of the Osu phenomenon, as your poem suggests.

It is another thing to pretend that the denigrative dimension of  Osu culture is not a fundamental part of Igbo history past and present.

It is one thing, and a positive act, in spite of a culture of "... signs of curse" and "whiff of Satan" in terms of which Osu has  been cast in Igbo culture since time out of collective Igbo memory, to affirm its positive potential:

“I am an Osu!”
“I am a scion of a sacred order!”
“I am sanctified for sacred service!”
His voice firm,
His face
With pride aglow.

but it is another thing, and an example of deliberate falsehood, not to acknowledge that in Igbo culture, for as long as the majority remember, that dedication to deity  has been  a vilified and not a valoristic  dedication.

You demonstrate creativity in    your imaginative contextualization of the current effort on this group to grapple with this  sad phenomenon.

Even though it is not true that no whiff of dissent is found, and it is not true that

Voices proclaim aloud;
“You are indeed
A scion of a sacred order!”
“You are indeed
Sanctified for sacred service!”

since no one  is able to justify Nwakanma's claim about Osu dedication to divinity as valoristic rather than vilified, as honorable rather than scorned, since none have even tried in the first place, your approach can be seen as an imaginative effort to heal a harrowing breach in the Igbo body politic  through a imaginative projection of what you hope will happen.

I would suggest that what is in order is an honest description of the reality of Osu as it is and has been practiced by Ndigbo for as long as  Ndigbo can  collectively  remember, and then a deliberate choice to remove the stigma associated with being Osu  by representing their  dedication to deity as honorable service, not ignoble servitude, as uplifting  dedication, not bondage, of their  isolation as consecrated  dedication not a  pariah status as is the case now.

Along with that, people should be encouraged to stop discriminating against Osu.  To stop preventing their  children from marrying Osu. To stop blocking Osu from opportunities and leadership roles  because they are Osu.

Thanks
Toyin

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[OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU]

                                                             The Osu Caste System
                                                       
                                                         The Contemporary Situation

                                                                          
                                                                    Ndigbo Testify

                                                                       Part 2

                                                                    compiled by
                                                       Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

                                                                         from

                                                                 Facebook group

                                       STOP THE OSU CASTE SYSTEM IN IGBOLAND


Note : This is an awesome group in the quality of its deliberations, bold, profound, deeply knowledgeable, welcoming of the clash  of a variety of opinions.

Very rich linkss to, among others,  a site dedicated to essays against the Osu scourge.

This group is representative of Igbo self examination on this subject at its best.

The group highlights  the priceless  value of Facebook as a scholarly resporce and cultural dynamic.

Self  description of the Facebook group Stop the Osu Caste System in Igboland

'The Igbos, who are the center of this discourse, discriminate against each other by reason of the Osu caste status. The people referred to by the names are regarded as sub-human being, the unclean class, or slaves.

I believe it is high time we as the Igbo nation overcome this archaic caste system. Please join this cause.'

1.Chinenye Onukwugha responding on  9 December 2012 at 08:26 ·  to the  essay on A CASE FOR ‘THE IGBO RENAISSANCE’ posted on the group by nOsuji, Ikechukwu Uchenna Evaristus


states

Osuji, may I ask what all this has to do with the Osu caste system?? Please be reminded about the objective of this forum! I found absolutely nothing in your very lengthy article highlighting this ill. The Igbo tribe has an obnoxious culture that persecutes its own people and that is what we intend to tackle here! Please be guided and remain on point!

2. Osuji defends himself by alluding to this paragraph in his essay:

Culture they say is dynamic. In this rebirth process, we must promote human dignity in every of our cultural practices and beliefs. As such, we must shun every practice that undermines the dignity and integrity of a fellow Igbo man or woman. By this I mean to ask; what is the political, economic or socio-cultural relevance of the osu, ume n’diala arguments in this 21st century Igboland, that should be thrown into the trash-can of history; so also is anyone who talks about such issues in this age and time. I submit rather, that we should concern ourselves with issues that would launch us into the world stage instead.

3.

Write a comment...

Ge-Pedro Echendu

Thanks Queen Nu Eemah for the add. Yes! Stop the Osu Caste System in Igboland! First, we must know that we all are directly connected to this great circle of life.

Let every human being see each other as being equal, therefore allowing everybody to share in the human ancestry. There will be peace on earth. Every human being is uniquely beautiful, and has his own gifting and potential. The people we see being Osu have one thing or the other better than us the supposedly superior. We should not give consideration to stopping this Osu system and see all people regardless of our lineage and descent as brothers and sisters. Let us come together break down the artificial walls that humanity erect due to ethnicity or discrimination and live like neighbours on Igboland. We are indeed, neighbours on Igboland. We all are one big family!

• 
  
• Seen by 44

  5 people like this.
• 

  Victor Akoko well stated brother, well stated. Lets hope there are ears to hear.

  15 May 2012 at 23:51 · Like · 1
• 

  Ge-Pedro Echendu Brother Victor Akoko, we will scream enough into their ears till they hear us. Peace!

  16 May 2012 at 06:14 via mobile · Like · 1
• 

  Irene Omafuvwe Russell This article offers loads of insight as to how to deal with this issue and move forward. Lets scrutinize it.

  12 June 2012 at 12:25 · Like · 2
• 

  Irene Omafuvwe Russell http://www.africaeconomicanalysis.org/articles/gen/castehtm.html

  

  Africa Economic Analysis - The ‘Caste System’ in Nigeria, Democratization and Culture: Socio-politic

  www.africaeconomicanalysis.org

  The 'Osu' caste system in Nigeria is a form of apartheid. Victor Dike discusses ...See more

  12 June 2012 at 12:25 · Like · 1
• 

  Ge-Pedro Echendu Learning and education in this age and time, "Osu" should be nothing to worry about. But considering that human only border to learning things to get the edge of other humans; they will always be learning looking for who to destroy. We forget that to learn, we must contribute to the knowledge of learning. From what I see, education and values made us human but the genes we got from our parents turned us into human dehumanizing factors. That is why you will see even an university professor deeply advocating the "Caste System" here in Nigeria(don't really want to talk about other part of the world). The Caste System"-Osu is dehumanization system; making some people sub human. We forgot that a fearful person is a weak person, but a weak person is a danger to his village and his tribe. Check the supposed Osu people, are we really better than they are? The answer is NO! They are even better! I think we( the supposed superiors) should think again and stop passing this genetic devilish custom and tradition to our offspring's. Let's filter our customs and traditions and do away with those ones against us. If not, whether we believe it or not, we will be below bio-mass of mankind.
  
  I also would like to say this(even though some won't agree with me) that "Osu" is not a culture but custom and or tradition. May Yah purge our minds to see everybody as our own! Peace!

  12 June 2012 at 14:08 via mobile · Like · 2
• 

  Ge-Pedro Echendu Tehilim 119:64
  Ha'aretz, Hashem, is full of Thy chesed; teach me Thy chukkot.
  
  Psalms 119:64
  The earth, O Lord is full of thy mercy: teach me thy statutes.
  
  We are called to seek out Yah's will for our lives. The scriptures should be the first place to look to discover it. Once we have been given direction, we must not be merely hearers of his word. We also need to be doers who take appropriate action once Yah's will is known(James 1:22-25); otherwise, we are no better off than we were before.
  
  O Lord, the earth is full of your unfailing love; teach me your principles! May Yah bless us all as we make effort to love one another especially those we refer to as Osu, even more than we love ourselves.

  12 June 2012 at 15:17 via mobile · Like · 2
• 

  Ge-Pedro Echendu Wow...Nu Eemah Hephzybah, long time! Hope you have been well? Thanks for your encouragement. Yah bless

  15 July 2012 at 13:22 via mobile · Like · 1
• 

  Chukwudike Abraham I believe we needs to do a lot of work to change the mind set of our people on the osu issue...its some of us great concern that in some part of Igboland they still practise osu castel.The House of Igbo Restoration HOIR is working on a proposal that could help end the osu issue in the entire Igboland.

  27 July 2012 at 03:40 via mobile · Like · 1
• 

  Ge-Pedro Echendu That is really good to hear that some are working already to see that this human dehumanization is stopped for GOOD! May G-d help us. Peace, ndi Igbo! May G-d bless Nigeria!

  27 July 2012 at 04:10 · Like
• 

  
  

  Write a comment..
• 4.

4. Striking summation by Ge-Pedro Echendu that demands  highlighting:

Ge-Pedro Echendu Learning and education in this age and time, "Osu" should be nothing to worry about. But considering that human only border to learning things to get the edge of other humans; they will always be learning looking for who to destroy. We forget that to learn, we must contribute to the knowledge of learning. From what I see, education and values made us human but the genes we got from our parents turned us into human dehumanizing factors.

That is why you will see even an university professor deeply advocating the "Caste System" here in Nigeria(don't really want to talk about other part of the world). The Caste System"-Osu is dehumanization system; making some people sub human. We forgot that a fearful person is a weak person, but a weak person is a danger to his village and his tribe.

 Check the supposed Osu people, are we really better than they are? The answer is NO! They are even better! I think we( the supposed superiors) should think again and stop passing this genetic devilish custom and tradition to our offspring's. Let's filter our customs and traditions and do away with those ones against us. If not, whether we believe it or not, we will be below bio-mass of mankind.

I also would like to say this(even though some won't agree with me) that "Osu" is not a culture but custom and or tradition. May Yah purge our minds to see everybody as our own! Peace!

5. Irene Omafuvwe Russell

Here is another great article that you can download from Scribd. It speaks to the fact that those being discriminated against may need to issue a formal proposal of concern and plan for solution to the U.N. hmmm... I have such mixed feelings usually not good about the UN but for this purpose, it may be a good thing to consider.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/89550993/Caste-Discrimination#download

7 May 2012 at 00:15 · 

6.Bless Ada Ogbodo

24 January 2012 at 14:56

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwXFip6Atg4

I think this video repost is needed for the new members to view. Thanks Emah Nu for the adds.

Best Kept Secret.mp4

www.youtube.com

The dehumanizing culture of the Osu system in eastern Nigeria is discussed. A culture that dehumanizes a particular group of Igbo people making them untouchables...

7.

Write a comment...

Options

Lauretta Chika Obiorah

My fellow friends, i am very much interested in this discussion, a friend of mine was deprived of her husband just because her family was told that her husband's to be family was dedicated to the gods of their land many years ago. This topic should be taking seriously because we are in a civilzed world and such issue should not be discussed. pls my dear friends let us join our hands and see that this matter is abolished once and for all................

Like · · Follow post · 3 May 2011 at 09:24

• 
  
• Seen by 45

  Nu Eemah Hephzybah likes this.
• 

  Nu Eemah Hephzybah As God as our witness, we will find a way to bring Light and Healing to this very sad historical misunderstanding between family members.

  24 May 2011 at 10:21 · Like
• 

  Victor Akoko Sis Lauretta Chika Obiorah - you must believe that each day we are getting closer to the answer. Somehow Igbo men will have to take a stand against tradition but can I ask this, what is stopping the Osu girl from marrying outside of Igbo people? Pls understand that I am not undermining the need to get rid of the caste system.

  2 June 2011 at 18:01 · Like · 1
• 

  Lauretta Chika Obiorah Victor, its like u dnt knw hw it goes in igbo land especially in Anambra state! The girl in question is ADA, the 1st child in her family. If she marries outside,she is on her own becos her family is not ready 2 gv her their blessing,and u knw, no girl will want that. That is why dis issue is very important. My dear,we need 2 find a solution and fast b4 it will get out of hand. God 4bid o!

  4 June 2011 at 09:24 · Like · 1
• 

  Victor Akoko Thank you Lauretta for this teaching. I did not understand. So the men can marry outside and still get blessings but the girls cannot?

  4 June 2011 at 12:39 · Like
• 

  Victor Akoko Either way, I do pledge to help in any way I can to help find the solution. I think Princess Royal Agwuna and you should talk.

  4 June 2011 at 12:39 · Like
• 

  Nu Eemah Hephzybah Sister is your turn to share. I am following proper protocol moving on. as Victor suggested. I am going to try to be quiet anyway but my heart goes out so to anyone who faces injustices. So sister please take front and center stage in this forum and share your ideas.

  21 January 2012 at 22:52 · Like · 1
• 

  Uzochukwu Bright Nsiegbe Stoping osu in igbo will be possible if we get the chiefs nd the igwe in general into re-educate on the wrong this issue might cause in future. In igboland the pple believe in their town's law and regulation on matter like this. I believe we shld bring igbo elders into the forum cos there are the brain behind the whole matter on Osu

  8 February 2012 at 07:17 via mobile · Like · 2
• 

  Victor Akoko Brother you made some very good suggestions. I hope others follow through with you on making your suggestions a reality.

  28 February 2012 at 13:12 · Like

8.

• 
  
• 

  Nu Eemah Hephzybah Matilda Joy, the purpose of the post is to say that the beloved Osu can also be free from ethnocism by Daila just as the Blacks are free from racism in the Mormon church. Black men gained their right to the priesthood by prayer and persistent advocacy and research to prove that the believes were wrong. The Osus must do the same. The only devil in this discussion is ignorance.
• 
  
  10 February 2012 at 22:38 · Like
• 
  

9. This post courageously rethinks the Osu name without denying the negative meanings it has generated in the centuries of igbo history  and culture :

Nu Eemah Hephzybah

Family United Against the Osu Caste System in Igboland,

I read something very interesting on another forum where we are discussing Ancient Igbo history. The quote went like this:

"Osu" was one of the "Holiest" names for God in Ancient Igbo. God was referred to, by some, as "Osu Ani", meaning, "The God of the Earth".

I will not share the rest of the quote here but look at the wonderful meaning of being an Osu. To Chi be the Glory!

Like · · Follow post · 16 June 2011 at 15:18

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• Seen by 44

  2 people like this.
• 

  NwaMazi Onyemobi Desta Anyiwo What's the reference for that?

  16 June 2011 at 16:05 · Like
• 

  Nu Eemah Hephzybah Mazi, you should read the full statement... I believe it is true but you would not believe it at all... I posted the full statement on the "Interfaith Prayer and Dialogue" Forum

  16 June 2011 at 16:10 · Like
• 

  Nu Eemah Hephzybah http://www.facebook.com/LifeGoesStrong#!/home.php?sk=group_146506512075975&ap=1

  16 June 2011 at 16:10 · Like
• 

  Kafomdi Anene Thanks Sister Nu Mosaic Naija. I, too grew up under the false meaning ascribed to the word Osu. However, as I grew older I began to reflect on the ancient practices in my hometown Issele-Uku that seem to run contrary to that very misnoma. For instance, any piece of land, property, or estate that has unknown ownership or communal ownership is often declared to belong to "Osu", meaning "God". Furthermore, with my "uncovering" of the Igbo identity of Jesus and all the Prophets, I began to see the same "Osu" name coming to the front, such as "Hosanna" meaning "Osu-Ana" or "God of the Earth", a praise name that Jesus was hailed by. That sealed it for me. Osu means God, and Nwosu is synonymous with NwaChukwu, and NwaAni, and NwaOsa, meaning "The child of God".

  17 June 2011 at 03:39 · Like
• 

  Nu Eemah Hephzybah Smiles.. i knew it , I knew it, I knew you were going to show me Jesus as Igbo smh.. please share on rocks where i asked this. Ok back to your point here...Nwosu is such a special name, how did the story go wrong and its intepretation go wrong? Do you think slavery did this or did the caste system happen before transaltlantic slavery?

  17 June 2011 at 03:59 · Like
• 

  Nu Eemah Hephzybah Nwosu Yeshua ....Osu ana i see as Hos anna but Ya shu ah or Eshu ah hmmmm...

  17 June 2011 at 04:01 · Like
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  Nu Eemah Hephzybah Yeshua is Hebrew for Jesus though I spell it Yahshua

  17 June 2011 at 04:02 · Like
• 

  Kafomdi Anene No, after Jesus was defeated and executed by the Romans, his movement, The Osu Movement, and the Nazarene Movement were proscribed, just as "Nazi Movement" was proscribed after the defeat of Hitler, and "Al Quaida" has been proscribed withe the war on Terrorism. The cowardly Igbos that wished to escape persecution helped to administer the proscription of the Osu members by ascribing a new meaning to the movement.

  17 June 2011 at 04:04 · Like
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  Kafomdi Anene Yashua is a "Made up name". Jesus derives from "Nwosu".

  17 June 2011 at 04:05 · Like
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  Nu Eemah Hephzybah how is jesus derived from Nwosu and How is Yeshua his hebrew name made up? jesus i think was the made up name by Romans right?

  17 June 2011 at 04:06 · Like
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  Nu Eemah Hephzybah KJV 1611 had Ieous for Jesus i think.. hmmmmm

  17 June 2011 at 04:07 · Like
• 

  Kafomdi Anene Yo keep using "Hebrew" as a baseline language. What you call "Hebrew" of today is barely 100 years old. The original Hebrew is Igbo, and I'm telling you that all the names of the Prophets are Igbo. Jesus was hailed as "Osu Ana", in his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Osu Ana was turned to "Hosanna". Some of his adversaries insisted that he couldn't be called Osu Ana, but he could be called "Osu nta", meaning "Small God". From "Osu nta" you derive "Santa", and from "Osu nta Ana", you derive "Santana". All his names were Igbo names.

  17 June 2011 at 04:14 · Like
• 

  Nu Eemah Hephzybah Well I use the Hebrew because I know Yeshua was Hebrew but I do believe you in saying Yeshua or Ieosus was Igbo too.. smiles.. I will leave this with you and others because we may be not addressing the real issues of this forum and I like to keep apples with apples. http://ministersnewcovenant.org/articles/a-011.pdf I will take this up further, if you like in our Interfaith forum or Rocks.

  17 June 2011 at 04:47 · Like
• 

  NwaMazi Onyemobi Desta Anyiwo Here we go again...lol!!!!

  17 June 2011 at 12:39 · Like
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  NwaMazi Onyemobi Desta Anyiwo I must say I'm very impressed by how imaginative our folks can be. I just wish we spent more of it developing our mythology than foreign ones...lol

  17 June 2011 at 12:41 · Like
• 

  Nu Eemah Hephzybah Well I am like this on this topic, everyone has their own scholarly and spiritual paths of understanding. I learned in my old age to respect all of them. I also learned to glean from most of them. I was pondering this discussion wee hours in the morning and what I considered was that no matter how you look at it, I am fully convinced that Osu derives from a Divine Element in Igbo Spirituality. And therefore our Osu people must know that you are very Godly and when God has selected those for His own, you will encounter persecutions even within those who should be considered your people. So my beloved Osu people, your first response must be to know you are the CHOSEN ONES and allow that to be your blessing. I have lots more on this as I consider the many, many readings on this forum and in the Mount of Olives Garden of Prayer site. Just know that the caste system must first be broken by the Osu people themselves knowing their cherished Ori or divine purpose and simply live up to that purpose within and you will definitely see the changes without.

  17 June 2011 at 12:52 · Like · 1
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  Kafomdi Anene Nu Mosaic Naija, you are a very smart Sistah!

  17 June 2011 at 12:54 · Like
• 

  Bless Ada Ogbodo thanks to all for this thread. this was my favorite discussion in this forum.

  14 January 2012 at 12:24 · Like · 2
• 

  NwaMazi Onyemobi Desta Anyiwo OSA [Osa = God (in Edo Language)]
  Interpretation: The appearance of Osa in Igbo names is a direct legacy of the Great Bini Kingdom. The Igbo of hinterland do not bear names with Osa.
  
  OSA and OSU are NOT the same word!

  14 January 2012 at 19:05 · Like
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  NwaMazi Onyemobi Desta Anyiwo Ose" stands for God among the Anioma people and is commonly used in the traditional libations, veneration and worship of God, the way "Chukwunmgbegbe" would mean "Almighty God among the Anioma people" "Osebuwa" in generality thus implies God, the creator, which is what "Chineke" (God the creator) stands for among the Igbo of Southeast.
  
  http://www.articlesbase.com/culture-articles/chukwuemeka-an-igbo-name-670637.html
  
  OSE and OSA are also NOT the same word!

  

  Chukwuemeka: an Igbo Name

  www.articlesbase.com

  The background of the name “Emeka” is given a cultural explaination by this arti...See more

  14 January 2012 at 19:09 · Like · 1
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  NwaMazi Onyemobi Desta Anyiwo So I have demonsrated that both Ose and Osa are used as "God" in Alaigbo, and can point to a number of different names. Where is the proof of Osu being used as God ?

  14 January 2012 at 19:20 · Like
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  Nu Eemah Hephzybah @ Bless, this is a very old thread. I posted this last June lol and you are right there is much information on it. Brother Kafomdi Anene is simply one of a kind. Absolutely incredible with showing us the Igbo in nearly all names and words. Incredible indeed.

  14 January 2012 at 23:51 · Like · 1

10. On the idea of a truth and reconciliation commision to heal the breach between so called Osu and so called Dila or freeborn Igbo:

Victor Akoko

You know on Healing Nigeria we are looking at Truth and Reconciliation Commission to help bring peace between our government and Boko Haram. I think that T & R C could be an awesome blessing between the Igbo groupings.

I read articles that compared the Osu system to apartied but I do not think it was as unthinkable of the crimes of apartied. If they can forgive, we can do so here too but in it takes acceptance of wrong doing to say I am sorry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raG6eIL-LM0&feature=related

Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Forgiveness

www.youtube.com

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Desmond Tutu explains how love and forgiveness kept post-apartheid South Africa from tumbling into anarchy.

Like · · Follow post · Share · 6 July 2011 at 22:23

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  Nu Eemah Hephzybah Yes, I have been thinking not so much Truth and Reconciliation between Osu and Daila but perhaps a restorative conference since the first time I read about the Osu. Yet, you may correct Akoko that a fact finding or open hearing should happen at the event being planned by the creator of this group for next August. It is truly something to consider having the Osus tell their stories to a formal cultural or Igbo Commission. It could be so very powerful in the healing process.`

  7 July 2011 at 00:38 · Like
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  Bless Ada Ogbodo I agree with you Nu Mosaic Naija.

  14 January 2012 at 12:22 ·
  
• 
  
• 11. A moving effort to represent the Osu stigma:

Patrick Okwy Nwosu

NGWU TREE

Like · · Follow post · 29 December 2011 at 14:29

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  NwaMazi Onyemobi Desta Anyiwo Symbol of the Ngwu deity I believe

  29 December 2011 at 21:35 · Like
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  Nu Eemah Hephzybah Our Trees of our Sacred Groves is where our Ancestors dwell. For this reason we must preserve our forests and we must preserve our history, culture and traditions. "Sacred Tree" - Patrick you are truly blessed to be part of this lineage. Its about time this discussion is turned to see the beauty of being Osu. Ise o

  30 December 2011 at 01:26 · Like
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  Victor Akoko This is magnificent Brother Nwosu, in my Urhobo culture the grove of trees are very pure and precious to our spirituality.

  31 December 2011 at 12:37 · Like · 1
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  Bless Ada Ogbodo Emah, I agree with you. We need to focus on the meaning of Osu and perhaps those who are descendants of this Set Apart people to truly know the Sacred purpose that you have been blessed to have been given. If you are too Sacred to be betrothed, couldn't that be a beautiful thing opposed to a negative?

  1 January 2012 at 12:18 · Like

12. Wonderful summations  on rethinking the Osu concept from within Igbo religion:

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  Nu Eemah Hephzybah Family, I think going back to Odinala, which is as Chima asserts, the source of the problem can be the only place where the problem can properly be addressed. Odinala as I understand it is Igbo culture, traditions and heritage, so I think refocusing on Odinala with a focus on redefining roles of the Osu relations and other subgroups of Igbos is something that would be a must do as I see it.

   I recall Princess Royal Agwuna saying that there must be a meeting of the Elders or some entity to change this in Traditional Igbo Culture. I think the same should be done with all religions where there is Igbo leadership of the church, synagogue or path. Well, I know it is arrogant of me to suggest for others but an Odinala Interfaith Conference may be what is needed. If nothing else but to open doors of communications. Now, to do so would require all to come with open hearts and open minds. Does anyone recall the Truth and Reconcilation Commissions lead by Bishop Tutu in Rwanda between Tutsi and Hutus. Now, if they can do it, I know you all can resolves what feels like irreparable differences. So enuff pointing the fingers and now it is time to find solutions. Dialogue and is the key. I really believe in Restorative Practices and I believe Restorative Practices can be a blessing in Igboland. peace and love.
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• 20 December 2011 at 01:11 · Like
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  NwaMazi Onyemobi Desta Anyiwo The best way to combat the osu plague is by more people moving towards humanism...point blank.

  20 December 2011 at 01:24 · Like
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  Gabriel Ike Obiefuna Phd @Chima Moses Amadi Thank you very much for your comments. I agree intoto with your comments. Though i dont condemn christianity because we have a lot of hypocrites and even secret cult members in christian religion who call themselves christians and are busy desecrating and insulting christianity. This is rather very unfortunate

  20 December 2011 at 04:13 · Like
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  Bless Ada Ogbodo @ Mazi, I agree with your thought of us embracing humanism but that would mean they would have to embrace all who are different no matter their ethnic, race, religion and/or sexual orientation lol and that is too much bhumanism for my people but I feel ya point. @ Chima, I understand what you are saying. Until a person experience classism, they do not know how painful it can be and imagine it happening from your own people. You are disappointed because you believed the Chritian church would have protected you from your own people and it just did not happen. So now you are angry with all Igbos for their blatant lost of respect and fairness to the Osu.
  
  It is in that spirit that you must ask your Igbo brethren to begin to discuss this with you and help you to understand why they continue to keep a tradition that everyone knows is harmful. Emah NU is so right. We need to revisit Odinala, our way of life but we may not need a conference but we do need dialogue. If here is too impersonal, try the blog talk radio programs. There must be someone here who can help set this up. I read enough comments in this forum where someone could tell Chima why they cannot break the tradition. I asked my dad and he told me that you cannot ignore the old ways. Yet, he raise me in Anglican church and Catholic school and did not teach me my language. How can anyone concerned about the old ways not teach their own child their own language? So he is picking and choosing what to keep and what to let go. I feel sick about this and I want to understand better why Igbo will not marry Osu. Can anyone here explain this? Is it purely fear or partly prejudice or simply preference? Chukwu will see us through.

  20 December 2011 at 18:26 · Like · 1

13.

Nu Eemah Hephzybah

I almost feel in love with this article but then it twisted on me.. smiles.. Well, it is a beautiful Christian Response to Releasing the past and Renewing Osu Spirit.

Renewing Osu Spirit

mosaicafrica.webs.com

Bridging differences and building bridges to create MOSAIC NAIJA!

Like · · Follow post · Share · 29 June 2011 at 00:35

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  Victor Akoko EXCERPTS:
  
  "the royal fathers in their group have resolved to abolish the Osu cast system in Igbo land even as one of the traditional rulers has vowed to give her daughters out to Osu son-in-laws"
  
  "For instance, the Osu cast system, just yesterday some of the Ezes came out and promised to relinquish this Osu thing in their kingdom because they saw some of their colleagues that have done it and nothing happened to them. You know that some might be thinking that if I abolish this thing maybe I will die, but this forum is one that when they come together they share testimonies and go deep into the Bible to really see whether what they are doing or following is of God or not. But some of them find it difficult to come out, but God has used this group to really make some of the Ezes to stand."
  
  So they took the stand to abolish the system but read the blog again and realize that if they did not think this was a curse, what do you call it?

  6 July 2011 at 00:37 · Like

14.

Write a comment...

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Katchy Hephzibah Anumnu

If the western world can accept us and take steps to break the walls of racism and we including I, are enjoying the privileges, why cant we do same for our brothers. this is just like the case of the servant whose debts were wiped off by his master and the first thing he did was to in prison his debtor. We all know how his master treated the case. Let the DIALAS be aware of the fact that it is God who will judge our attitude towards these our brothers.

Like · · Follow post · 11 November 2011 at 07:38

15. A debate on the role of Christianity in relation to the Osu phenomenon :

• Jasper Ahmefula This was the state of affairs until missionaries entered the Igbo world late in
  the 19th century. The first group of people to be evangelized were the Osu, and
  the missionaries of course saw in their ritual isolation, a condition akin to
  the Indian caste system, and propagated the dubious picture of a ritually isolate,
  ritually ex-communicated caste community, and gave the Osu the bad name that it
  bears today in Igboland. In fact traditionally, there was no hereditary Osu.
  Aside from the fact that it contradicted the Igbo view of the individual and the
  world, it also totally negated the very principle of the ritual purity of those
  traditionally dedicated to the altar of Mmuo. I have been labouring here to say
  that Osu in Igbo did not mean slave, and that traditionally, it had no negative
  connotation; it was in fact a privileged institution, until its desacralization
  both by evolving political and economic reality and by the transformations in
  the ritual meaning endowed upon it by ChristianitY.THIS IS AN EXCERPT FROM OBI NWAKANMA

  11 November 2011 at 14:56 · Like · 1
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  Nu Eemah Hephzybah Jasper, I suggest that you re-read the post. It came from my website and I have read and posted many articles on the Osu Caste System. Not one of those Igbo scholars blamed Chrisitianity. What the scholar stated in the article you read is that it is wrong to get rid of Igbo Indigenous Spirituality because it may have contained some evil practices, which it did and the Osu caste system was only one of them. His point was do not throw out the baby with the bathwater. So you are completely wrong with your statement saying Christiainty its to blame but with that I do agree that Christianity did not help to end it either. My question to you is did Hebraism help to end it or was it part of it. Do you think the Osu may have simply been the Levites who are set apart to do the ritual works for Yah?

  13 November 2011 at 13:21 · Like

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  Nu Eemah Hephzybah http://mtofolives.ning.com/group/osuliberation
  
  Jasper, here is the site that has the various articles posted. We have not kept up with the latest articles but I have two to pst this week.

  

  OSU LIBERATION - Mount of Olives Garden of Prayer

  mtofolives.ning.com

  OSUS SHALL LIBERATE OURSELVES!

  13 November 2011 at 13:25 · Like
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  Jasper Ahmefula DID YOU SEE MY POST CONCERNING EKWENSU? IF THAT IS NOT AN EXAMPLE OF THE ABUSE CHRISTIANITY HAS ON IGBO CULTURE THEN I WONDER WHAT IT IS.IAM MORE FOCUS ON OBI NWAKANMAS THESIS AND NOT ON THE OTHER WHO SAYS OSU IS SLAVERY.FOR IT IS NOT.THEIR IS ALOT OF IGNORANCE ABOUT THE TRUE HISTORY OF OSU AMONG IGBO.THAT IS WHAT NEED TO BE CORRECTED BEFORE PEOPLE GO HERWIRE WITH DEFINITION.

  13 November 2011 at 14:37 · Like
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  Nu Eemah Hephzybah I am speaking about Obi's thesis.. it came from my website. and is on the link above. i love his thesis but it does not blame Christianity for the Osu system... it says accepting Christianity did not change the Osu caste system so why abandon your traditional spiirituality? Hey you still have not helped to see how those Igbos who claim their Hebrew heritage fits here

  13 November 2011 at 14:40 · Like

Onyii Nnamani Ogbodo y people Osu has come to stay in Igbo land and shall never be wipe by anyone....I am from NKANU land of Enugu State where the Igbo cultures are proudly practice Both in the state govt...Christianity created a dangerous atmosphere in our society. My State does not practice OSU but, OHU (slave), My state has the biggest Challenge of this evil act with over five precious communities as the victims..During the western slave trade, people preferred to sell their relatives to my people to white ppl and by this means the rich ones extended their trade by buying the unhealthy slaves from white ppl whom cannot afford too much lost....Nkanu ppl has long ago gave their own slaves their own community with condition of no inter-marital and cultural engagements..My people, these brothers and sisters of ours are currently facing the worst dehumanisation one can imagine..Any victim of these evil cannot be the Governor, House of assembly Speaker, L.G.A Chairman or held any vital political post in the state..Akwuke,Ugwu-Aji,ISi ogbo, umu-ode and so many others are the victim communities..The loved ones living among us in our various communities are facing same challenge, Only they were not chased out of the communities like others...Pity...

13 November 2011 at 16:00 ·

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  Victor Akoko Well I must say that reading Onyii Syncodor Ogbodo's comments is very enlightening. It opens a different venue of thought on this topic but again I do see Nu's point that the Osu problem predated Christianity but gotten worse by the coming of the white west. Jasper what you may not understand is that Christianity was founded by Africans nt Romans, they simply renamed it. It came from us and it is ours from the beginning. So lets be careful not to like the author of this article you revered suggest.. do not throw the baby out with the bath water. It is colonism not Chrisitianity that is our problem. Also Chrisitianity and Judaism is a problem, if they continue to keep traditions that they know are not Yah like. Again that is the point the brother made... Traditionalists and Jews and Christian Igbos all follow the Osu caste system... So why is this? ProVision N ReVision..

  16 November 2011 at 00:35 · Like · 1

16. On the so called freeborn Igbo or Diala resitance to abolishing the Osu system :

Chima M. Amadi

Sometimes I think that we are just educating ourselves, which is good, but at the same time wasting our time. Do you know, even here on our fb forum, thousands of Igbo people follow our comments but ashamed to even post their comments. And they are not only dialas, but the discriminated osus too and in particular.

One of my uncles in Boston, called and told me that people see all of us in stop osu forum as osu. He meant to say we all make caricature of ourselves. For him, the dialas love and enjoy their better status.
And according to him "why should they take a risk of leveling-up?" He maintained that the caste system in Igboland is incurable because human beings (Igbos), no matter the level of their education will never stop fearing the wrath of their many gods. Fear is the underlying factor and this starts as soon as any diala who married osu becomes sick - even if he just swallowed poison, he said.

The dialas have even learn to find answers in osu when their businesses are slow. All they need do is remember a couple of osu people who bought or patronized them in the last days..... SUPERSTITION. Now, they have stopped making profits because osus were customers. Well, not everywhere, but in some places - but do you understand what I saying? Just like that woman in the video who said the dialas even refuse to sell or buy from them in the market.

The matter is more complicated than our fb forum. I went to a catholic seminary secondary school in Nigeria, was gonna become a catholic priest before I at 18 decided against it and left. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001462519727 Some of my class-mates and school friends become Rev. Fathers. I know a couple of them here in fb and have also sent some of them our stop osu forum link. My target is to lure some priests and religious authorities to our discussion. I sent it to 12 people (all priests) about 10 days ago. And guess what...? Non replied and non till now commented on our forum.

The osus, are ashamed, they don´t want to be known as called osu and for the diala, there is no need for adjustment. Even on the forum, despite hiding behind private PCs kind of boldness, how many people come out openly to say "yes, they call me and my family osu or whatever?" Everybody has a story from somebody else they know or how their own non osu family had to deal with osu related issue.

Let us ask ourselves where these osu people are? Who are they? Like in Dr Martin Luther Kings´s fight, or in Apartheid South Africa, etc, the shock-observers cried, and they did not hide as they cried.

How can osu caste practice disappear when the discriminated shy and don´t admit?

Spcs Okpala

Went to SPCS-OKPALA'95Lives in Owerri, Imo

Like · · Follow post · 7 June 2011 at 21:04

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  Nu Eemah Hephzybah Well as you stated it is not an easy issue. Lots of very deep wounds are open and I know as we talk those wounds hurt deeply.

  7 June 2011 at 21:51 · Like
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  Nu Eemah Hephzybah Also, I know for a fact that there are some like your uncle that I may have put in this forum but it matters not of those who refuse change what matters are those who are have the serenity, courage and wisdom to change. You know I really wish your uncle had given a good reason why change should not happen but unless you are holding something back he did not do so.

  7 June 2011 at 21:54 · Like · 1
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  Kingsley Chukwuebuka Your post really makes sense... Sometimes i wonder why churches seem to be oblivious of this matter. All recent religious crusades are themed 'financial breakthrough, financial succes and so on...' sometimes i cant help feeling disappointed in them.
  
  On your second point, i dont see any reason why an osu should come up here to anounce his social status, it wont help us cos what we are trying to do is to create a view of all igbos as one.. I believe that we can even do better when whe see ourselves through their own eyes.. Put ourselves more in their shoes and see more of them in us. No matter how it goes.. Love remains the most important aspect of this solution. We need to be able to overlook these things for the ability to accept each other in oneness.

  9 June 2011 at 05:09 · Like
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  Uchenna Emenike Let he that have no sin throw the first stone!!! In Shakespeare's play: Julius Caesar said: "Cowards die many times before their deaths;
  The valiant never taste of death but once.
  Of all the wonders that I yet have heard.
  It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
  Seeing that death, a necessary end,
  Will come when it will come." My question is: has fear ever solved any problem? Do you know that if our African fathers were afraid of the white people they would never have summoned up courage to struggle for the independence that we all are enjoying the fruit in African today! Please, all members should shun the cowards and carry the amour of wisdom to push this struggle ahead. No one believed that a black man will rule America in our life time, but King's dream has come true... We have a dream.

  9 June 2011 at 18:14 · Like · 1
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  Victor Akoko Uchenna Emenike - Chima Moses I must say to both of you to be patient with our Osu family. Also, I do believe when there is a reason for them to speak and share, they will. I personally do not think of them as cowards. I believe perhaps the cowards may be those who failed to offer a sincere apology. You may be shocked what will happen when Dialas begin to reign this forum with sincere apologies for what they know they have done or have allowed to happen to Osus. Otherwise, we are simply as Gabriel Ike Obiefuna often accused my forum of doing and that is praise singing.

  6 July 2011 at 00:32 · Like
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  Gabriel Ike Obiefuna Phd Gabriel Ike ObiefunaUchenna Emenike If you understand what cowardice mean you will know that keeping mum doesnt mean arrogance because in a forum where everybody argues to win nobody will ever see reason. What we see in this forum are the arrogant Nwadialas who argue to justify the Osu caste system whereas those of us the Osus are arguing against the injustice and oppression metted against us by the oppressive Nwadialas and nobody is seeing reason with us. You know most Osus like the Jews are intelligent people who have many ongoing research works they are carrying out and will not waste their precious time arguing with people that are reasoning through their anus rather than through their brain or praise singers as my friend Victor reminded me eventhough i have forgotten that i once used that word for some members in this forum.Those of us that are Levites as well as the mad Levites including my humble self are praying that this man-made injustice will come to an end one day and the perperators of the Osu Caste system irrespective of their position in the society be brought to justice. May Almighty God bless and heal the Osus of Southeastern Nigeria and the Komas of Northeastern Nigeria who i believe from the findings of my research work are the SEPHARDIC JEWS. As a Levite a Holocaust Survivor, a Rubber Stamp and a Most High Priest Forever According to the Order of Melchezedek, i pray that this injustice will come to an end one day and the perpetrators irrespective of their position in the society be brought to justice and We the Osus as well as Levites among us healed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen!

  6 July 2011 at 03:20 · Like
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  NwaMazi Onyemobi Desta Anyiwo The first thing I will say is that I see everyone as being a "Nwachukwu", which means child of the great God. Therefore, the "osu" concept does not exist to me. Secondly, by continuing to refer to people as "osu", all you are doing is perpetuating this nonsense! Last but not least, I will again say that Gabriel Ike Obiefuna needs some real pyschiatric help....LMAO!

  6 July 2011 at 03:52 · Like · 1
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  Uchenna Emenike @Victor Akoko: If you read my contribution well you will realize that I was not calling the OSU's cowards but I was referring to the IGBO's ingeneral not to be cowards by shying away from this cause and be courageous to tackle the problem openly and speak up so as to find a lasting solution. Again I repeat that people like our great statesmen who fought for our independence from the colonialists were courageous and not cowards, so ar those of us willing to struggle for the end of the caste system without hiding our identity.

  6 July 2011 at 11:31 · Like
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  Ibukunoluwa Ozioma @Mazi, "I will again say that Gabriel Ike Obiefuna needs some real pyschiatric help....LMAO!" You serve no purpose here in this forum other than to make digs at people whom you have a fear and disdain for. Your first statements were noble but means nothing - coming from you - given your final insulting dig at Gabriel.

  6 July 2011 at 13:33 · Like
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  Gabriel Ike Obiefuna Phd THIS MAN MAZI ANYIWO IS ALWAYS MENTIONING AS NEEDING PSYCHIATRIC HELP IS VERY CALM, PEACEFUL, EQUANIMOUS, HARDWORKING, LOVES LIFE AND HUMANITY, GENTLE, QUIET, RELIGIOUS, RESPECTS PEOPLE, FEARLESS BUT NOT CAWARDICE AS SOME PEOPLE MIGHT THINK AND MOST IMPORTANTLY MORE ENLIGHTENED, EDUCATED, AND MORE CIVILIZED THAN MOST PEOPLE IN THIS FORUM ESPECIALLY PEOPLE LIKE CARL ZETO AND MAZI ANYIWO WHO AT THEIR OLD AGE ARE STILL CRAWLING OR LEARNING HOW TO WALK. TO GOD BE THE GLORY AMEN. OSU CASTE SYSTEM IS BETTER UNDERSTOOD AND FELT WHEN EXPERIENCED THAN MERE SEMANTICS. FEW PEOPLE ESPECIALLY NON IGBOS LIKE NU NAIJA AND OF RECENT PERHAPS VICTOR AKOKO APPEAR TO REALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT OSUS LIKE US ARE FEELING AND EXPERIENCING BASED ON THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS. HOWEVER ITS ONLY ALMIGHTY GOD THAT CAN HELP US AND NOT ARROGANT, PROUD AND IRRESPONSIBLE CANTANKEROUS MISCHIEF MAKERS AND HANGERS-ON SOME OF WHOM HAVE OUTLIVED THEIR USEFULNESS AS NORMAL HUMANBEINGS. SUCH PEOPLE HAVE RAN OUT OF IDEAS AND BUSY THEMSELVES ATTACKING PEOPLE AND NOT IDEAS OR AT LEAINGSNBEST EVENTS. SUCH PEOPLE ESPECIALLY MAZI ANYIWO NEEDS PRAYERS AND DELIVERANCE PERHAPS FROM DEMONIC FORCES OR PERHAPS NEEDS TO BE RECREATED INTO BETTER HUMANBEINGS TO BE ABLE TO FIT INTO A DECENT AND CIVILIZED SOCIETIES INORDER NOT TO CONSTITUTE THEMSELVES INTO NUISANCE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST MANS INJUSTICE AGAINST MAN SUCH AS THE OSU CASTE SYSTEM. MAY GOD BLESS HIS SUFFERING PEOPLE AMEN

  6 July 2011 at 13:49 · Like · 1
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  NwaMazi Onyemobi Desta Anyiwo Ibukunoluwa Ozioma: If you can't see that Gabriel Ike Obiefuna is deranged, then there's something wrong with you too...LMAO! By the way, without the contributions of me and Carl Zeto, ya'll would have still been talking about pseudo-history, mythological priesthoods and misplaced analogies...LOL!

  6 July 2011 at 15:12 · Like
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  Ibukunoluwa Ozioma Oh really, Mazi? You are sure full of yourself - as usual.

  6 July 2011 at 15:22 · Like
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  NwaMazi Onyemobi Desta Anyiwo Ibukunoluwa Ozioma: Whateva! If you don't believe me, remove me and Carl's contributions and see what the majority of the comments are about

  6 July 2011 at 15:24 · Like
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  Nu Eemah Hephzybah Well family, our problem is that many of us have lost our African Spirit of embraces difference. We pretend to be indigenous but we do not have the foggious understanding of what is involved in African Spiritutality. If we only knew, we would not need this forum. Our Igbo Elders lost their African Spirit and because of it, they put our Osu people in the wrong light of Spiritual understanding. How can anyone serve the Gods and not be above you and I? This is indicative of how our people gained Yurugu mentality. I see it in the comments here as well. We begin to see history as linear but it has always been circular, since the beginning of time. When you gain insight on our circular past, you learn to embrace other cultures, faith paths, mythologies, divinations, experiences as very valuable. It is only in Yurugu mindset that says my beliefs are the only true explanation of history... very linear.. very Yurugu... very far from our true African Way.

  6 July 2011 at 17:47 · Like
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  Nu Eemah Hephzybah Gabriel Ike Obiefuna - please share your research resources with me that speaks of the " Osus of Southeastern Nigeria and the Komas of Northeastern Nigeria who i believe from the findings of my research work are the SEPHARDIC JEWS."
  
  I ask this for an important reason. I am looking at Muurs/Moors relationship with the Sephardic Jews, which I believe they have big time interconnections. Well, I also think there is a connection between Igbos and Moors as well but according to some sources Igbos is connected to every aspect of Ancient Africans - smiles.

  6 July 2011 at 17:55 · Like
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  Nu Eemah Hephzybah Mazi Onyemobi Desta Anyiwo - consider this... you say Gabriel is insane because he says he has returned. Well is reincarnation not part of African Spirituality? So how is it that an African who is able to share is former life now referred to as insane?? We must be very mindful of our put downs. If we disagree with someone's insght, we can do so and still show our respect for them. Mockery is truly not an African way. So lets try to rise above the yurugu way... I realize that here in the Americas we are surrounded by it but we can go within and focus on being African.

  6 July 2011 at 18:00 · Like
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  NwaMazi Onyemobi Desta Anyiwo Nu Mosaic Naija: I think you're crazy as hell too so its no wonder that you're defending Gabriel Ike Obiefuna....LMAO!

  7 July 2011 at 02:20 · Like
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  Nu Eemah Hephzybah Its ok Mazi, we here in the forum understand you. It is not easy as I said for Americans to return as Africans but in time all shall be well.

  7 July 2011 at 02:26 · Like
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  NwaMazi Onyemobi Desta Anyiwo Nu Mosaic Naija: I feel you. Being around white folks for hundreds of years will do that to any sane African. But one day you will understand what I'm talking about...lol

  7 July 2011 at 02:28 · Like
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  Nu Eemah Hephzybah BINGO! YURUGU!

  7 July 2011 at 02:35 · Like
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  Agatha Benson My osu friends are comfortable with me because I love them equal like all mankind. We share same bathroom, soaps, wear same clothes, shoes, cook together, and love each other. We're still friends no problem among us. Osu was an ancient believe created by human not God. Above all we cherished our friendship since ages. Did you guys understand that we've other tribes that're in the same predicament?.

  7 July 2011 at 03:15 · Like · 1
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  Nu Eemah Hephzybah Agatha Benson I just read an article this evening that shared several relative social systems and it even talked about Hausa but none were quite the same to me. Which one(s) are you speaking of?

  7 July 2011 at 03:40 · Like
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  Jasper Ahmefula AGATHA WILL YOU MARRY AN OSU OR GIVE YOUR SON OR DAUGHTER TO AN OSU?IF YOU CAN DO THIS THEN THEY ARE TRULY YOUR FREINDS.IF YOU CANT THEN BY YAH DONT PLAY GOD.

  10 November 2011 at 20:51 · Like
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  Victor Akoko Jasper, would you marry an Osu? If not, please help me understand why not.

  11 November 2011 at 12:57 · Like
• 

  Ibukunoluwa Ozioma "How can osu caste practice disappear when the discriminated shy and don´t admit?" In admitting one's discrimination or being discriminated against will it go away, Chima Moses Amadi? What about the Dialas? Would they stop disciminating against the ...See More

  11 November 2011 at 13:14 · Like · 1
• 

  Jasper Ahmefula WELL I WILL IF I SEE ONE.BUT UNFORTUNATELY IAM HOOKED ALREADY.

  11 November 2011 at 14:45 · Like

17. A very powerful article on how the Osu system trasncends Igbo religion 

Uchenna Emenike edited a doc.

How not to stop the OSU caste system

Umuibe, 

 

The difficulties that confront the contemporary Igbo are

multifaceted and complex. The psyche of a people shall remain tormented as long

as cultural disorientation, political uncertainty and economic hardship are

prevalent in the society. Osu caste system is a cultural albatross that shall

trail the Igbo until we, as a people, can muster what it would take to eliminate

its observance without destroying vital components of our indigenous value

system. While most would agree that osu practice is "primitive, uncivilized and

pagan-oriented", a greater number of fellow Igbo would not accept that "all the

shrines and deities associated with the practice" should be destroyed as a cure

for this malady. One should not throw away the baby with the bathwater just

because the latter is very dirty. In a similar fashion, one should not

deliberately set one's home ablaze just to eliminate an unwelcome rodent

infestation. Liquidation of indigenous Igbo deities and shrines cannot eliminate

the osu practice because the caste system that persists today has little to do

with widespread indigenous religious worship. Osu caste system persists in Igbo

heartland in spite of the fact that the overwhelming majority of Ndiigbo are

nominal Christians.

 

As much as the effort made by the leaders of Amano Okigwe

Autonomous Community could have been inspired by the best of intentions, no one

should underestimate or understate what it would take to eliminate the osu caste

system in Igbo heartland where it is still observed. About 2 decades ago, the

traditional leader of Nnobi community in Idemili South LGA banned the osu caste

system in his domain. Leadership of neighboring communities of Awka-Etiti and

Nnewi did not follow the lead of Nnobi community nor did other towns in the

area. Since there is a lot of marital relationships between towns and villages

in the area, it is very doubtful that an isolated local initiative by one

community can make any meaningful impact in this age-old practice. A spirited

effort was made by the late Idu I of Igboukwu in the 1970s to tackle this matter

in collaboration with the town union leadership and the nze-na-ozo title

society. The effort was scuttled because of their inability to derive a

consensus methodology for bridging the marital divide that has historically kept

the non-osu from marrying an osu. It was then realized that, for the effort to

yield an outcome which can endure, many contiguous communities in the

area should partake in the process simultaneously.

 

My fear is that the Amano Okigwe Autonomous Community's

initiative may be instigated by a mindset that regards elimination of all traces

of indigenous Igbo cultural practices as an inevitable prerequisite to

attainment of modernity. I definitively don't see why total destruction of Igbo

deities and shrines should be perceived as being instrumental in eliminating the

osu caste system in the community. Massive destruction of Igbo cultural symbols

and artifacts have taken place since advent of Christianity and colonialism but

the osu caste system still persists. Does it make a lot of sense to hope that

continuing to pursue this iconoclastic fervor to the extreme shall turn things

around overnight? Many shrines of Igbo deities are housed in forests which are

usually left in their pristine state in reverence for the ancestral spirits who

keep watch over the land. Forests of Igbo shrines have been decimated in the

last 150 years to make way for building of churches and other structures of

modern society. It is rare to encounter pristine forests anymore in Alaigbo. As

we indiscriminately destroy these natural treasures of Alaigbo, we also bring

the flora and fauna that inhabit our rainforest habitats to extinction. Some

plant species that used to be plentiful in my childhood years, like uku, ubune,

uhi, utu, orji etc, are rare finds in Igbo heartland today. This magnitude of

iconoclasm spells greater danger to the ultimate survival of Igbo culture and

values than the very osu caste system that the perpetrators claim to be

fighting.

 

Okenwa

Like · · Follow post · 13 July 2011 at 07:40

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• Seen by 44

  Jasper Ahmefula likes this.
• 

  Uchenna Emenike @Victor Akoko: Thanks for sharing this piece. I decided to post it as a document so that group members can read it and comment on it. I personally agree with the writer's view and such should not be the way to assure the end of the OSU caste system.

  7 July 2011 at 06:15 · Like
• 

  Irene Omafuvwe Russell Uchenna Emenike - please repast the narrative for some reason, the words never post when we create the document. It posts when we save. this is a document flaw i presume. I thought it was a good write up too.

  7 July 2011 at 10:46 · Like · 1
• 

  Victor Akoko Brother you are welcome but as Omafuvwe pointed out your doc file is empty. cut and paste again, it will be fine. Peace.

  11 July 2011 at 19:30 · Like
• 

  Uchenna Emenike Sorry for the shortcoming. I didn't realize my mistake. Please enjoy the post.

  13 July 2011 at 07:41 · Like ·

• Write a comment.

[OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU]

Olatyinka,

Forgive me but i think you need more infop on Osu.

1st- the core issue is mot ideology.

The Osu are people socially brutalized by other Igbo people.

Nwakanma  falsely argues that this is due to a misunderstanding of what Osu is .

His case has no backing in Igbo history and culture.

Did you read the essay he recommended as backing his claim and which I forwarded?

I suggest you at least read the essay recommended by him so we can move discuss on the same platform of information. That essay cant be described as an essay from Toyin that favors his own stand.

Nwakanma extracts uncritically a marginal and conjectural pint in that essay and  ignores the rest.

I also suggest you read the Facebook posts I forwarded from the abolish Osu system groups.

I also suggest you do at least a one page Google research on this.

This issue is one of the deepest pain for many, an internal Igbo apartheid. Itregures to be taken very seriously.

Toyin

On Sat, Mar 23, 2013 at 5:45 PM, Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:

I think we can all agree to disagree on the issue.  it is how we present our views that matter.  You and nwakamma seem to be at daggers drawn; no need for that.  i have cursorily read the Igbo views on Osu you presented.  They are influenced by Christian theology and eschathology.  While they are anchored on monotheistic ethos, the views represented by Nwakamma, (and CAO's poem) it would seem, are polytheistic.  There is no reason to privilege one over the other in a discourse as the norm, except, in the Igbo case as Okigbo implied in an aspect of his poetry, the devastation wrought in Igbo society by Christian ethics is far more thorough  than in, say, Yoruba society.  That was why he had to go to the 'bridgehead' to see beyond the views of the common folk.

We can all disagree my brother, but i dont see the need for you guys to descend into a civil war over it.

---

Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2013 09:57:18 +0000

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade
From: tva...@gmail.com

To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com; yagb...@hotmail.com

Apologies, Olayinka.

I was not polite to you in the way I summed up your response.

I was agitated by the fact that you chose to ignore the scope of research on the subject and chose to fixate on a view of a person whose very text he claims supports his view actually debunks it.

Perhaps you have not had chance to read the essay recommended by Nwakanma as well as anything else on the subject.

Thanks
Toyin

On Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 9:53 AM, OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tva...@gmail.com> wrote:

Instead of jumping to decide who is or is not an expert, read the relevant texts.

Nwakanma is engaged in a process of self delusion which informed people and other Ndigbo see through straightway.

Nwakanma has chosen to isolate a marginal perspective that has little  resonance in collective Igbo cultural memory and Igbo social life anywhere in the world as the reality of Osu.

The Osu phenomenon is too deep rooted in Igbo social identity to be a Christian  distortion.

My focus  in my examination of Nwakanma's effort at fiction will not be to prove him wrong, anybody who reads the very text he recommended and which I attached to my last post as well as the other texts, can see that he is engaged in a  fictive exercise, but will focus on   the implications of his strategy, a strategy  that other Ndigbo on this group, being people  who are subjected to or are witnesses to or are agents in the perpetuation of the Osu phenomenon know is all smoke, but which they are keeping quiet about out of ethnic loyalty, embarrassment or other forms of moral escapism,    and about which non-Ndigbo who care to educate themselves will  know better.

Anybody who is  waiting for Igbos on this group to speak up in support of Nwankama or in opposition to him might have a long time to wait. They know his position is indefensible but wont want to be drawn into an argument where they will either be seen to betray their ethnic brother  in his misguided effort to present one of the most heinous aspects of past and present Igbo life in a whitewashed romantic sense  at variance with Igbo culture and history in all its human complexity or to enter into something that they themselves are too  embarrassed  to discuss in the first place.

Thanks
Toyin

[Olayinka Agbetuyi]

I have read Leith-Ross, and it only confirms my suspicions that:

Both you and Nwakamma are arguing the same thesis from different perspectives, looking at a coin from two sides and callling it different coins because it suits your prior differences.

That I was correct in guessing that the contemporary way the Osus see themselves may be at variance with the traditional role.

You were right in stating that the Osu are now treated as outcasts and slaves;  Nwakamma was right in stating that they were not traditionally SLAVES.  They were originally strangers and soon were conscripted from slaves.  Nwakamma was right that the article stated that they originally enjoyed status and privilege(213-214) and were turned to outcasts as aresult of envy from host communities who emphasized their latter slave status.  Freeborn actually enrolled to be Osu in view of the privileges attached to the role according to the researcher.  The article did not debunk Nwakama;s claims but supported them in a polemical way, as it did support yours too.  Both sets of claims are true relative to particular historical moments.  The okigwe Christian woman's reaction supports my caim that Christianity's wide spread among the igbo suplied another layer of why Osus were seen as exclusively slaves that needed liberation according to the drive to erradicate slavery at a point in time.

It is clear you both need apologies from each other for using unwarranted uncouth language against each other that did not help advance the debate in any way.

Olayinka Agbetuyi

---

Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2013 17:54:46 +0000

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade
From: tva...@gmail.com

To: yagb...@hotmail.com
CC: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

[Chidi Anthony Opara]

Toyin,
The various sources you cited on this “Osu agbara” phenomenon, in my
opinion, only point to the notion of the truth, not the truth. My
problem with sources is that most are rehashes of personal opinions of
the very influential few.

The “Osu agbara” phenomenon is only an aspect of the “Osu” system in
Igboland.

I will like you to research the meaning of “Osu ji” for instance, a
name/title given to male scions of prosperous yam farming families.

CAO.

On 23 Mar, 18:54, OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tva...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Olatyinka,
>
> Forgive me but i think you need more infop on Osu.
>
> 1st- the core issue is mot ideology.
>
> The Osu are people socially brutalized by other Igbo people.
>
> Nwakanma  falsely argues that this is due to a misunderstanding of what Osu
> is .
>
> His case has no backing in Igbo history and culture.
>
> Did you read the essay he recommended as backing his claim and which I
> forwarded?
>
> I suggest you at least read the essay recommended by him so we can move
> discuss on the same platform of information. That essay cant be described
> as an essay from Toyin that favors his own stand.
>
> Nwakanma extracts uncritically a marginal and conjectural pint in that
> essay and  ignores the rest.
>
> I also suggest you read the Facebook posts I forwarded from the abolish Osu
> system groups.
>
> I also suggest you do at least a one page Google research on this.
>
> This issue is one of the deepest pain for many, an internal Igbo apartheid.
> Itregures to be taken very seriously.
>
> Toyin
>

> On Sat, Mar 23, 2013 at 5:45 PM, Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagbet...@hotmail.com>wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >  I think we can all agree to disagree on the issue.  it is how we present
> > our views that matter.  You and nwakamma seem to be at daggers drawn; no
> > need for that.  i have cursorily read the Igbo views on Osu you presented.
> >  They are influenced by Christian theology and eschathology.  While they
> > are anchored on monotheistic ethos, the views represented by Nwakamma, (and
> > CAO's poem) it would seem, are polytheistic.  There is no reason to
> > privilege one over the other in a discourse as the norm, except, in the
> > Igbo case as Okigbo implied in an aspect of his poetry, the devastation
> > wrought in Igbo society by Christian ethics is far more thorough  than in,
> > say, Yoruba society.  That was why he had to go to the 'bridgehead' to see
> > beyond the views of the common folk.
>
> > We can all disagree my brother, but i dont see the need for you guys to
> > descend into a civil war over it.
>

> > ------------------------------

> > Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2013 09:57:18 +0000
>
> > Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about
> > African Involvement in the Slave Trade
> > From: tva...@gmail.com

> > To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com; yagbet...@hotmail.com

> > On Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 11:53 PM, Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagbet...@hotmail.com

> > > wrote:
>
> >  I think it is not fair to attack Adepoju's views as a deliberate attempt
> > to ridicule the Osu system.  Such views are the  result of decades of
> > misinformation and misrepresentation of what the Osu system is to outsiders
> > (including yours truly) and even uneducated igbos... For a long time i have
> > been a victim of the misrepresentation that compares the Osu system to the
> > Indian pariah system of the untouchables.  The colonial mentality during
> > the period of the eradication of slavery must be in large part responsible
> > for this.  The current state of knowledge shows that experts such as the
> > Nwakammas and Ogbunwezes still have much to do change the outsiders
> > perception of the system.
>
> > As for what current Osus say and how they see themselves, this may be the
> > result of new realities of modern societal  expectations and mentality that
> > are incompatible with traditional roles.
>

> > ------------------------------

> > Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:07:35 +0000
>
> > Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about
> > African Involvement in the Slave Trade
> > From: tva...@gmail.com
> > To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
>

> >                                              *The Osu Phenomenon *
> > *

> >                                   Denigrated Outcast or Venerated Isolate?

> > *

> ...
>
> read more »

[OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU]

                                    Quotations from and Summation of  S. Leith-Ross'
 
                    "Notes on the Osu System among the Ibo of Owerri Province, Nigeria"


Definitive Statements About the Origins of the Osu Phenomenon

The following  two statements are the only definitive statement this article makes about the origin of the Osu practice. It states the origins are unknown. It does not go beyond these to confirm  any claim of origin as definitive.

1. All one learns concerning their history from superficial inquiries is that the Osu are men and women who have been, or whose forefathers have been, offered as living sacrifices to a juju whose wrath was feared, thus becoming' slaves of the juju '. 207

2. The origin of the system is uncertain. Most informants say frankly they have no knowledge of when and where and how it came into being. They think the system is an old one-one oldish priest was certain it existed in the time of his grandfather-but that it does not date 'from time immemorial '. 210

Unvalidated and Speculative Statements by Various Informants on the Origin of the Osu Phenomenon

Leith-Ross presents two  strands of opinion on the origin of the Osu phenomenon. One strand is valoristic, describing the origins of the system as rooted in veneration of Osu, in one account leading to an elevated social isolation. 

Another strand is denigrative, describing the origin of the system as rooted in the use of the Osu as an instrument whose humanity was thereby compromised, making the Osu a second class citizen whom non-Osu avoided associating with on account of the scorn of  and fear of the dangers associated with the compromise of their  humanity.

Leith-Ross indicates that the balance of opinion in her inquiries  suggest the Osu might have been venerated in the past. She speculates on the processes through which veneration could have turned to scorn, if such veneration actually existed.

Relationship between  Nwakanma's, Leith-Ross' and Other Writers'  Positions on  Osu, Specifically that of Francis Onwubuariri in "Appraising the Osu Caste System from the Perspective of Complementary Reflection" and Chinua Achebe's  in "The Madman".


Origins in Veneration or Denigration?

Nwakanma makes unequivocal valoristic claims about the origins and development of the Osu phenomenon that Leith-Ross does not make. Leith-Ross  is careful to specify the tentative  character of her research and the  speculative nature of her deductions stemming from the difficulty of obtaining information and the contrasts between the views of the various informants she consults.

Leith-Ross is of the view the Osu might have been venerated in the past on account of their role as intermediaries with  deity and the fact that three informants, one being Osu and another a priest who looked down on Osu but still describe their past social role as being one of veneration, corroborated this view.

Leith-Ross does not address the claim by the Osu informant that some people chose to become Osu so as to belong to the venerated caste they supposedly belonged to. Presentations of self dedication to the Osu caste by other scholars and writers, such as Francis Onwubuariri and Chinua Achebe, indicate that it is well known  in collective Igbo  historical memory that some people did choose to become Osu, not in order to aspire to a higher social status, but to gain protection in relation to the negative social status of being Osu, being free of one's problematic social obligations but also being excluded from being treated as a member of society sharing certain positive human commonalities with others.  

Osu as Monastics?

The article does not suggest that Osu formed a monastic order, although the highly valoristic account of the origins of Osu by Leith-Ross's  Osu informant, depicting their isolation as a form of veneration, could have encouraged Nwakanma to make the leap from this unverified presentation to an unequivocal case of monasticism, perhaps encouraged by other sources that might have built this thesis further.

One example of such a view is presented by Francis Onwubuariri in "Appraising the Osu Caste System from the Perspective of Complementary Reflection" : "According to J. O. Nwachukwu talking in Sunday Times Newspaper “Osu is a sacred and holy being deserved to live a secluded life, a monk in order to salvage and save the people under him as a king and saviour” (1985,5)".

Onwubuariri  presents another related  view :

"Igwebuike interviewed Arazu, on the role of an Osu as he maintained that “an Osu is the living symbol of the invisible spirit when he is carrying the emblem (of the spirit or a god). The emblem carrier is seen as the most important person on such occasions, this is because, in the very blood of the Osu runs the potency of the spirit, hence, they are feared”. According to Igwebuike the osu would make the best occultists and mystics thus he said: “if I were an Osu, I would go in completely for occultism and mysticism in order to develop the power inherent in a ‘Kratophany’ because the particular spirit which the Osu was dedicated is not the devil and is not one of the demons” (Interviewed in May 15, 1986)."

Priceless ideas. In the second part of this analysis, on Osu and monasticism, I will examine the possibilities of these ideas.

Becoming Osu by Choice

Other writers, such as Francis Onwubuariri,  present a scope of the various ways people become Osu that  highlights the complexity of the phenomenon beyond  the valorisation/denigration opposition described by Leith Ross.

 This larger picture describes some people choosing  to become Osu in spite of its negative social weight as a means of escaping social problems. They would therefore have chosen the lesser of two evils. This fact suggests that the Osu phenomenon  was also an institution used for giving people a second chance in coping with problems that would have overwhelmed them.

This picture of choosing to become Osu in spite of its negative qualities suggests one aspect of the system could be seen as a social mechanism used to give people a chance to reshape their lives in ways that would represent the lesser of two evils.

This understanding suggests that the negative valuation of Osu needs to be seen within a broader framework than that of a group of victims who might have had a former positive status that was distorted to something negative or who were chosen against their will to play a stigmatized but valuable social role.

Within a society described as seeking to mediate between absolutes, the choice of becoming Osu for people whose circumstances make the attendant  lower social status of Osu attractive gave them a chance to continue as members of society by reinventing themselves, although at a high price.

Onwubuariri sums this up:

"There are certain conditions that can make one to become an Osu voluntarily, for instance victimization and frustration. Here a person due to frustration and helplessness may decide to embrace a deity for either protection or guidance; as a result the person becomes an Osu.

Another condition in this regard is poverty and indebtedness. Here a person may become the property of a deity due to his/her inability to pay up his/her debts, the person may run to the deity to scare his debtors away, and having run to the deity the person automatically become its property.

 Finally, one of the essential conditions that make people to become properties of the god voluntarily is laziness. Hence, some people became an Osu just because they are too lazy to work and earn their own living. They easily go to the deity and become its property in order to be eating the sacrifices sacrificed to the gods."

Chinua Achebe's "The Madman" depicts a similar image most poignantly in the story of Nwibe who runs naked into the marketplace in pursuit of a man who stole his cloth while he took his bath in the river. The dibia to whom his relatives take him to be cured of the  madness that they see his action as demonstrating, a madness intensified by running naked into the market place, a nexus of spirits, thereby offering himself to them, declares " There is nothing we can do. They have already embraced him. He has drunk of the spirit waters of animmo[ the land of spirits]. he is like a man who runs from the persecution of his fellows to the grove of an alusi [a spirit] and cries out 'Save me o spirit. I will be your osu!' . He is free of men but bonded to a god".



Quotations and Summations from Leith-Ross on the Origins of the Osu Phenomenon

         Valoristic

1. Only one, himself an Osu, made an attempt to give a detailed history, of which the following is a resume
in his own words: 'In the days when Ci-ukuru (the Long Juju of Aro fame) was acknowledged the supreme divinity of Ibo-land, the Aro claimed superiority over the Ibo as being themselves the children of Ci-ukuru. It was their prerogative to solemnize all sacrifices ordered by their Mother Ci-ukuru, and to appropriate whatever articles were offered her by her worshippers. In those days of constant feuds and inter-tribal wars, it was the rule that a life should pay for a life and if any difficulties arose in the way of killing a man to indemnify the one who had been killed by the enemy, it was the custom to appeal to the Long Juju for assistance.

 It happened once that a chief was killed during a tribal war between two towns near Abaja (Umuduru), about thirty miles from Owerri town. Several fruitless efforts were made to avenge his death and, as a last resort, the Long Juju was consulted. The Long Juju ordained the sacrifices which should be offered at the grave of the dead chief in order to entrap the spirit of the enemy chief,but to render these sacrifices acceptable, they had to be made by an Aro. In order to get round the difficulty of finding an Aro in such a remote spot (there was actually a small Aro colony in the district but it was settled in the very compound of the enemy chief so could not be communicated with) to solemnize both this and subsequent sacrifices, Ci-ukuru advised that a non-Aro should be "consecrated" as " Osu " or "pro-Aro " and thus become eligible to offer such sacrifices.

Such a person should be a stranger to the town and, once consecrated, should be given all the honour and privileges due to an Aro. On his side, he should be worthy of reverence and lead a chaste and humble life. He was to mediate between the people and the Long Juju through her son, Otamiri, the principle god of the Owerri area.' The name of the man chosen for this first consecration is not known but shortly after, again on the advice of Ci-ukuru, one Agobie was
consecrated the first Osu at Mgwoma (off the Owerri-Aba road), where to-day is found the largest community of Osu in the Owerri area. Later still, other minor spirits followed the example set by Ci-ukuru and asked for Osu to be consecrated to them.

As a result, one Ehihe was consecrated at Mgahiri, one Mbaleto at Ebu (three miles from Owerri town), Nwaezeala at Owerri and Ewereke at Umuawka. These Osu soon began to grow rich on the fruits of their office and thus freeborn men began to volunteer to become Osu, a then enviable position. One of these volunteers was Gbagwuruegbe, a free-born native of Okwu-Oratta. His descendants now inhabit an important village of Oratta and to-day number over 300. (This information was confirmed from another source but my informant stated, I think erroneously, that Gwagwuruegbe was ' the first of the line of Osu ' and became an Osu voluntarily so as to have ' an extra share of meat '.) 210-211

' An Osu was bound to live an upright, chaste, and pious life, or his god would punish him. He could move about
freely and, as earthly representative of a god, it was sacrilege to illtreat or molest him. He lived apart, not because he was an inferior being, but because the people regarded him with awe and thought it safer not to mingle with him and risk doing him some unintentional injury which might bring down upon their heads the wrath of the Osu's god.'

For this same reason, 'they did not marry their children to those of an Osu; and on the other hand, Osu parents who brought up their children on the strict moral lines incumbent on them, preferred them to marry other Osu children trained in the same way. Thus the ever-widening gulf between Osu and non-Osu, especially as regards marriage relations, was fixed. It was purely a question of religious difference and not of inferiority. 214-215

....

Unfortunately, the growing wealth and power of the head Osu' excited jealousy, so efforts were made to make any new Osu immediately understand that he was an inferior, who would be asked to perform menial tasks in the household of his purchaser as well as fulfil its religious obligations, and was obliged to live outside the compound.

This new attitude towards the Osu was facilitated by the fact that the slave trade was then active and that it was easy to buy slaves, men, women, and children, as offerings to the juju. Thus the Osu system quickly degenerated into little more than a form of slavery, with all the more stigma attached to that condition in that the man was not only a slave but slave to a spirit. Indeed, a free-born Ibo seems to have little feeling on the subject of ordinary slaves (though in parts of Onitsha the feeling is strong), he would on occasion even marry a slave or allow his children to marry one. It is only against ' the slaves of the juju ' that the interdiction holds good. 215

....

What exactly were the past or are the present relations between the priests and the Osu is hard to determine. The only priest to whom I could speak freely on the subject referred to the Osu with contempt, said they never took over any of the priestly functions, never lived with the priest in the same compound, and evidently regarded them merely as individuals who had been offered to appease the wrath of an offended juju and in no way as ' mediators between the people and their god '. Yet even he admitted that in olden days the position had not been the same and that the Osu, though always feared, owing to their close relationship with the jujus, had been venerated. 215-216
....

It would indeed be strange (again in the words of my Osu informant)' that the mediator between the people and their
god should be despised and molested.... Considering the important part played by the individual in the religious life of the Ibo, it is hardly believable that the picture which the non-Osu paints of him to-day is the true one.'214


 Denigrative


1. Another version, but which was only given me at second hand by a non-Ibo informant, definitely made out that the Osu were scapegoats. If a man thought he had been cursed, he would go to a diviner who would tell him which juju he had offended and what the juju required as a sacrifice. It might be a fowl, or a cow, or a man. If a man, he would be purchased from a distant place, led to the juju and there driven into the bush to die, or thrown into the water to sink or swim as best he could. Even should he survive, ' he would have no more existence than a dog or a cow killed as a sacrifice'. No other informant has corroborated this scapegoat aspect, though an Efik seemed familiar
with a somewhat similar idea. 212


2. Other informants could only state that the system had been instituted so as to appease the anger of the jujus. A man who had had a persistent run of ill luck, whose children died, whose crops failed, whose household was constantly sick, would consult a diviner who would tell him that such and such a spirit required that a slave should
be given him. Amongst the Ngwa, it appears that the victim might offer his own son or, if that gave no result, his own daughter, but other Ibo were horrified at the idea and declared that no father could be so inhuman as to make his own children into Osu. One non-Osuinformant said that in her part of the country, the Osu system had been instituted merely to save people trouble, not to avoid any special disasters

3.Another version was given by a non-Osu girl, herself a Christian but living in a mixed pagan-Christian compound. It was as follows: If the juju, through a diviner, tells a man he wants a slave, the man goes to another town and acquires one. At the same time, he buys a basket, a fowl, yellow chalk, camwood, pepper, palm wine, kola nuts,
and a fathom of white cloth, all of which are put into the basket, together with some hairs from the head of the future Osu. (I understood that the yellow chalk is rubbed on the future Osu's body, the camwood on his feet, and that he wears the white cloth.).

 Towards evening, in view of his assembled household, the donor of the Osu comes and stands by the door-post of his house with the basket containing the gifts placed on the ground in front of him and says: 'Juju, we bring the man you asked for. From now onward, trouble us no more, let no one be sick, let the women bear children, do not let any other juju trouble us.' He then calls to the future Osu, who jumps up and down four times (four is the ' sacred ' number among the Ibo), then walks four times round the assembled people, and finally has the basket placed upon his head. The donor and the people then follow the prospective Osu to the shrine of the juju, singing as they go.

When they reach the shrine, they offer the Osu to the juju, reciting certain words and lifting the Osu up and down four times. Of the ending of the ceremony, the informant gave two accounts: (a) Once a man has been finally consecrated, the crowd calls out: ' Osu! Osu!' and the man proudly replies that indeed he is now an Osu and that it
is a good name. But by next day, the name is looked on as shameful and the Osu would fight any one who called him by it. (b) The other account was: after the consecration the people go away leaving the Osu at the shrine but the Osu runs after them and should he catch any of them, he or she would have to make many gifts before being
set free. In olden days a thread was tied round the Osu's neck, but now they wear no outward sign.213-214.

[I class 4 and 5  as denigrative on account of their  association with slavery]

4. One non-Osuinformant said that in her part of the country, the Osu system had been instituted merely to save people trouble, not to avoid any special disasters.When it was the custom for the head of the family to make most of the sacrifices, he had to observe so many taboos that his life became a burden to him. He therefore bought a slave to make the sacrificesf or him and thus spareh im trouble. It will be seen that some of the informants stress the Osu's role as official sacrificer on behalf of his master, while others only regard him as a sop thrown to the juju to placate his anger and avoid further misfortune. 211-212

5. The first time I heard any mention of the Osul was in connexion with the Ngwa clan of the Ibo tribe. Roughly speaking these Ngwa live in the Aba area, in the south of the Owerri Province. They appear to follow the custom of dedicating ' slaves of the juju ' who are then known as ' Osu ', but I did not gather there was any stigma attached to this form of' slavery ' nor that the existence of such ' slaves ' leads to any sort of social problem. Quite possibly, as Ibo customs vary so much, no such stigma exists among the Ngwa.


Evaluation by Leith-Ross

Though both these versions were given by Owerri informants, they show little agreement. Nevertheless, even the version given by the non-Osu shows traces, I think, of the higher status that the Osu are said to have enjoyed in former times. Another possible proof of this higher status might be the fact already mentioned that among the
Ngwa, parents are ready to offer their own children and that apparently no stigma is attached in that area to the condition of Osu, and there are other indications that in the remoter, non-Christianized districts the Osu still hold positions of considerable importance.

 It is this change in status, if true, which is one of the most interesting features from the psychological standpoint and which constitutes one of the chief grievances of the present-day Osu.

On the whole, evidence from various sources goes to support their claim that in olden days they were regarded with awe and veneration rather than with the contempt and dislike they inspire now.214

...

It is thus possible that jealousy on the part of the priests who saw some of their importance being transferred to the Osu, may also have been a cause of the latter's social downfall.216

On Sun, Mar 24, 2013 at 12:36 PM, OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tva...@gmail.com> wrote:

Olayinka,

The article does not do what you claim here:


1.' Nwakamma was right that the article stated that they originally enjoyed status and privilege(213-214) and were turned to outcasts as aresult of envy from host communities who emphasized their latter slave status.'

2.  'Freeborn actually enrolled to be Osu in view of the privileges attached to the role according to the researcher.  The article did not debunk Nwakama;s claims but supported them in a polemical way'


The article states the origin of the Osu phenomenon is unknown, being lost in history.

It then presents opinions on what that origin could be and provides speculative opinions.

There is nowhere in the article a definite statement is made about the origin of Osu as you assert.

Presenting an opinion is not identical with supporting it, as you claim the article does.

In all Igbo history, Osu have always been seen as people to be shunned to one degree or another. That ideology predates Christianity.

There is no evidence that Osu were ever valorised.

Christianity has actually been an ideological counterpoint which the Osu have used as a tool of liberation from the brutal discrimination of their fellow Ndigbo, those who call themselves Diala or freeborn.

I will go back  to the article and carefully present the points it makes, indicating where it presents speculation about the origins of Osu, the collective Igbo understanding of Osu and its antiquity as predating Christianity.

 I will also compare the Osu phenomenon with monasticism to demonstrate their vast difference on account of Nwakanma's highly suspect correlation of both  and relate Nwakanma's  position to efforts to rethink the Osu phenomenon, of which his effort is an intimation of more sophisticated efforts as evident from the deliberations on one of the Facebook groups dedicated to eliminating the Osu phenomenon.

I will also describe why the ancient status of the Osu is  rightfully understood as a form of slavery, a service in UNFREEDOM, servitude rather than service.

thanks
toyin

[OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU]

thanks.

Doing so now.

Toyin

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[Ifedioramma E. Nwana]

Osu is different from slave.  An osu is one dedicated/sacrificed to a god; he or she is holy and one does not hurt him/her without incurring the wrath of the god to whom he/she is dedicated.  A slave is an ohu or oru.  He/she belongs to another human and may, indeed, be able to purchase his/her freedom, become a free citizen and rise to any height.

IEM Nwana 

From: OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tva...@gmail.com>
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, 19 March 2013, 21:37
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade

I read  somewhere that the Asante used slaves in clearing the forests on which they built their communities.

Is that true?

What about the osu cast system in Igboland? To what degree were the osu not slaves? I know little about this but a pic I saw of an osu and a dibia on the Igbocybershrine blog  a powerful and  unforgettable pic, suggested  something that reminded me of slavery.

toyin

On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 6:48 PM, Ibrahim Abdullah <ibdu...@gmail.com> wrote:

Skip gates is not bill gates. And a slave mode of production was not dominant in any african society by 1500. It became dominant and hegemonic in some societies only in nineteen century--a result of their involvement in the european slave trade.

History does not repeat itself: you do not swim in the same river twice. Agents of /in history make mistakes but it is not the historical process that is being reproduced. You cannot drink in the same cup twice!

Ib Abdullah

------

On Mar 19, 2013 10:45 AM, "Ikhide" <xok...@yahoo.com> wrote:

"There are some fundamental facts. First, no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production. Africa has produced no economies based on slavery. It was left to Europe to create a system of slavery where humans were chattel to be used as tools in the development of wealth. Secondly, in all massive enterprises where there are oppressors and the oppressed there will be collaborators. It is no secret that some of Afriica’s best minds, Fanon, Memni, Karenga, have isolated incidents of collaboration among victims of oppression. Blacks were police officers in the white minority regime of South Africa but one cannot blame apartheid on black people. So when Gates claims that Africans were involved in the slave trade one can accept this, but what one cannot accept is that Africans were equally culpable for the slave trade. Nor should one blame the Judenrats (Jewish Councils) of Germany for Nazi atrocities although they often collaborated with the Germans. Indians collaborated with the British colonialists in India and some Chinese collaborated with the Japanese in occupied China, and while there is no excuse there is certainly explanation for collaboration."

- Molefi Kete Asante

http://www.asante.net/articles/44/where-is-the-white-professor-located/

Hmmm/ It is incorrect that "no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production." That is silly hagiography. There are many ways to counter Bill Gates without minimizing the role of Africans in the transatlantic slave trade. Africans are just as culpable as those that came to take away our siblings. *cycles away slowly*

 

- Ikhide

 

Stalk my blog at http://www.xokigbo.com/

Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide

Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide

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Compcros

Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems

"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"

[Akurang-Parry, Kwabena]

Bro Toyin:

 

The answer to your query quoted below is a big yes and it is applicable to all societies that used slaves. It is called exploitation of slave labor!

 

"I read  somewhere that the Asante used slaves in clearing the forests on which they built their communities.

Is that true?"

 

Kwabena 

---

[OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU]

Thanks, Ifedioramma.

Granted, in Igbo society, the names for slaves and for osu were different, as you and other sources point out.

At the same time, however, the dominant status of osu in Igbo society, past and present was a form of servitude and social denigration  that may be described as slavery, as various writers agree.

It was a form of servitude because it involved  a denigrative social status from which the osu and their descendants  could not escape, a status based on dedication to deity in a spirit more suggestive of bondage than of empowerment.

True, as you state "An osu is one dedicated/sacrificed to a god; he or she is holy and one does not hurt him/her without incurring the wrath of the god to whom he/she is dedicated" this status went with a paradoxical denigration of the humanity of the osu. Their dedication to deity went with a dehumanization so much so that at its most extreme, interaction with them was seen as capable of bringing disaster and marrying them capable of bringing a curse into the family line.

This discrimination was so thorough that it followed the osu into the Westernization and Christianization  of Igbo culture. The osu are described as the vanguard of Igbo Westernization, being the first to immerse themselves  in the new order beceause it  promised a sense of being regarded as full human being equal to other humans, an  acceptance of a common humanity denied them by their fellow Ndigbo, who saw themselves  as freeborn or diala while the osu were understood as lower than fully human bondspeople.

The osu paradox therefore continued. From being people dedicated to deities and performing sacred functions on behalf of the community and yet reviled as being subhuman and contaminated in as way that made association with them dangerous, they now became the cutting edge of the new Igbo intelligentsia and embodiments of a new order of economic power and yet, they were  still discriminated against!

Imagine the irony-the very people who spearheaded the Igbo Westernisation Achebe uses as a central thrust of his description of the place of Ndigbo in Nigerian history, the people who enabled what he describes as Igbo ascendancy in modern Nigeria, were still regarded by their fellow Ndigbo as not fit for intimate association, as not fit  to be allowed public  leadership in Igbo communities  and even as open to oppression from fellow Ndigbo, the last being suggested by the tragic story of the Omuode community in 1999.

The scope of this tragedy becomes clearer when one gives names of those described as osu.

Newswatch Magazine of September 18, 1989  ago ran a thorough study of the subject and gave some indications of some of these people.

It is dangerous to call anyone osu publicly on account of the stigma associated with it and because there is some legislation against it, so Newswatch used pregnant suggestions.

I remember clearly it mentioned 'a famous Igbo poet'.

Of course, the only 'famous Igbo poet' who does not need to be named is Christopher Okigbo, perhaps one of the world's greatest poets, a pioneer in the emerging field of animistic mysticism in his interpretation of the goddess Idoto of the village stream of which his grandfather was priest in terms of the "water spirit that waters all creation", a poet whose carer was cut short, his work in progress lost, when he was lost in action fighting on the Biafran side in the Nigerian Civil War, supposedly as he covered the rearguard of his men retreating from Nigerian forces. Ali Mazrui evokes the magnitude of this loss to the world in his Trial of Christopher Okigbo, in which the poet is challenged after dearth for sacrificing his creative potential to a cause outside his primary vocation the way he did.

Describing Christopher Okigbo as osu  would thus  include economist his brother Pius Okigbo, described by ex-Permanent Secretary Philip Asiodu  as one of the greatest intellects in Nigerian history and as a key figure at Ojukwu's side at the fateful Aburi Accords, a presence that to Asiodu, suggested that Ojukwu grasped the importance of the Accord much better than Gowon, a grasp that made all the difference in the events that led up to the civil war.

Whether or not it is true that the the Okigbos are osu, the fact that Neswwatch could present a description  that fits Okigbo suggests the depth of the social tragedy at play, a significant  number of osu being described as being among the most successful Ndigbo.

Does it include  Bart Nnanji, stellar engineer, ex-Nigerian Minister of Power and pioneer in private energy generation in Nigeria,  issues around whose impending return to his community  led to the attacks against the Omuode community in 1999?

In Broken Back Axle:Unspeakable Events In Biafra [Amazon link that enables one read a good part of the book]  Obi N. Ignatius Ebbe presents the anti-osu discrimination problem in particularly poignant terms as being fundamental to the fall of Biafra through sabotage of Biafran efforts by osu who saw themselves  as likely to continue  to suffer discrimination at the hands of other Ndigbo even in a Biafra they had fought to create.

In my response to Chidi, I will describe the need to disengage the various strands of the description of what it means to be osu and the various strategies being  adopted to engage with the problem.

Avoiding the dominant negative interpretation might  not be likely to succeed because that perception   is too strong, too old, too entrenched, it seems. More likely to succeed, as Okenwa Nwosu suggests in an essay I link in my response to Chidi, is to fight the denigrative interpretation directly.

One effort used is to claim the osu identity  in the name of what is understood as an orginary valoristic significance before this was purportedly  distorted. Another is to acknowledge the negative valuation but insist  on focusing on positive possibilities inherent in the character of osu as sacred dedication and communal intercession.  One can even develop a Osu Spirituality and Philosophy which I will outline,  as one demonstration of the creativity of classical Igbo culture.

thanks
toyin

[Chidi Anthony Opara]

Toyin,

Without prejudice to what your further research on the Osu agbara
phenomenon as part of the Osu system may be, I am of the opinion that
you keep coming up with evidences of notion of Osu agbaras as slaves
and/or cursed people because that is the focus of your research.

I suggest you refocus to what the Osu system in general and the Osu
agbara phenomenon in particular really is.

CAO.

> community in 1999<https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!msg/soc.culture.nigeria...>.

>
> The scope of this tragedy becomes clearer when one gives names of those
> described as osu.
>

> *Newswatch Magazine* of September 18, *1989** * ago ran a thorough study of

> the subject and gave some indications of some of these people.
>
> It is dangerous to call anyone osu publicly on account of the stigma
> associated with it and because there is some legislation against it, so
> Newswatch used pregnant suggestions.
>
> I remember clearly it mentioned 'a famous Igbo poet'.
>
> Of course, the only 'famous Igbo poet' who does not need to be named is
> Christopher Okigbo, perhaps one of the world's greatest poets, a pioneer in
> the emerging field of animistic mysticism in his interpretation of the
> goddess Idoto of the village stream of which his grandfather was priest in
> terms of the "water spirit that waters all creation", a poet whose carer
> was cut short, his work in progress lost, when he was lost in action
> fighting on the Biafran side in the Nigerian Civil War, supposedly as he
> covered the rearguard of his men retreating from Nigerian forces. Ali

> Mazrui evokes the magnitude of this loss to the world in his* Trial of
> Christopher Okigbo*, in which the poet is challenged after dearth for

> sacrificing his creative potential to a cause outside his primary vocation
> the way he did.
>
> Describing Christopher Okigbo as osu  would thus  include economist his
> brother Pius Okigbo, described by ex-Permanent Secretary Philip Asiodu  as
> one of the greatest intellects in Nigerian history and as a key figure at
> Ojukwu's side at the fateful Aburi Accords, a presence that to Asiodu,
> suggested that Ojukwu grasped the importance of the Accord much better than
> Gowon, a grasp that made all the difference in the events that led up to
> the civil war.
>
> Whether or not it is true that the the Okigbos are osu, the fact that
> Neswwatch could present a description  that fits Okigbo suggests the depth
> of the social tragedy at play, a significant  number of osu being described
> as being among the most successful Ndigbo.
>
> Does it include  Bart Nnanji, stellar engineer, ex-Nigerian Minister of
> Power and pioneer in private energy generation in Nigeria,  issues around
> whose impending return to his community  led to the attacks against the
> Omuode community in

> 1999<https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!msg/soc.culture.nigeria...>
> ?
>
> In *Broken Back Axle:Unspeakable Events In
> Biafra<http://www.amazon.co.uk/Broken-Back-Axle-Ignatius-Ebbe/dp/1453573615>
> * [Amazon link that enables one read a good part of the book]  Obi N.

> Ignatius Ebbe presents the anti-osu discrimination problem in particularly
> poignant terms as being fundamental to the fall of Biafra through sabotage
> of Biafran efforts by osu who saw themselves  as likely to continue  to
> suffer discrimination at the hands of other Ndigbo even in a Biafra they
> had fought to create.
>
> In my response to Chidi, I will describe the need to disengage the various
> strands of the description of what it means to be osu and the various
> strategies being  adopted to engage with the problem.
>
> Avoiding the dominant negative interpretation might  not be likely to
> succeed because that perception   is too strong, too old, too entrenched,
> it seems. More likely to succeed, as Okenwa Nwosu suggests in an essay I
> link in my response to Chidi, is to fight the denigrative interpretation
> directly.
>
> One effort used is to claim the osu identity  in the name of what is
> understood as an orginary valoristic significance before this was
> purportedly  distorted. Another is to acknowledge the negative valuation
> but insist  on focusing on positive possibilities inherent in the character
> of osu as sacred dedication and communal intercession.  One can even
> develop a Osu Spirituality and Philosophy which I will outline,  as one
> demonstration of the creativity of classical Igbo culture.
>
> thanks
> toyin
>

> On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 8:40 PM, Ifedioramma E. Nwana <ienw...@yahoo.com>wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Osu is different from slave.  An osu is one dedicated/sacrificed to a god;
> > he or she is holy and one does not hurt him/her without incurring the wrath
> > of the god to whom he/she is dedicated.  A slave is an ohu or oru.  He/she
> > belongs to another human and may, indeed, be able to purchase his/her
> > freedom, become a free citizen and rise to any height.
> > IEM Nwana
>

> >   *From:* OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tva...@gmail.com>
> > *To:* usaafric...@googlegroups.com
> > *Sent:* Tuesday, 19 March 2013, 21:37
>
> > *Subject:* Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong

> > about African Involvement in the Slave Trade
>
> > I read  somewhere that the Asante used slaves in clearing the forests on
> > which they built their communities.
> > Is that true?
>
> > What about the osu cast system in Igboland? To what degree were the osu
> > not slaves? I know little about this but a pic I saw of an osu and a dibia
> > on the Igbocybershrine blog  a powerful and  unforgettable pic, suggested
> >  something that reminded me of slavery.
>
> > toyin
>

> > On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 6:48 PM, Ibrahim Abdullah <ibdul...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > Skip gates is not bill gates. And a slave mode of production was not
> > dominant in any african society by 1500. It became dominant and hegemonic
> > in some societies only in nineteen century--a result of their involvement
> > in the european slave trade.
> > History does not repeat itself: you do not swim in the same river twice.
> > Agents of /in history make mistakes but it is not the historical process
> > that is being reproduced. You cannot drink in the same cup twice!
> > Ib Abdullah
> > ------

> >  On Mar 19, 2013 10:45 AM, "Ikhide" <xoki...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> >  "There are some fundamental facts. First, no African kingdom used
> > slavery as its principal mode of production. Africa has produced no
> > economies based on slavery. It was left to Europe to create a system of
> > slavery where humans were chattel to be used as tools in the development of
> > wealth. Secondly, in all massive enterprises where there are oppressors and
> > the oppressed there will be collaborators. It is no secret that some of
> > Afriica’s best minds, Fanon, Memni, Karenga, have isolated incidents of
> > collaboration among victims of oppression. Blacks were police officers in
> > the white minority regime of South Africa but one cannot blame apartheid on
> > black people. So when Gates claims that Africans were involved in the slave
> > trade one can accept this, but what one cannot accept is that Africans were
> > equally culpable for the slave trade. Nor should one blame the Judenrats
> > (Jewish Councils) of Germany for Nazi atrocities although they often
> > collaborated with the Germans. Indians collaborated with the British
> > colonialists in India and some Chinese collaborated with the Japanese in
> > occupied China, and while there is no excuse there is certainly explanation
> > for collaboration."
> >  - Molefi Kete Asante
> >http://www.asante.net/articles/44/where-is-the-white-professor-located/Hmmm/
> > It is incorrect that "no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode
> > of production." That is silly hagiography. There are many ways to counter
> > Bill Gates without minimizing the role of Africans in the transatlantic
> > slave trade. Africans are just as culpable
>

> ...
>
> read more »

[OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU]

                                                Rethinking the Osu Phenomenon

                              Between Historical Reconstruction and Creative Transformation

                                                Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju


Etymological and Semantic Rethinking of the Osu Concept


'The various sources you cited on this “Osu agbara” phenomenon, in my opinion, only point to the notion of the truth, not the truth. My problem with sources is that most are rehashes of personal opinions of the very influential few.

The “Osu agbara” phenomenon is only an aspect of the “Osu” system in Igboland.

I will like you to research the meaning of “Osu ji” for instance, a name/title given to male scions of prosperous yam farming families.'

Chidi Anthony Opara
to: USA Africa Dialogue Series
date: Sun, Mar 24, 2013

Contrastive Perspectives

What I have found so far, in searching Google and the scholarly archive JSTOR  indicate  efforts by Chidi Anthony Opara, Obi Nwakanma in "The Osu In Alaigbo", Bless Ada Ogbodo,Chukwuka Omenigbo-Nwafor   and Patrick Okwy Nwosu, the last three  on the Facebook group 'Stop the Osu Caste System in Igboland' posts of 3 January 2012 to represent the idea of Osu in terms of the concepts 'Osu',  “Osu agbara” or “Osu ji”.

They either describe these terms as variations of  the concept of Osu as sacred personages who enjoyed an elevated isolation in Igboland that was later distorted into  making them pariahs or as indicating an  " authority or [expertise] in a particular discipline or field of practice".

As far as I can see, these views do not seem to enjoy broad support but may be better appreciated as efforts at historical or ideologically centred reconstruction of  the meaning of Osu.

These controversial character of this  reconstruction  is  indicated by the following exchange in a thread  which was  initiated by  Bless Ada Ogbodo, on 3 January 2012 on the Facebook group  Stop the Odu Caste System in Igboland, by  presenting  these propositions:

"Do others agree with this meaning of the name: Nwosu - What is the meaning of the name "Nwosu"?

Nwa osu (nwosu).

Osu--authority

Nwa--Son.

Though osu means different things, but any one who is an authority in any field is an osu in that field. For example, if you are an authority in yam production, you are called Osu ji.'"

 Patrick Okwy Nwosu responds  that "In Aro kingdom Osu is known as people who are born to rule eg look at Osu-ji,is any body who excels in yam business. Another example is Nwosu,There is a town called Ujari in Arochukwu, Nwosu family have ruled the town for over 300 year and the kinship of that town is hereditary. Meaning that if you are not from Nwosu family you can never be an Eze in Ujari. So Osu are the people who are born to rule"

Obichi Ikechi counters that "my brother there is more than one definition depending on what you are talking about. Just like 'akwa' can mean 'cry' or 'egg' depending on how you pronounce it. There is an "OSU caste System" which is what this group is against. And there is Nwosu, which has several meanings as you and others have explained. Mind you my surname is Nwosu too and my dad is an Eze of my community".

This exchange makes obvious the  controversial character of the etymological route to rethinking the Osu system

It would be valuable to know the views of a cross section of scholars in Igbo linguistics on these etymological analyses.

Valoristic vs Denigrative Origins of the Osu Caste System : Controversies

 Nwankanma in "The Osu In Alaigbo" and his comments on this and other groups equating the Osu  with monastic orders,Okenwa R. Nwosu in "Religious Underpinnings of the Osu Caste System" and   Chidi Anthony Opara in
"Sacred Persons Of South-Eastern Nigeria"present  an unequivocal valoristic account of the origin of the Osu phenomenon.

 Azuoma Anugom also  [quoted below under 'sources"]    describes this idea of the origin of Osu in a venerated sacred caste  as plausible,  citing his own  investigations in Igboland with "elders of my town (these are real ndi-amala) as well as my late uncle (Nze Silvernus Nwakuna) who was a titled elder in my town--- being a member of the ozo initiates as well as Okonko cult as well as the Eze's cabinet".

This account of personal investigation from living authorities reinforces Leith-Ross'  findings from  three informants. These various sources reinforce the possibility that the Osu system had a valoristic origin. This possibility is strengthened by the symbolic value, both actual and potential, of the sacred activity the Osu were identified with and which some see them as embodying.

I wonder, though, if the weight of these sources is strong enough to take the theory of a valoristic origin beyond  being more controversial than definitive.

Is it verified by  the burden of the evidence available?

M. O. Ene" in "Rethinking the Osu Concept" underlines the controversial character of this valoristic narrative by deducing an interpretation of the term 'Osu' that suports the valoristic-Osu as monk view:

"To all intents and purposes, therefore, no one has accurately defined the term “osu,” as was probably intended by those that conceived it. An apt English equivalent is “monk”; hence this working definition of Òsú: a celibate and/or chaste citizen who has dedicated his life to serving the Supreme Spirit through a dedicated deity; a devotee of deity; a gatekeeper of gods; simply said, a monk or a marabou[t].

How the monks of yore, who had dedicated their lives to communal deities and probably took the vow of celibacy -- if not chastity, ended up with a large community of osu-descendants is [a]  matter worth discussing."

but concludes that "There are as many tales of osu origin as there are osu-descendants".

He  boldly recategorises the vexed diala (freeborn) and (osu which some call cult slave)  dichotomies in terms of  'osu (clergy)' ' and 'diala (laity)' , arguing that some people ' promoted the unnecessary discrimination' between descendants of these groups,  passing on  on 'their envy, hatred, and other negative feelings that propelled the status structure to its present obnoxious state'.

At the same time in the context of  puzzling  over of how the status of Osu moved from valorisation to denigration, he  quotes the stories of ignominious  routes of entry into being Osu, routes taken by people who chose the by then socially denigrative status of Osu for their own purposes.

Does this suggest that the Osu status is not purely that of a victim of an ancient conspiracy, as the valoristic school suggests? Perhaps after the institution became denigrative, even in that condition some people still found it useful to be Osu, seeing an escape from their challenges in the ironic protection/segregation they would then enjoy?

Ene's  article is very rich in its  scope of examination of the subject, including an account of Osu manipulating their stigmatised status for their own benefit.

Summation

The burden of evidence makes it clear  that the origin of the Osu system is controversial. Some present it as positive in origin but was later distorted. Some focus on its negative interpretation as representing its totality.

I doubt if there will ever be any definitive conclusion  as to the claim of the Osu system  having a positive origin on account of the absence of conclusive  historical records. . Its negative interpretation, however, is obvious to all and is very active in contemporary Igbo society.

Later, I could  collate debates on this subject on various Igbo centred and other Nigerian online communities. These debates make clear the contours of the problem, its contemporary urgency as an insidious  social challenge and the efforts some Ndigbo are making to address it, the obstacles in their way and the progress they have made.

I see the the most plausible  efforts  as both  realistic in their interpretations and visionary in their goals.

Emphasizing the sources  for  a valoristic origin for the Osu phenomenon  is  helpful as a starting point for rethinking the subject and even for developing a counter ideology to the dominant one in Igbo discourse.

Would the development of such  a counter ideology, however, be  more likely to be taken seriously by Ndigbo as well as by others informed on the subject if the proponents of this view do not present it as incontrovertible historical fact because that  approach might be less likely to gain traction?

Would presenting the idea of a valoristic origin for the Osu phenomenon as incontrovertible historical fact be  unlikely likely to gain traction in a situation where the evidence remains so controversial?

Is the countervailing evidence of its negative interpretation in the centuries of Igbo history   too strong for an unverified opposing view from the mists of oral history to gain much weight against a practice that Okenwa Nwosu describes thus in 2009?:

"In areas where the [Osu]  observance is quire prevalent, the osu caste issue pervades the daily lives of millions of fellow Igbo in ways that no rational mind can ignore.

....

[ One] should... try to educate [oneself]  on the issue and if possible, directly interact with those being stigmatized in order to get a better appreciation of what’s really happening to their lives as seen from the victims’ perspective. Who wears the shoe knows where it pinches, the saying goes.

.....

By the very subtle nature of its observance in contemporary society, final elimination of the osu phenomenon can only be accomplished if there is a concerted public effort to flush it out in the open and then put it to rest. Any other approach, in my judgment, is merely covering up the stinking mound of excrement with sand while we consume the mbe (termites) right next to it."

Osu Philosophy and Osu Studies

Various approaches exist  at creating a counter ideology to the negative interpretation of the Osu phenomenon. These efforts can be seen  representing an Osu Philosophy and the entire subject as suggesting the possibility of Osu Studies as enabling a  matrix for the convergence  of various strands of Igbo culture and history.

Some of these efforts may be seen as  representing the development of an Osu Philosophy/ies on account of the rigour and scope of ideas they bring to bear on the subject.

Two Major  Strands : Religious and Secular

There are two major   strands within this philosophy.

These two are the religious and the  secular.

          Religious : Christian and Odinani

Of the religious approach, there are two major subdivisions.

               Christian

One is based on Christianity and opposes the Christian understanding of the equality of all human beings under God to the subordination of the humanity of the Osu to that of the Diala, or so called freeborn Igbo.

Key figures who develop this idea are found in the Facebook group WAR AGAINST THE OSU CASTE SYSTEM.

              Odinani

The second argues for the inherently creative character of classical Igbo religion, known to many as Odinani, and tries to use that creativity as its source for rethinking what it is to be Osu.

                  Two Major Pro-Odinani Strands : Centring in a Claim of a Glorious Origin  or Transforming an
                   Unsavoury History  from Within its Source

I have identified  two major strands within this pro-Odinani  view.

                       Centring in a Claim of a Glorious Origin

One strand  describes classical Igbo religion as  creating the Osu system as a positive phenomenon but this positive quality as being  later distorted by inimical forces from within and beyond Igbo society. It insists on the unqualified positive character of Osu as the  beginning and end of its approach to the subject. Within this group, I place Obi Nwankanma and Chidi Anthony Opara's efforts.

                        Transforming an Unsavoury History  from Within its Source

Another strand  emphasizes the culpability of Igbo classical religion as creating or enabling  the negative interpretation of Osu but argues that within this religion are to be found the sources to counteract this negative interpretation. It argues that Igbo religion can be practiced in a manner that recognizes its positive points and limitations and moves beyond these limitations, one of these limitations being the Osu system.

Key figures who develop this idea are found in the Facebook group STOP THE OSU CASTE SYSTEM IN IGBOLAND.

These include  Nu Eemah Hephzybah, Bless Ada Ogbodo, , Uchenna Emenike,  Princess Royal Agwuna and Victor Akoko and others outside the group  include M. O. Ene in "Rethinking the Osu caste System" and  Okenwa Nwosu in  "How Not to Stop the Osu Caste System",

Within this context, the Osu phenomenon is either described as something to eliminate or as an identity to embrace in a reinterpreted context,  a context that reinterprets Osu sacred dedication as a holy consecration, their isolation as emphasizing  their sacredness.

A central difference between the two pro-Odinani  strands of thought working against the prevailing view of Osu is that the first one describes itself as recovering an essential and originary meaning overlaid by distortions while the second understands itself as creatively transforming a prevailing negative meaning into a positive one.

I could refine these summations later.

       Secular

This represents efforts to bring the system to an end through the development of humanistic thought, as suggested  by NwaMazi Onyemobi Desta Anyiwo on the Facebook group "Stop the Osu Caste System in Igboland" and the idea of using   the social mechanisms and legal structures of society in bringing the system to an end.  These suggestions of social restructuring  include  Okenwa Nwosu's "Osu Caste System : A Cultural Albatross for the Igbo Society", Victor Dike's  "The Politics of Descent-Based Discrimination: Reflections on the Osu Caste System in Igboland and the Impacts of Globalization on Marginal Groups" and the contributions of  Princess Royal Agwuna on the Facebook group "Stop the Osu Caste System in Igboland".

I will  address later the  idea of Osu in relation to slavery and the  effort to describe Osu as equivalent to monasticism.

Sources on Osu Agbabra and Osu ji

1. Please note that there is no such word as OSU in Igbo language  standing on its own. Where ever you see the word, it is an  abreviation. The OSU which we are talking about here is the short form  of OSU AGBARA(meaning the OSU of AGBARA), I would offcourse expect you  to know the meaning of AGBARA, if you are Igbo.

For further enlightenment, I would like to inform you that if I am the  first son of an EZE JI(King of Yam), it follows that I am an OSU JI  (Prince of Yam)and if my father is also a DIBIA or EZE AGBARA/MMUO  (Diviner), then I am also an OSU AGWU, etc.

Thank you so much for your time.

Chidi Anthony Opara
from :  USA Africa Dialogue Series 
subject : Re-Osu System(Attention: Asagwara Ken)
date:4/15/09


2. Sacred Persons Of South-Eastern Nigeria

Origin:
Before the advent of christianity which is presently the dominant religion in Igboland, the Igbos worshipped powerful deities like (1) Amadioha(god of thunder) (2) Ala(god of land) (3) Igwe(god of sky) and others. These deities were believed to carry supplications of worshippers to Chukwu(Supreme God). Most of these deities have troublesome and diificult to please dispositions. Situations arose in which it was difficult to clean the shrines of these deities and to carry materials for sacrifices to them. Most times, the priests and their servants while performing these tasks often ended up being killed or inflicted with deadly diseases for inadvertent infractions. It was then resolved that to contain this situation, some persons would be dedicated to these deities to be performing these inevitable tasks. The idea being that since these persons and their descendants would be seen by these deities as their property, they would be spared in the event of the usual inadvertent infractions. This idea when put into practice, worked.

The Osuagbara Institution:
The insitution of Osuagbara was regarded with great awe. The Osuagbaras like the sacred rams were avoided by other members of the society, because of the spirituality surrounding the institution. Osuagbaras for instance, must not be harmed, insulted/spoken to harshly, mistreated/maltreat ed and/or offended in any way. Doing any of these would definitely attract the wrath of these deities. For this and other related reasons, the Osuagbaras lived separately from the rest of the people. Noteworthy is the fact that any form of interactions with an Osuagbara made one automatically an Osuagbara. Noteworthy also is the fact that the induction of persons into the institution was both coercive and persuasive, depending on the situation.

Contemporary Practice:
The fact that there are very few adherents of traditional religion in Igboland presently have driven the institution into obsurity. The vestiges however, still exist in the minds of the people, since it is a known fact that beliefs take time to erase from the mind. Contemporary modes of social and other forms of interactions now makes it difficult to differentiate between Osuagbaras and non Osuagbaras. Descendants of both interact in all ramifications in the contemporary Igbo society.
Chidi Anthony Opara

4/10/09
WIEF FORUM ›


3. The OSU in Igboland bears similar meaning except when you attach the prefix or surfix that indicates what kind. Some servants or priests volunteer to serve or are called to serve by some deity. On the other hand, some run into service by the force of trying to avoid prosecution for some heinous crime. By that act of running in for protection, one becomes an OSU like the priest but for different reasons. Both the jailed criminal and the warden are in the prison system, but one can choose to leave while the other can not. One is being dissociated from society where as the other is not.
Emenike Nwankwo
WIEF FORUM ›

4. "I personally spoke with some of the elders of my town (these are real ndi-amala) as well as my late uncle (Nze Silvernus Nwakuna) who was a titled elder in my town--- being a member of the ozo initiates as well as Okonko cult as well as the Eze's cabinet---and what they/he shared with me tallies with the article below [Chidi's article "Sacred Persons Of South-Eastern Nigeria" on WIEF FORUM  of  4/10/09 and reproduced above]

There are so many latter day explanations borne out of prejudices and biases. Some of the folks who wrote about this phenomenon claimed that the osus were those who committed heinous crimes or abominations and consequently were cursed or ostracized to penal servitude of the gods. None of the elders I spoke with corroborated this claim.

We know that in those days, some people whose lives may be endangered for one reason or the other, or those who feared kidnapping may run to the deities for protection--thereby becoming osu; but not all became a member of this caste via that route."
Azuoma Anugom  on the WIEF FORUM on April 10, 2009 

[OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU]

RESPOSTED WITH AN ADDITION

Chidi,

My broda,

The evidence is clear from which ever angle-

What is Osu?

The broadly understood definition in Igbo history is that of a person bonded to a deity and whose humanity is  thereby compromised and contaminated, making them   dangerous to relate with as part of normal society and unfit for leadership within the larger society where they were seen as inferior to the diala or freeborn Igbo.  They were understood as slaves of deity beacuse they could not be free of their denigrative social status  transmitted across generations.

The correlation of priesthood and being osu as a  counter to the slave notion does not work for the general understanding of osu in Igbo history.

The osu  performed rituals functions but still suffered the stigma of being seen as people performing those functions more as bonds people than as free people. A people negatively contaminated by the mode of their  dedication to deity.

It  would be boring for me to start listing the summations supporting and developing  this understanding  and explanations of it by the classical authorities on Igbo culture- M. C. Echeruo, Elisabeth Isichei etc etc.

 Anyone who wants that can see the texts provided or linked so far, such as the thorough "Appraising the Osu caste System in Igboland"  by Francis Onwubuariri who examines carefully the paradoxical integration  of sacred dedication and  service and denigration of their humanity that marks the dominant  Igbo understanding of osu within verifiable Igbo history till date.

Even Leith-Ross whom Nwakanma favors describes the deep scorn in which they were held as far as the 1930s when she did her research.

What is the Revisionist Understanding of Osu?

The revisionist understanding of osu tries to reinterpret the osu phenomenon as having its origins in the positive sacralisation of the osu  but as  distorted into negative meanings  through pressures from within and beyond Igbo culture.

This revisionist understanding has some evidence to back it up and enjoys some support but is not widely accepted among Ndigbo.

Everything on osu can be contained within these two summations.

Everything written by you, Nwankanma, Victor Dike, M. O. Ene, Nwosu, Leith-Ross etc can belongs to one of these two categories or embraces both of them.

I am pleased to examine any evidence contrary to  this summation.

What Way Forward?

One approach is to emphasize   one of these definitions and work with them.

I have described how people are doing this.

I am interested in developing the second definition. I realise the evidence for it is not conclusive even though it is highly suggestive.

It has potential, however, as an imaginative focus. Religions are often based on an imaginative focus, the validation of which is not based on correspondence to historical reality.

 I am in the process of constructing an Osu Spirituality and Osu Philosophy in the context of Osu Studies based on this understanding of the potential of the second, revisionary  definition.

Osu and Monasticism

Some investigators insist on the Osu system as being originally a monastic system.

Some questions could be relevant in relation to this-

1. Volition- monastic orders in the major monastic traditions represented by Christianity, Buddhism and the hermit communities of Hinduism are constituted by people who enter purely through their own volition, with the exception of the old habit of choosing some Tibetan Buddhist leaders through selection in childhood.

To what degree was the osu membership and purported monasticism understood to be voluntary?

The question of volition is central beceause it bears centrally on motivation. Without the commitment that comes from freedom of choice, how will the monk take advantage of the social restrictions that shape their lives, taking these restrictions  as opportunities  for growth rather than impediments to a full social life?

Does the mindset of osu in the past and present suggest such a sensitivity to the value of their social isolation as an opportunity for dedication to pursuits removed from immersion in society or has such a mindset been  obliterated by the brutal discrimination they have suffered over the centuries?

2. Impact- In the monastic and hermit traditions mentioned earlier, a good number of the  greatest achievements of the related  religions  emerged from their  monastic and hermit communities and were rightly recognised.

The Hindu hermits who composed the foundational Hindu work, the Upanishads, Buddha's years in the forest, the monastic community he founded,  the monastic communities of the various Buddhist schools, from the Hinayana to the Mahayana, from Zen to Tibetan Buddhism and  in the Christian tradition, names of great hermits or monks  resonate as the core of the Buddhist and Christian achievement- Bodhidharma in Zen Buddhism, Milarepa in Tibetan Buddhism, Nagarjuna in the Mahdyamika school; St. Antony of Egypt,  foundational to  the  Christian hermit tradition, St. Francis of Assisi and the Franciscans,Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, all these and very many more  are immortalized through texts and practices flowing from them.

Is there any evidence in Igbo history of particular developments in spirituality emanating from a monastic or hermit class, particularly as represented by the osu?

If such evidence existed, could it have been so thoroughly obliterated?

Even in largely oral societies, great spiritual heroes have been remembered, to a degree.  The Ashanti  have Okomfo Anokye , the Shilluk  have Nyikang, the Sonjo have Khambageu, the Benin  have extensive oral histories describing spiritual heroes, the Yoruba have people like Timehin, the man who is described as founding Osogbo after an encounter with the spirit of the Osun river, among other examples.

If Ndigbo really had a monastic institution, are there any references in their traditions to the heroes of these institutions? Would all reference to them have been  destroyed?

These are suggestions of questions to ask in relation to claims about the osu as these claims relate to larger questions in Igbo history and culture.

Even if no evidence or inconclusive evidence is found in the affirmative in relation to these questions, that might not invalidate the claims being made about the positive origins of the osu system. It might simply  suggest the information is lost or diluted.


thanks
toyin

On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 4:16 PM, OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tva...@gmail.com> wrote:

Chidi,

My broda,

The evidence is clear from which ever angle-

What is Osu?

The broadly understood definition in Igbo history is that of a person bonded to a deity and whose humanity is  thereby compromised and contaminated, making them   dangerous to relate with as part of normal society and unfit for leadership within the larger society where they were seen as inferior to the diala or freeborn Igbo.  They were understood as slaves of deity beacuse they could not be free of their denigrative social status  transmitted across generations.

The correlation of priesthood and being osu as a  counter to the slave notion does not work for the general understanding of osu in Igbo history.

The osu  performed rituals functions but still suffered the stigma of being seen as people performing those functions more as bonds people than as free people. A people negatively contaminated by the mode of their  dedication to deity.

It  would be boring for me to start listing the summations supporting and developing  this understanding  and explanations of it by the classical authorities on Igbo culture- M. C. Echeruo, Elisabeth Isichei etc etc.

 Anyone who wants that can see the texts provided or linked so far, such as the thorough "Appraising the Osu caste System in Igboland"  by Francis Onwubuariri who examines carefully the paradoxical integration  of sacred dedication and  service and denigration of their humanity that marks the dominant  Igbo understanding of osu within verifiable Igbo history till date.

Even Leith-Ross whom Nwakanma favors describes the deep scorn in which they were held as far as the 1930s when she did her research.

What is the Revisionist Understanding of Osu?

The revisionist understanding of osu tries to reinterpret the osu phenomenon as having its origins in the positive sacralisation of the osu  but as  distorted into negative meanings  through pressures from within and beyond Igbo culture.

This revisionist understanding has some evidence to back it up and enjoys some support but is not widely accepted among Ndigbo.

Everything on osu can be contained within these two summations.

Everything written by you, Nwankanma, Victor Dike, M. O. Ene, Nwosu, Leith-Ross etc can belongs to one of these two categories or embraces both of them.

What Way Forward?

One approach is to emphasize   one of these definitions and work with them.

I have described how people are doing this.

I am interested in developing the second definition. I realise the evidence for it is not conclusive even though it is highly suggestive.

It has potential, however, as an imaginative focus. Religions are often based on an imaginative focus, the validation of which is not based on correspondence to historical reality.

 I am in the process of constructing an Osu Spirituality and Osu Philosophy in the context of Osu Studies based on this understanding of the potential of the second, revisionary  definition.

Osu and Monasticism

Some investigators insist on the Osu system as being originally a monastic system.

Some questions could be relevant in relation to this-

1. Volition- monastic orders in the major monastic traditions represented by Christianity, Buddhism and the hermit communities of Hinduism are constituted by people who enter purely through their own volition, with the exception of the old habit of choosing some Tibetan Buddhist leaders through selection in childhood.

To what degree was the osu membership and purported monasticism understood to be voluntary?

The question of volition is central beceause it bears centrally on motivation. Without the commitment that comes from freedom of choice, how will the monk take advantage of the social restrictions that shape their lives, taking these restrictions  as opportunities  for growth rather than impediments to a full social life?

Does the mindset of osu in the past and present suggest such a sensitivity to the value of their social isolation as an opportunity for dedication to pursuits removed from immersion in society or has such a mindset been  obliterated by the brutal discrimination they have suffered over the centuries?

2. Impact- In the monastic and hermit traditions mentioned earlier, a good number of the  greatest achievements of the related  religions  emerged from their  monastic and hermit communities and were rightly recognised.

The Hindu hermits who composed the foundational Hindu work, the Upanishads, Buddha's years in the forest, the monastic community he founded,  the monastic communities of the various Buddhist schools, from the Hinayana to the Mahayana, from Zen to Tibetan Buddhism and  in the Christian tradition, names of great hermits or monks  resonate as the core of the Buddhist and Christian achievement- Bodhidharma in Zen Buddhism, Milarepa in Tibetan Buddhism, Nagarjuna in the Mahdyamika school; St. Antony of Egypt,  foundational to  the  Christian hermit tradition, St. Francis of Assisi and the Franciscans,Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, all these and very many more  are immortalized through texts and practices flowing from them.

Is there any evidence in Igbo history of particular developments in spirituality emanating from a monastic or hermit class, particularly as represented by the osu?

If such evidence existed, could it have been so thoroughly obliterated?

Even in largely oral societies, great spiritual heroes have been remembered, to a degree.  The Ashanti  have Okomfo Anokye , the Shilluk  have Nyikang, the Sonjo have Khambageu, the Benin  have extensive oral histories describing spiritual heroes, the Yoruba have people like Timehin, the man who is described as founding Osogbo after an encounter with the spirit of the Osun river, among other examples.

If Ndigbo really had a monastic institution, are there any references in their traditions to the heroes of these institutions? Would all reference to them have been  destroyed?

These are suggestions of questions to ask in relation to claims about the osu as these claims relate to larger questions in Igbo history and culture.

Even if no evidence or inconclusive evidence is found in the affirmative in relation to these questions, that might not invalidate the claims being made about the positive origins of the osu system. It might simply  suggest the information is lost or diluted.


thanks
toyin

 

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Compcros

Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems

"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"

[Chidi Anthony Opara]

“The broadly understood definition in Igbo history is that of a person

bonded to a deity and whose humanity is thereby compromised and
contaminated, making them dangerous to relate with as part of normal
society and unfit for leadership within the larger society where they
were seen as inferior to the diala or freeborn Igbo. They were

understood as slaves of deity because they could not be free of their
denigrative social status transmitted across generations.”
-------Toyin Adepoju.

Toyin,

Questions:

(1) Can servants of gods in Igboland be regarded as contaminated/
compromised humanity?
(2) Can Chukwu’s(God’s) representatives on earth; amadioha and others
condone being served by contaminated/compromised humanity?
(3)What are the manifestations of this Contamination(curse) in the
Igbo belief system?
(4) How are these manifestations handled?
(5) Are these manifestations part of the hallmarks of the Osu agbaras?

CAO.


On 27 Mar, 17:20, OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tva...@gmail.com> wrote:
> *RESPOSTED WITH AN ADDITION*

>
> Chidi,
>
> My broda,
>
> The evidence is clear from which ever angle-
>

> *What is Osu?*

>
> The broadly understood definition in Igbo history is that of a person
> bonded to a deity and whose humanity is  thereby compromised and
> contaminated, making them   dangerous to relate with as part of normal
> society and unfit for leadership within the larger society where they were
> seen as inferior to the diala or freeborn Igbo.  They were understood as
> slaves of deity beacuse they could not be free of their denigrative social
> status  transmitted across generations.
>
> The correlation of priesthood and being osu as a  counter to the slave
> notion does not work for the general understanding of osu in Igbo history.
>
> The osu  performed rituals functions but still suffered the stigma of being
> seen as people performing those functions more as bonds people than as free
> people. A people negatively contaminated by the mode of their  dedication
> to deity.
>
> It  would be boring for me to start listing the summations supporting and
> developing  this understanding  and explanations of it by the classical
> authorities on Igbo culture- M. C. Echeruo, Elisabeth Isichei etc etc.
>
>  Anyone who wants that can see the texts provided or linked so far, such as

> the thorough "Appraising the Osu caste System in Igboland" * *by Francis

> Onwubuariri who examines carefully the paradoxical integration  of sacred
> dedication and  service and denigration of their humanity that marks the
> dominant  Igbo understanding of osu within verifiable Igbo history till
> date.
>
> Even Leith-Ross whom Nwakanma favors describes the deep scorn in which they
> were held as far as the 1930s when she did her research.
>

> *What is the Revisionist Understanding of Osu? *

>
> The revisionist understanding of osu tries to reinterpret the osu
> phenomenon as having its origins in the positive sacralisation of the osu
> but as  distorted into negative meanings  through pressures from within and
> beyond Igbo culture.
>
> This revisionist understanding has some evidence to back it up and enjoys
> some support but is not widely accepted among Ndigbo.
>
> Everything on osu can be contained within these two summations.
>
> Everything written by you, Nwankanma, Victor Dike, M. O. Ene, Nwosu,
> Leith-Ross etc can belongs to one of these two categories or embraces both
> of them.
>
> I am pleased to examine any evidence contrary to  this summation.
>

> *What Way Forward?*

>
> One approach is to emphasize   one of these definitions and work with them.
>
> I have described how people are doing this.
>
> I am interested in developing the second definition. I realise the evidence
> for it is not conclusive even though it is highly suggestive.
>
> It has potential, however, as an imaginative focus. Religions are often
> based on an imaginative focus, the validation of which is not based on
> correspondence to historical reality.
>
>  I am in the process of constructing an Osu Spirituality and Osu Philosophy
> in the context of Osu Studies based on this understanding of the potential
> of the second, revisionary  definition.
>

> *Osu and Monasticism*

>
> Some investigators insist on the Osu system as being originally a monastic
> system.
>
> Some questions could be relevant in relation to this-
>

> 1. *Volition*- monastic orders in the major monastic traditions represented

> by Christianity, Buddhism and the hermit communities of Hinduism are
> constituted by people who enter purely through their own volition, with the
> exception of the old habit of choosing some Tibetan Buddhist leaders
> through selection in childhood.
>
> To what degree was the osu membership and purported monasticism understood
> to be voluntary?
>
> The question of volition is central beceause it bears centrally on
> motivation. Without the commitment that comes from freedom of choice, how
> will the monk take advantage of the social restrictions that shape their
> lives, taking these restrictions  as opportunities  for growth rather than
> impediments to a full social life?
>
> Does the mindset of osu in the past and present suggest such a sensitivity
> to the value of their social isolation as an opportunity for dedication to
> pursuits removed from immersion in society or has such a mindset been
> obliterated by the brutal discrimination they have suffered over the
> centuries?
>

> 2.* Impact*- In the monastic and hermit traditions mentioned earlier, a

> good number of the  greatest achievements of the related  religions
> emerged from their  monastic and hermit communities and were rightly
> recognised.
>

> The Hindu hermits who composed the foundational Hindu work, the *Upanishads*,

> Buddha's years in the forest, the monastic community he founded,  the
> monastic communities of the various Buddhist schools, from the Hinayana to
> the Mahayana, from Zen to Tibetan Buddhism and  in the Christian tradition,
> names of great hermits or monks  resonate as the core of the Buddhist and
> Christian achievement-

> Bodhidharma<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhidharma>in Zen Buddhism,
> Milarepa <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milarepa> in Tibetan Buddhism,
> Nagarjuna <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nagarjuna/> in the Mahdyamika
> school; St. Antony of Egypt <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_the_Great>,

> foundational to  the  Christian hermit tradition, St. Francis of

> Assisi<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi>and the
> Franciscans,Thomas
> Merton <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Merton>, the Trappist monk, all

> these and very many more  are immortalized through texts and practices
> flowing from them.
>
> Is there any evidence in Igbo history of particular developments in
> spirituality emanating from a monastic or hermit class, particularly as
> represented by the osu?
>
> If such evidence existed, could it have been so thoroughly obliterated?
>
> Even in largely oral societies, great spiritual heroes have been
> remembered, to a degree.  The Ashanti  have Okomfo

> Anokye<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okomfo_Anokye>, the Shilluk  have
> Nyikang<http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=c3qViJNsNRsC&pg=PA105&lpg=PA105&dq...>,
> the Sonjo have Khambageu<http://www.mythologydictionary.com/khambageu-mythology.html>,

> the Benin  have extensive oral histories describing spiritual heroes, the
> Yoruba have people like Timehin, the man who is described as founding
> Osogbo after an encounter with the spirit of the Osun river, among other
> examples.
>
> If Ndigbo really had a monastic institution, are there any references in
> their traditions to the heroes of these institutions? Would all reference
> to them have been  destroyed?
>
> These are suggestions of questions to ask in relation to claims about the
> osu as these claims relate to larger questions in Igbo history and culture.
>
> Even if no evidence or inconclusive evidence is found in the affirmative in
> relation to these questions, that might not invalidate the claims being
> made about the positive origins of the osu system. It might simply  suggest
> the information is lost or diluted.
>
> thanks

> toyin *
> *

>
> On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 4:16 PM, OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tva...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Chidi,
>
> > My broda,
>
> > The evidence is clear from which ever angle-
>

> > *What is Osu?*

>
> > The broadly understood definition in Igbo history is that of a person
> > bonded to a deity and whose humanity is  thereby compromised and
> > contaminated, making them   dangerous to relate with as part of normal
> > society and unfit for leadership within the larger society where they were
> > seen as inferior to the diala or freeborn Igbo.  They were understood as
> > slaves of deity beacuse they could not be free of their denigrative social
> > status  transmitted across generations.
>
> > The correlation of priesthood and being osu as a  counter to the slave
> > notion does not work for the general understanding of osu in Igbo history.
>
> > The osu  performed rituals functions but still suffered the stigma of
> > being seen as people performing those functions more as bonds people than
> > as free people. A people negatively contaminated by the mode of their
> > dedication to deity.
>
> > It  would be boring for me to start listing the summations supporting and
> > developing  this understanding  and explanations of it by the classical
> > authorities on Igbo culture- M. C. Echeruo, Elisabeth Isichei etc etc.
>
> >  Anyone who wants that can see the texts provided or linked so far, such

> > as the thorough "Appraising the Osu caste System in Igboland" * *by

> > Francis Onwubuariri who examines carefully the paradoxical integration  of
> > sacred dedication and  service and denigration of their humanity that marks
> > the dominant  Igbo understanding of osu within verifiable Igbo history till
> > date.
>
> > Even Leith-Ross whom Nwakanma favors describes the deep scorn in which
> > they were held as far as the 1930s when she did her research.
>

> > *What is the Revisionist Understanding of Osu? *

>
> > The revisionist understanding of osu tries to reinterpret the osu
> > phenomenon as having its origins in the positive sacralisation of the osu
> > but as  distorted into negative meanings  through pressures from within and
> > beyond Igbo culture.
>
> > This revisionist understanding has some evidence to back it up and enjoys
> > some support but is not widely accepted among Ndigbo.
>
> > Everything on osu can be contained within these two summations.
>
> > Everything written by you, Nwankanma, Victor Dike, M. O. Ene, Nwosu,
> > Leith-Ross etc can belongs to one of these two categories or embraces both
> > of them.
>

> > *What Way Forward?*

>
> > One approach is to emphasize   one of these definitions and work with
> > them.
>
> > I have described how people are doing this.
>
> > I am interested in developing the second definition. I realise the
> > evidence for it is not
>

> ...
>
> read more »

[OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU]

Thanks Chidi.

These questions sum up the paradox, the pathos and the tragedy of the Osu problem in its intersection with the development of  Igbo religious and general social culture.

I will be back as soon as possible  to respond to your questions.

Toyin

> ...
>
> read more »

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[OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU]

                      The Alusi of the Cambridge Museum of Archeology and Anthropology

                                               Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

I just returned from a brief visit to the Cambridge Museum of Archeology and Anthropology.

I was taking break from work and as I walked past the museum, noticing the compelling image of an exotic looking but brightly attractive  artifact on the signboard, I said to myself  'Why not'?

Awesome experience. Pictures can never replicate such an experience.

 Walking into a holy of holies peopled by ancient  human creations.

The descriptions of the images attached to the displays is superb, informative, mellifluous.

I was struck to see a powerful Benin bronze bust labeled as 'Looted Art from Benin' or something along those lines, with a description of the object as looted  when British soldiers raided  Benin and took the bust from its shrine. I was struck by the honesty of the descendants of the looted object.

What is making me write this account is my encounter with two sculptures from Igboland, two images of alusi or spirits, a man and a woman.

They both radiate a sense of uncompromising power in the massive cubed forms of their thick necks, legs and middle, their compressed faces which are far from cheerful and suggest people with whom you must know your business when dealing with  and who will not compromise unless in carefully circumscribed situations.

Their hands are fused to their bodies, their wrists and fingers seared to their waists, de-emphasising closeness  to human form   as they stand  flanking each other in a stance that dominates the space they both occupy even though they are both not large figures  and one can hold them  in one's hand.

How did Achebe put it ? "A man runs from the persecution of his fellows to the grove of an alusi  and  cries "Save me o spirit! I will be your osu!"

These figures certainly suggest  a power that could inspire such a declaration in their quietly but eloquently  formidable  stance reinforced by the blocks and sharp planes  that constitute their forms.

'As the number of alusi grew and their rituals more elaborate,and in the light of the dangers of any mistakes in the rituals which could have serious negative consequences,  it was required for an army of assistants to help the priests  So, the osu class  was formed' goes what is  another account of the routes to being osu.

These figures certainly look as if you would not want to offend them by doing their rituals the wrong way.

An interesting coincidence that I am exploring the possibility of a modern  Osu spirituality and the next day I go and see alusi statues without intending to. Threads of synchronicity, of intertwined volition shaping unanticipated events in space and time?

The concentrated power of the figures, in relation to my basic exposure to what they represent, led me to raise my hands in honorific   salutation to them before I left the museum.

Can they accept osu/priest dedication even from within the glass of the display case of the Cambridge Museum of Anthology and Archeology? Will they accept me? Should one not know who is who and what is what before one dedicates oneself? These figures look as if one needs to know who and what they are before one starts a relationship with them.

thanks
toyin.

....

[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

I am in the process of constructing an Osu Spirituality and Osu Philosophy
> in the context of Osu Studies based on this understanding of the potential
> of the second, revisionary definition.

May I humbly suggest that you look also at 'the slaves of the God' concept and practice in ancient Egypt-
in the context of comparative studies. I have noticed some similarities in the relationship to the priests.

Prof. Gloria Emeagwali

Axum
Ethiopia
________________________________________
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [usaafric...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU [tva...@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2013 12:54 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade

The Alusi of the Cambridge Museum of Archeology and Anthropology

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

I just returned from a brief visit to the Cambridge Museum of Archeology and Anthropology.

I was taking break from work and as I walked past the museum, noticing the compelling image of an exotic looking but brightly attractive artifact on the signboard, I said to myself 'Why not'?

Awesome experience. Pictures can never replicate such an experience.

Walking into a holy of holies peopled by ancient human creations.

The descriptions of the images attached to the displays is superb, informative, mellifluous.

I was struck to see a powerful Benin bronze bust labeled as 'Looted Art from Benin' or something along those lines, with a description of the object as looted when British soldiers raided Benin and took the bust from its shrine. I was struck by the honesty of the descendants of the looted object.

What is making me write this account is my encounter with two sculptures from Igboland, two images of alusi or spirits, a man and a woman.

They both radiate a sense of uncompromising power in the massive cubed forms of their thick necks, legs and middle, their compressed faces which are far from cheerful and suggest people with whom you must know your business when dealing with and who will not compromise unless in carefully circumscribed situations.

Their hands are fused to their bodies, their wrists and fingers seared to their waists, de-emphasising closeness to human form as they stand flanking each other in a stance that dominates the space they both occupy even though they are both not large figures and one can hold them in one's hand.

How did Achebe put it ? "A man runs from the persecution of his fellows to the grove of an alusi and cries "Save me o spirit! I will be your osu!"

These figures certainly suggest a power that could inspire such a declaration in their quietly but eloquently formidable stance reinforced by the blocks and sharp planes that constitute their forms.

'As the number of alusi grew and their rituals more elaborate,and in the light of the dangers of any mistakes in the rituals which could have serious negative consequences, it was required for an army of assistants to help the priests So, the osu class was formed' goes what is another account of the routes to being osu.

These figures certainly look as if you would not want to offend them by doing their rituals the wrong way.

An interesting coincidence that I am exploring the possibility of a modern Osu spirituality and the next day I go and see alusi statues without intending to. Threads of synchronicity, of intertwined volition shaping unanticipated events in space and time?

The concentrated power of the figures, in relation to my basic exposure to what they represent, led me to raise my hands in honorific salutation to them before I left the museum.

Can they accept osu/priest dedication even from within the glass of the display case of the Cambridge Museum of Anthology and Archeology? Will they accept me? Should one not know who is who and what is what before one dedicates oneself? These figures look as if one needs to know who and what they are before one starts a relationship with them.

thanks
toyin.

....

On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 11:23 AM, OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tva...@gmail.com<mailto:tva...@gmail.com>> wrote:
Thanks Chidi.

These questions sum up the paradox, the pathos and the tragedy of the Osu problem in its intersection with the development of Igbo religious and general social culture.

I will be back as soon as possible to respond to your questions.

Toyin

On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 8:51 AM, Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi...@gmail.com<mailto:chidi...@gmail.com>> wrote:
“The broadly understood definition in Igbo history is that of a person
bonded to a deity and whose humanity is thereby compromised and
contaminated, making them dangerous to relate with as part of normal
society and unfit for leadership within the larger society where they
were seen as inferior to the diala or freeborn Igbo. They were
understood as slaves of deity because they could not be free of their
denigrative social status transmitted across generations.”
-------Toyin Adepoju.

Toyin,

Questions:

(1) Can servants of gods in Igboland be regarded as contaminated/
compromised humanity?
(2) Can Chukwu’s(God’s) representatives on earth; amadioha and others
condone being served by contaminated/compromised humanity?
(3)What are the manifestations of this Contamination(curse) in the
Igbo belief system?
(4) How are these manifestations handled?
(5) Are these manifestations part of the hallmarks of the Osu agbaras?

CAO.

To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com<mailto:USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>

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--

Compcros<http://danteadinkra.wix.com/compcros>

Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"





--

Compcros<http://danteadinkra.wix.com/compcros>

Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"



--

[OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU]

Thanks, Gloria.

Can you suggest any references?

I have found this after a quick Google  search:

Voluntary Temple Slavery in Ancient Egypt 2200 years ago

Ancient Egyptians sold themselves into temple slavery

Ancient Egyptians sold themselves into temple slavery

I could not find anything more definite and even JSTOR proved elusive on the subject but I found 'The Freedmen and the Slaves of God' where  William Linn Westermann explores the relationship of Paul's in  I Corinthians 7

: 

'For the slave who is called in the Lord is a freed-  man of the Lord. Likewise the free man who is  called is the slave of Christ. You have been bought  for a price; be not slaves of men. Let each man,  brothers, remain [in paramone] beside God in that  status in which he was called'.

to the practice in Paul's time in which a slave could be sold to a Greek deity by their owner as a means of granting freedom to the slave. 

Slavery may  best characterized in terms of the quality of life involved.

What is at stake in the Osu concept was not so much the idea of being bonded to a deity. Spiritual disciplines often involve such bonds, including, I expect,  that of the priest in Igbo society.

In fact, the process of induction or initiation into a spiritual discipline could be described as one of dedicating the initiate to a power larger than is conventionally accessible, that anchors or empowers  that discipline. 

That power is then expected to work in relation to that person even outside the context of their own conscious will. The drive generated by such a dedication could be so compelling that the individual could feel that they were a vehicle for a force they don't fully understand, they cant break away from or can break away from only with difficulty.

At the conclusion of his autobiography, the great occultist Aleister Crowley declares 'The word I uttered at my first initiation, 'Perdurabo' still echoes in eternity. I shall endure unto the end.'

The problem with the osu dedication was the way they were conceived of and treated by other Igbos. The routes that led to being osu that were not honourable also did not help. It seems the embattled person had a second chance at life in society but at a high price. 

I see both the dedication of the osu to deity and their victimized status as having deep potential for  spirituality. 

The dedication itself implies a connection to the divine on behalf of the community. Their victimisation by that same community evokes the idea of sacrifice. The resonance of a Christ like image begins to emerge. The osu could be seen as  embodying service to the community and their fate as demonstrating the limitations of perceptions that bedevil human communities. The osu becomes a 'wounded healer' to use the title of  Henri Nouwen's   book.

One can construct a meditation and a ritual to utilize these ideas. The esoteric order of the Golden Dawn used similar ideas in conflating Christ and Osiris. The immortal scenes in which the blind Neo surrenders himself to the Matrix in Matrix Revolutions tread similar lines.

It is possible to create an imaginative point of focus for these ideas, perhaps in terms of the persona of a sequence of osu figures, representing perhaps the first osu, representing the Beginning, the last osu at the end of time, representing the Culmination, and, in between, the osu who embodies the beginning of the Denigration, the period of victimization, and another who represents the Restoration, the period of return to or of claiming of the creative potential of osu, which is now understood as a concept anyone may identify with, not an ethnic centred caste system. 

One could construct invocations meant to give voice to both the aspirations and the suffering of the osu across generations, inviting them to empower the devotee in their goal of self and social transformation through dedication to deity

One can even construct a body or college of osu who embody, in various ways, the qualities of being osu, and who watch over all osu and all beings from their place beyond space and time where they ascended to after death,  and even create images and locations for them.

They can be depicted as guiding others on what is now known as the Osu Path, of dedication to deity as manifest in the various permutations of existence, from the elements manifest in the moisture in air to the fire in the sun and in electricity, possibilities beyond the dedication to powers manifest in the elemental natural forms understood as manifestations of the divine in classical Igbo society. 

By the time one adds to this construct rituals, prayers and other practices from classical Igbo religion, the system is up and running.

The fictive character of the imaginative form serves to embody  realities of history and to channel spiritual forces to the degree that such channeling is possible.

One will not need blind faith. All one needs is imaginative participation.

thanks

toyin 

--
Compcros

[Ifedioramma E. Nwana]

Thanks, Toyin,

 

You actually researched, and I mean compliments.  I did not set out to discuss the rights or wrongs, or even the morals, of tagging anybody created by the same God Who created me an Osu. Unless I have misunderstood your treatise, you seem to think that I was making a case for the practice in the Usu caste to persist.  Mine was a mere lexical exercise only seeking to explain the difference in the words used by Ndi Igbo to express the two phenomena. Yes there are some communities that still keep to that outdated culture; but these live in the past! Honestly had it been that I was one, it would not have bothered me one bit having known what I do know about human creation. Afterr all these thinkings arise from our understanding of God's creation.  Even as a young man it would not have mattered to me if the girl I fell in love with were called Osu by some ignorant persons.  Some may say that I could say so from a position of a freeborn.  But the Creator knows.  I do not discriminate against any person on any prejudice.  I call on all humans to treat one another as brothers and sisters, realising that, but for the grace of the Almighty, the person in the disadvantage could be me or you.

 

Ifedioramma Eugene Mary NWANA   

[Olayinka Agbetuyi]

Let us restate at once, for the avoidance of doubt: the presence of 'Osu Culture' is not unique to Igbo land; its persistence may be the problematic.  Like other ancient practices such as child immolation, which cut a swathe across humanity, for example as represented in the biblical near- sacrifice of Isaac, the sacrifice of Oluorogbo or Ela in Yoruba mythology and the Ikemefuna sacrificial story as retold by Achebe, Osu culture represents a shared footpath into the past.

When I read the Leith-Ross article and came to the point where a Yoruba respondent declared that such practices was alien to Yoruba culture, I instinctively felt that she was either being economical with the truth or is ill informed about her own culture (and the latter is not so impossible to contemplate given that people have varied engagement with their own culture, let alone the culture of others.)  It occurred to me then that the Osu culture among the Igbo may be a stepping stone to a robust examination of cross-cultural comparative religious and political evolution and practices of the Igbo and the Yoruba, rather than an Inquisition of the Igbo culture.  I noted with interest that response to Osu culture was not and is still not uniform across Igbo communities,  therefore different strands developed along different paths, and the reason for segregation in one area may be seen as reverence, while in other  it may be due to contempt.

What again seemed most fascinating to me, especially in its similarity to Yoruba 'Osu' culture was the locale and circumstances of its origin.  Given the generally accepted loathing of centralization among Igbo people, it seems very probable to me from the group psychoanalytic perspective,  that a group transference had occurred from the rudiments of a hated culture to symbols of that hated culture, the Osu; and i will make a link with the Yoruba comparative cultural evolution in a moment.

In the evolution into centralized polities two of the prominent routes are the transition from a priestly caste to a political caste, in which one of the most powerful priests transmutes priestly power to political overlordship.  The other prominent route is the overwhelming of the priestly caste through military valour and coercion of that caste to do the bidding of the military political overlord.  The long juju priestly chieftain seemed to have combined the two routes according to the accounts given by Leith-Ross's informants as well as Achebe.  The Osu as stranger theory and Osu as slave theory could then be seen as metaphors for military supremacy of Aro facilitated by the powerful charms of its chief priests.  Other communities would, naturally, unfamiliar with this culture, resent this new imposition of powers.  The chief ministrants of the powers of this new centralizing powers -the Osus- would therefore be equally resented.  this resentment could therefore be aggravated by the fact that the Osu in the dispensation of such powers would have been acting like quasi monarchs.  Some Igbo communities may have reacted to these developments with equanimity, since such powers would be seen as devolving from the deities, and confrontation with such powers would be tantamount to confrontation with the deities represented.  let us now turn our attention to the Yoruba parallel.

Anyone conversant with Yoruba myths of origins would have come across the Omo Oluwo Ni myth which explains the genealogy of the forebears of the occupant of the most reverred traditional stool of the Yoruba.  Like the Osu, the palace had palace personnel dedicated to the service of the deities.  During the period of the first Yoruba dispersal and formation of kingdoms, the reigning monarch joijed the ancestors, and because there no one at home in the regular royal lineage, the person dedicated to the service of the gods (to ensure stability when everyone else was away) was enthroned.  This is the genesis of the Ooni lineage in Ile-Ife till today according to the myth, and the title is a reminder of the ancestry of the occupier of the throne.  This worked well for the Yoruba because the Yoruba had developed centralized political system by this time but led to acrimony against, what was seen as anathemic centralizing  ethos among the Igbo,  it would appear, following the line of this argument.   It led to an early development in Yoruba society of what the United States would develop later -effectively two contemporaneous capitals: Oyo and Ile-Ife; one religious, the other political.  The Igbo trajectory could be seen as having taken a different path due to a general loathing of centralizing tendencies, represented in the human symbol of the Osu.  Resentment of Osu is therefore tantamount to repressed memories of resented centralized authority;  resentment undergirded by taboos as early societies are wont to do.

Now regarding treatment purportedly meted out to contemporary Osu, the only thing one can say is that Nigeria now operates a secular constitution and anyone who feels maltreated at variance with the provisions of the constitution, must know that the courts are wide open.

---

Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2013 15:03:05 +0000
From: ien...@yahoo.com

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade

To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

[OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU]

Thanks, Ifedioramma.

Your acknowledgement of my efforts is most appreciated.

I did not read you as supporting the sad notion of discrimination against anyone.

You are certainly right in your making a distinction between osu and ohu, the expressly slave class.

One could distinguish between the two, however, by speaking of uhu as slaves to other humans but the osu as being slaves to deities.

The idea of slavery arises here bcs being osu was understood as permanently binding within a servitude that was socially denigrative, and in the past, even restrictive in terms of one's freedom of movement, a restriction described as not more  involuntary  than voluntary, a fundamental difference between monasticism and that version or stage of the osu practice.

Monastic restrictions are voluntarily undertaken by the monk in the understanding that such restrictions lead to an expanded expeeince of life through concentration on essentials.

 . Osu restrictions, however, regardless of the various modes of entry into being osu, were seen as a price to be paid for a form of social fall, at best a voluntary entry into a social isolation the individual would not have entered into if not for the need to choose the lesser of two evils or as a burden borne by the descendants of the osu, who carry the caste and its associated stigma of their ancestor. Hermits and monks, on the o0ther hand, if they had children, did not transfer their status to their families.

I am yet to see any reference that corroborates Nwakanma's claim that one can opt out of being osu through an expensive ceremony which none could afford in the past. Even if that were so, cant any afford it now or is the knowledge lost among the priests and the osu?

Secondly, as Achebe's work evokes, particularly in Arrow of God and "The Madman"- these claims of deity injunctions- where do they really emanate from-human prerogatives or a non-human realm or a point of intersection between the two?

Those questions from Chidi touch on this subject- the Igbo self definition in relation to conceptions of spirit-human relations.

With reference to this-

'Yes there are some communities that still keep to that outdated culture; but these live in the past!'

Is that summation justified by the accounts coming from contemporary Ndigbo, such as the two Facebook groups dedicated to eradicating the osu phenomenon entirely  or eradicating  the practice of discriminating against them?

Can we ignore the cries of those people and their accounts of their experiences and observations?

Lat week,  I ran into an Igbo Nigerian  friend at a bank in Cambridge, England.

I told him I was writing about the osu.

His instant response: " I am not one!"

I laughed.

His instant dissasociation was so striking.

'How do you know you are not osu?'

'My grandfather would have told me'.

While people on USAAfrica are trying to place  anti-osu problems in the past, in cyberspace, and far away from Igboland, in Cambridge, of all places, it makes itself felt.

I understand the rule among Ndigbo in Nigeria is to find out if an intended spouse is osu. If they are the other family withdraws straightaway.

We should see what Ndigbo are saying online in various fora.

Amazing.

Its a live topic.

How come a people who came out of the collective horror of the Nigerian Civil War, facing bullets and bombs that did not discriminate between osu and non-osu-diala or freeborn-still insist on perpetuating doctrines of superiority to their  brethren?

This subject, along with controversies over Igbo citizenship in Nigeria, highlight  complexities of being Igbo.

On one hand, we have questions about Igbo integration into Nigeria. On another hand, we have questions of Igbo internal integration in terms of caste.

There is rich food here for reflection, research  and writing.

thanks
toyin

[Biko Agozino]

http://massliteracy.blogspot.com/2013/03/azikiwes-strange-prophecy-about-jonathan.html

An interpretation of a short poem by Azikiwe.

Biko Agozino

[OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU]

Thanks, Olayinka.

You present your analysis as  conjectural and yet you make your conclusion definitive:

'Resentment of Osu is therefore tantamount to repressed memories of resented centralized authority;  resentment undergirded by taboos as early societies are wont to do.'

Why?

I'm also puzzled.

Is there any incidence of any Yorubas being treated by other Yorubas as almost semi-human and consistently discriminated against?

I did not notice that in your essay.

Your suggestion about the courts is valuable even though  the situation is not always as  straightforward as that.

Some of the discrimination meted out to osu are beyond the reach of the courts. There is even a law, a non-effectual law, against such discrimination.

One of these modes of discrimination is that of non-osu families making sur they dont marry among the osu.

Relationships long cultivated are denied the opportunity of consummation in marriage because a member of the relationship is osu.

thanks
toyin

[OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU]

Apologies. Reposting with addition

    Response to Chidi

        
       Paradox of Spiritual Dedication and Service as Social Stigma in the Osu System

1. Spiritual Dedicand and Social Stigmatite [neologisms]

'(1) Can servants of gods in Igboland be regarded as contaminated/

compromised humanity?
(2) Can Chukwu’s(God’s) representatives on earth; amadioha and others

condone being served by contaminated/compromised humanity?'
Chidi

The answer of collective Igbo cultural memory to this question is  YES.

The logic being that they are understood as contaminated in a way that  is dangerous to other humans but is a consequence of their dedication to the deity.

Francis Onwubuariri addresses this paradox in 'Appraising the Osu Caste System in Igboland'

'...they can be given the sacred place of priest, they are still seen as priests without power and prestige by the freeborn because they do not and cannot command the respect or attract the admiration of the freeborns due to their Osu stigma in the sight of the freeborns due to the fact that they see themselves as inferior beings.'
......
According to M. M. Green talking about making an Osu priest in his Book Igbo Village Affairs, he made the point that “The Osu people looked up as horrible and holy by the society do not necessarily make them into people of authority, because of their anomalous position in some society, but it does not mean that they are or may be a part of the mechanism whereby law and order are preserved (1978, 20).
....


2. Brutal and Once Pervasive Discrimination

'(3)What are the manifestations of  this Contamination(curse) in the Igbo belief system?'

It has been held that relating with Osu is harmful.

People refuse to marry Osu so that cures do not enter into their family and so they too dont become Osu.

It has been stated that Osu gives off a bad smell on account of the effect of the 'juju' that owns them.

Francis Onwubuariri lists various forms of anti-osu discrimination-

1. Marriage between osu and diala or freeborn, a taboo. Sexual relations taboo. Any infringement  makes the offending freeborn osu. 

The Facebook groups against the Osu sysyenm describe this as still very active among Igbos in Nigeria.

2. Birth and Death

From birth to death, the Diala do not ever dare to rejoice over or celebrate the arrival of a new born baby delivered by an Osu as they do not sympathize with or lament over mishaps on them” (64).

Besides, it is said accordingly that in the Igbo days of Yore, that at the death of an Osu, the Diala do not participate in the digging of ground as well as taking part in any other burial rites likewise the Osus. The Osus are not allowed to be buried around the places where the freeborn were buried.
One of the reasons for this hostility towards the Osus by the freeborns even at death was according to Magbobukwa because the freeborns do not believe that the Osus do have any soul to be saved, hence, there is nothing like the resurrection of the soul for them. Just as the case was with Whites and the Blacks in American and South Africa where the White sees the blacks as people with no history, no hope of life after death a blissful resurrection probably on the last day.
.....

As an ancillary to the above view, Onwubiko said in his book Facing the Osu issue in the African Synod that “it was the traditional Igbo religious belief that a person on whom the right of segregation was performed as was the case of the Osu was bound to be last in the life after death and thereafter would not attain the blissful state in the spirit world. This belief was very latent in the minds of the adult Igbos” (1993).
....

Furthermore, Mabobukwa enunciated same of the rights enjoyed by the freeborns at death. According to him, when a man is pronounced dead, the relatives gather together and he will be lowered to the grave. Three days later, the buried rites begin, the following animals are provided:
Ikenga Ewu (A female goat that has given birth)
Agbogho Ewu (A female goat that has not given birth)
Okemkpi (A he goat)
Okokpa (A cock) (50)

It is believed that when ever a person is buried with the enunciated items and several other ones, based on the culture and tradition, the person will be welcomed in the land of the dead. But since the Osus do not enjoy these rights during burial rites, thus, their spirits did not go well in the land of the dead. Thus, they will not take part in any thing that has to do with life after death.
.......

3. Chieftaincy  titles

One of the enormous social segregation between an Osu and the freeborns is prevalent in the case of making an Osu a chief or king over the freeborn. It is a sheer abomination in Igbo land till date to coronate an Osu or to crown any untouchable or slaves a king that will rule over the freeborns even if the person is the most eligible person for the seat in the community or land. The people would rather choose a mediocre or an unqualified person to rule them instead of seeing themselves being ruled by a known slave of the gods.

Kenneth Ezeaguba in an interview made the following assertions “I witness a situation where a well educated man was acceded to the traditional chieftaincy title of grown town, this man is overtly overflowing with benevolence, integrity, dynamism, thus, he was very popular. But some people protested, claiming that he was said to be an osu and as such should not rule over the freeborn. They therefore chose a less qualified and unqualified illiterate as the rightful candidate”(interviewed at Owerri).

4. Hospitality- GIVING A COLA NUT TO AN OSU

From the issue of making an osu a chief, also comes the issue of showing or giving cola nut to the osu. Due to the high esteem which the Igbo’s held cola nut, it becomes a misdeed for a person to show cola nut to an osu in the presence of visitors or to give a cola nut to an osu who visited a freeborn

 According to Jude Mgbabukwa, “the reason for this discrimination is because there is never a time an Osu is welcomed in the house of a Diala. In many social gatherings, by the time cola nuts are broken and eaten, an Osu is made to be aware that he is a stranger being manly tolerated” (48).

Osu as at this time are regarded as inferior beings and as such should not be given a cola nut by the freeborns nor is it pertinent for an Osu to give cola nut to the freeborns.

5. Summation of Discrimination

Children of the free born were forbidden to see the corpse of an Osu. An Osu could not be chief or a feasten of any village. If the corpse of an Osu was to be carried through the village of a Diala, palm frond was placed every where to warn the people that evil was in the air and a bad event was to happen. lf an Osu had a sexual intercourse with a Diala woman, the offending woman was to be dragged to the Osu to marry for free. Under no circumstances would a Diala run into the compound of an Osu even if it was raining or he was being chased with gun ormachete, if one did so, he or she automatically becomes Osu.”

Extant Anti-Osu Discrimination

Those of those discriminatory practices still active are that on marriage and that on headship of communities.

People on the Facebook groups against the osu system testify to that on marriage and the case of the  Omoude community I linked in an earlier post confirms the headship discrimination as active up till 1999. The village was seen as an osu community and so the rotational headship of the group of villages to which  it belongs to was denied it and its people brutalized into the bargain, so the story went:  the tragic story of the Omuode community in 1999.


Further Questions from Chidi

(4) How are these manifestations handled?
(5) Are these manifestations part of the hallmarks of the Osu agbaras?

I would like clarification on these questions.

Also, I am yet to observe a distinction known as 'osu agbara' in any source, apart from your summation, Chidi. Can you give any info that will confirm your summation?

thanks

toyin

On Wed, Apr 3, 2013 at 2:55 PM, OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tva...@gmail.com> wrote:

    Response to Chidi

        
       Paradox of Spiritual Dedication and Service as Social Stigma in the Osu System

1. Spiritual Dedicand and Social Stigmatite [neologisms]

'(1) Can servants of gods in Igboland be regarded as contaminated/

compromised humanity?
(2) Can Chukwu’s(God’s) representatives on earth; amadioha and others

condone being served by contaminated/compromised humanity?'
Chidi

The answer of collective Igbo cultural memory to this question is  YES.

The logic being that they are understood as contaminated in a way that  is dangerous to other humans but is a consequence of their dedication to the deity.

Francis Onwubuariri addresses this paradox in 'Appraising the Osu Caste System in Igboland'

'...they can be given the sacred place of priest, they are still seen as priests without power and prestige by the freeborn because they do not and cannot command the respect or attract the admiration of the freeborns due to their Osu stigma in the sight of the freeborns due to the fact that they see themselves as inferior beings.'
......
According to M. M. Green talking about making an Osu priest in his Book Igbo Village Affairs, he made the point that “The Osu people looked up as horrible and holy by the society do not necessarily make them into people of authority, because of their anomalous position in some society, but it does not mean that they are or may be a part of the mechanism whereby law and order are preserved (1978, 20).
....


2. Brutal and Once Pervasive Discrimination

'(3)What are the manifestations of  this Contamination(curse) in the Igbo belief system?'

It has been held that relating with Osu is harmful.

People refuse to marry Osu so that cures do not enter into their family and so they too dont become Osu.

It has been stated that Osu gives off a bad smell on account of the effect of the 'juju' that owns them.

Francis Onwubuariri lists various forms of anti-osu discrimination-

1. Marriage between osu and diala or freeborn, a taboo. Sexual relations taboo. Any infringement  makes the offending freeborn osu. 

The Facebook groups against the Osu sysyenm describe this as still very active among Igbos in Nigeria.

2. Birth and Death

From birth to death, the Diala do not ever dare to rejoice over or celebrate the arrival of a new born baby delivered by an Osu as they do not sympathize with or lament over mishaps on them” (64).

Besides, it is said accordingly that in the Igbo days of Yore, that at the death of an Osu, the Diala do not participate in the digging of ground as well as taking part in any other burial rites likewise the Osus. The Osus are not allowed to be buried around the places where the freeborn were buried.
One of the reasons for this hostility towards the Osus by the freeborns even at death was according to Magbobukwa because the freeborns do not believe that the Osus do have any soul to be saved, hence, there is nothing like the resurrection of the soul for them. Just as the case was with Whites and the Blacks in American and South Africa where the White sees the blacks as people with no history, no hope of life after death a blissful resurrection probably on the last day.
.....

As an ancillary to the above view, Onwubiko said in his book Facing the Osu issue in the African Synod that “it was the traditional Igbo religious belief that a person on whom the right of segregation was performed as was the case of the Osu was bound to be last in the life after death and thereafter would not attain the blissful state in the spirit world. This belief was very latent in the minds of the adult Igbos” (1993).
....

Furthermore, Mabobukwa enunciated same of the rights enjoyed by the freeborns at death. According to him, when a man is pronounced dead, the relatives gather together and he will be lowered to the grave. Three days later, the buried rites begin, the following animals are provided:
Ikenga Ewu (A female goat that has given birth)
Agbogho Ewu (A female goat that has not given birth)
Okemkpi (A he goat)
Okokpa (A cock) (50)

It is believed that when ever a person is buried with the enunciated items and several other ones, based on the culture and tradition, the person will be welcomed in the land of the dead. But since the Osus do not enjoy these rights during burial rites, thus, their spirits did not go well in the land of the dead. Thus, they will not take part in any thing that has to do with life after death.
.......

3. Chieftaincy  titles

One of the enormous social segregation between an Osu and the freeborns is prevalent in the case of making an Osu a chief or king over the freeborn. It is a sheer abomination in Igbo land till date to coronate an Osu or to crown any untouchable or slaves a king that will rule over the freeborns even if the person is the most eligible person for the seat in the community or land. The people would rather choose a mediocre or an unqualified person to rule them instead of seeing themselves being ruled by a known slave of the gods.

Kenneth Ezeaguba in an interview made the following assertions “I witness a situation where a well educated man was acceded to the traditional chieftaincy title of grown town, this man is overtly overflowing with benevolence, integrity, dynamism, thus, he was very popular. But some people protested, claiming that he was said to be an osu and as such should not rule over the freeborn. They therefore chose a less qualified and unqualified illiterate as the rightful candidate”(interviewed at Owerri).

4. Hospitality- GIVING A COLA NUT TO AN OSU

From the issue of making an osu a chief, also comes the issue of showing or giving cola nut to the osu. Due to the high esteem which the Igbo’s held cola nut, it becomes a misdeed for a person to show cola nut to an osu in the presence of visitors or to give a cola nut to an osu who visited a freeborn

 According to Jude Mgbabukwa, “the reason for this discrimination is because there is never a time an Osu is welcomed in the house of a Diala. In many social gatherings, by the time cola nuts are broken and eaten, an Osu is made to be aware that he is a stranger being manly tolerated” (48).

Osu as at this time are regarded as inferior beings and as such should not be given a cola nut by the freeborns nor is it pertinent for an Osu to give cola nut to the freeborns.

5. Summation of Discrimination

Children of the free born were forbidden to see the corpse of an Osu. An Osu could not be chief or a feasten of any village. If the corpse of an Osu was to be carried through the village of a Diala, palm frond was placed every where to warn the people that evil was in the air and a bad event was to happen. lf an Osu had a sexual intercourse with a Diala woman, the offending woman was to be dragged to the Osu to marry for free. Under no circumstances would a Diala run into the compound of an Osu even if it was raining or he was being chased with gun ormachete, if one did so, he or she automatically becomes Osu.”

Further Questions from Chidi

(4) How are these manifestations handled?
(5) Are these manifestations part of the hallmarks of the Osu agbaras?

I would like clarification on these questions.

Also, I am yet to observe a distinction known as 'osu agbara' in any source, apart from your summation, Chidi. Can you give any info that will confirm your summation?

thanks

toyin

[OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU]

  In process                 


                         Osu Spirituality, Osu Philosophy and Osu Studies

                                                         Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju


The voice of the dispossessed  cries out:

 Redeem our vision. Walk our path. Testify of us. Carry our spirit.

From an unseen point in the remotest beyond in deep space, a light flashes  forth.

It pieces downwards, through  the spiral revolving in the centre of the Four, the timeless at the axis of the Beginning, to the North, the Denigration, to the  East, the  Restoration, to the West  and the Culmination, to the South.

O Brethren, who come before and after, brethren who stand in this time, attend me.

Earth, Water, Air and Fire, attend me.

The eye that sees each thing as itself and yet all as one, inspire  me.

The spirit of dedication to the regeneration  of all, enflame  me.

The fire of transformation of the self, invigorate  me.

The light that ever burns, the flame of being in each and all, empower me.

May I not rest until all are awake to  the meaning of the great journey.

Renewed is the fellowship of the dedicates.

Osu Spirituality : Inspirational Texts

1. Religious underpinnings of the Osu caste system
Okenwa R. Nwosu, M.D.

The indigenous religion is intricately interwoven with Igbo cultural practices to the extent that might be difficult for outsiders to fully appreciate. The indigenous Igbo regards himself as a meeting point of Mother Earth or “Ala”, which contains all physical creation and the spirit force that is functionally linked to his ancestors. The Supreme Spirit “Chi-Ukwu” or “Chukwu” is the force of creation and the custodian of infinite power over everything. The Igbo man relates to this infinitely powerful God image through the intercession of spirit forces or deities that are ultimately linked up to one’s “chi” or spirit force. Deities are derived out of objects of creation such as geophysical landmarks like seas, lakes, rivers, streams, caves, hills and mountains. They are also created out of notable ancestral spirits such as warrior-kings and legendary spiritual leaders. An individual’s virtues or fortunes are determined by the byproduct of interactions that exist between one’s “chi”, the deities and the Creator or “Chineke”. Humans interact directly with deities which function as intermediaries to the Supreme Spirit or Creator. Being in good terms with powerful deities in one’s domain is an assurance that one is likely to obtain the largesse of creation while, at same time, minimize the wrath of the forces of nature. It is an individual’s obligation to observe taboos and customs of the land since their violation could offend the deities thereby reduce their willingness to intercede on one’s behalf. Deities are amenable to appeasement and supplications from humans in exchange for their goodwill and all the benefits that accrue from such cordial relationship.

Every homestead in indigenous Igbo community maintained a shrine where the family’s ancestral spirits resided and communed with the living. There were also village and town deities which became more powerful as their sphere of influence widened. There are still deities whose influence spans several communities due to the reputation or notoriety that they might have accumulated over the years. This category of powerful deities are almost like institutions unto themselves. They are usually attended to by a retinue of high priests and assistants who are engaged in serving the spiritual needs of seekers who could come from far away places to commune at the famous shrines. Historical accounts have it that, about 6 centuries ago, the growth in number of powerful deities created the need for establishment of permanent assistants for high priests of major shrines possibly in order to mitigate the shortage of their much-needed role. Miniature monasteries were established in the vicinity of major shrines to train and maintain a constant supply of high-priest assistants. The indigenous monks, upon mastering their spiritual functions, were called the “osus” of the deities they were deployed to serve. They resided in the vicinity of the shrines of major deities and for all practical purposes, excluded themselves from routine engagements with the greater society. Being agents that collaborated with deities, the osu maintained an aloof relationship with the mundane world and rest of the civil society.

The early osu ranks, in spite of their spiritual duties at the shrines, were non-celibate and thus had families with offspring that ultimately grew into sizeable communities that dwelt in close proximity of major shrines in parts of Igboland. The civil society maintained a set of taboos that regulated routine interactions between the osu and the general public mostly out of fear or respect for the powerful deities under whose aegis they thrived and performed their religious functions. Intimate social interaction, including marriage, was forbidden between osu and non-osu, for example. In some locales, it is forbidden for the non-osu  to spill the blood of osu , even in non-hostile situations. Some go as far as forbidding the non-osu  from eating meat that was butchered or prepared in an osu  homestead. The list of items that maintain a social divide between the osu  and non-osu  grew and till date, varies from place to place. The usual sanction for breaching the osu taboo was to compel the offenders to involuntarily join the osu  ranks. Even though the offenders did not physically relocate to cohabit with the osu , they were regarded and treated in similar fashion by the civil society. Until the arrival of colonial rule and Christianity, the dichotomous relationship that existed between osu  and non-osu  did not ruffle anyone’s feathers because everyone virtually understood the basis for it. The minority osu  population fulfilled their lives in playing their spiritual role in the society. In return, they obtained a reasonable livelihood from proceeds of offerings that pour steadily into the premises of the deities they that served.

2.The Osu In Alaigbo

Obi Nwakanma

 '...about the Osu - there were two phases: in the first phase,

the "Osu" was part of the complex priestly system to the Igbo ritual world. It is not easy to go into detail in a very short space, but the Igbo world was a highly spiritual system in which all the four elements in nature were recreated and symbolized: Ala (Earth) Ogwugwu/ Ime muru ochie/ Idemili (water) Agwu ( wind) Anyanwu (Fire).

....

The Igbo had shrines to all these forces in nature. Every community had the shrine of Ala, Ogwugwu, Agwu or Amadi-oha (which gradually replaced "Ihu-Anyanwu"). The priests of these shrines were called Ezeala, EzeOgwuwgwu, Eze Amadioha, or EzeAgwu - ndi "isi mmuo". Each had specific rituals and specific seasons all conected with the movement of the nature; or with the celebrations, festivals, or according to the covenants of each clan. There were traditionally in the Igbo world, those who dedicate themselves, or are dedicated to the service of these shrines: they were called Osu. It does not quite mean "slave."

The closest example of the function of the Osu in the traditional Igbo world is what monks do in Catholic church or the in Budhist temples. They chose a life of complete surrender to the deities.

Traditionally, they were regarded highly. In fact, the names, Osuji, Osuagwu,Osuala, Nwosu, etc; did not confer extraordinary negation; it was a declaration of piety. To this day, many Igbo bear these names, and they are not "osu" in the caste notion of the word. The writer's family name is Osuji, and they still are keepers of the shrine of Amadi-Oha; which means they are Diala; it should say something about the traditional meaning of "Osu.".

3.Obi Nwakanma
 to: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
date: Wed, Mar 20, 2013

The Osu is...actually traditionally a sacred being made into a living companion to the gods. The actual meaning of the Igbo word "Osu" is "Sacred to the gods" or "beloved of the gods" or "dedicated to the gods." Over the years, Christianity and other alien ideas desacralized the intent of the institution and made it antinomic. But the status of the "Osu" is sometimes entered voluntarily, particularly when the individual feels himself or herself no longer able to depend on the protection of the ordinary community; s/he hands the self to the gods for protection through servuice and eternal obligation. They become guardians of the altars and the sacred groves of the deities to which the pledge themselves; they take the oaths of perpetual allegiance; they live in ritual isolation; they grow their hair long as an act of self-mortification; they are also thus, in pledging themselves and being ritually dedicated to the altar and service of the gods and the shrines of the land down generations, they become "publicly protected citizens." No man could therefore, on pain of retribution, kill, draw blood, or cause an "Osu of the gods" to cry. The only barrier is in choosing that life, or being dedicated to that life as a pledge from their families to the gods, the Osu can no longer be expected to live a secular life; aspire to the titles of the land, or even participate in the commerce of daily enterprise. They are fully provisioned through the offerings brought to the altars by the communities; they are in charge of all the votary animals, and assist the high priests in the ritual process. In a society where meat was rather a luxury, the Osu had a constant supply through these sacrifices, of which they were the only ones permitted to partake of the animals offered to the gods. Usually in Communities that instituted the Osu system, the best and most fertile public land, often called "Ohia Agbara" are farmed by the Osu; they are given the best portion of the land because they are the human links to the gods. In the years of yore, an Osu may decide to "free himself" of his obligation, but it often required such an expensive ceremony in that halcyon past, that no Osu could afford to conduct the ceremony.

4. Remy Ilona

Looking at the Apartheid in the Igbo Society through Scholarly Eyes.

“Nevertheless, every now and again, one has a sense of an older culture lying behind what one sees, long forgotten by the people themselves, grown so faint that it is only in certain lights that one catches a glimpse of it, but the glimpse is of something so rich, so vital that the present sinks into insignificance beside it. I heard it twice in a woman’s song, saw it once in a woman’s dance, once in a ritual gesture of embrace, once in the shape and decoration of a water-pot, once in the mural decoration of a mbari house” (Mrs. Sylvia Leight-Ross on Igbo culture in African Women, 1939, p55).

 5. "The Osu Caste System in Igboland Discrimination Based on Descent" by Victor E. Dike [2002]

The indigenous religion is interwoven with Igbo cultural practices, and it is difficult for foreigners to fully understand and appreciate the good part of the Igbo culture. The indigenous Igbo regards himself as a meeting point of Mother Earth or “Ala”, which contains all physical creation and the ancestral spirit that is functionally linked to his
ancestors. The Supreme Spirit “Chi-Ukwu” or “Chukwu” is the force of creation and the custodian of infinite power over everything.

 The Igbo man relates to this infinitely powerful God image through the deities that are ultimately linked to one’s “chi” or spiritual force. Deities are derived out of objects of creation such as ‘geophysical landmarks’ like seas, lakes, rivers, streams, caves, hills and mountains, spirits such as warrior-kings and legendary spiritual leaders.

 Those geophysical landmarks are regarded as the homes of the gods and the ancestral spirits (Isiechi 1976). And the gods are perceived as the bridges between the people and their life. And the belief was that these gods could be manipulated in order to protect them and serve their interest.

An individual’s fortunes are determined by the byproduct of interactions that exist between one’s “chi”, the deities and the Creator or “Chineke”. Humans interact directly with deities, which function as intermediaries to the Supreme Spirit or Creator. Being in good terms with powerful deities in one’s domain is an assurance that one is likely to
obtain the largesse of creation while, at same time, minimize the wrath of the forces of nature. It is an individual’s obligation to observe the customs of the land since their violation could offend the deities; and goodwill and protection from the deities depends on one’s cordial relationship with them.

Every indigenous Igbo community maintained a shrine where the family’s ancestral spirits resided and communed with the living. There were (are still) village and town deities, which became more powerful because of their reputation or notoriety. This category of deities is almost like institutions unto themselves. The deities were (and some are still) attended to by highly respected priests and assistants, who were (are) engaged in serving the spiritual needs of visitors who could come from far away places to commune at the famous shrines.

Historical accounts have it that, about 6 centuries ago, the growth in number of powerful deities created the need for many assistants for the high priests of major shrines. Miniature ‘monasteries’ were established in the vicinity of major shrines to train and maintain a constant supply of high-priest assistants. And because some of these deities
are believed to be very powerful, they should be attended to on continuous basis, with intricate religious rituals in their shrines. However, the “indigenous monks,” upon mastering their spiritual functions (of learning to serve the gods) were unjustly and erroneously assigned the Igbo pejorative name of Osu, Ume or Ohu arusi (the slave of the deities/gods or shrines). And so was the story of how the institution of the Osu cult (ritual slavery) originated.

 The Osus and their descendants belonged to the gods; and they become the properties of the shrines. And they resided in the vicinity of the shrines of major deities and for all practical purposes excluded themselves from routine
engagements with the rest of the community. In other words, being the agents of the deities the Osus maintained an aloof relationship with the rest of the civil society.

The early Osu ranks were “non-celibate” and thus had families; and the offspring inherited their status. The community maintained a set of rules that regulated their interactions with the Osus, mostly out of fear (and or respect) for the powerful deities under which they thrived and performed their religious functions. For instance, intimate social interaction, including marriage, was forbidden between Osus and the Diala. In some communities, it is forbidden for the Diala to spill the blood of Osus (even in nonhostile situations). Some communities go as far as forbidding the Diala from eating meat that was butchered or prepared by an Osu. The list of items that maintain a social divide between the Osus and the Diala grew and till today, but they vary from place to place.

Any person who breaches the rules regulating their interaction with the Osu automatically becomes an Osu. Even though the offenders may not physically relocate to cohabit with the Osus, they were (are) regarded and treated like an Osu by the rest of the community. Like the racism, Osuism 5 have distorts and impedes normal

6."Osu" was one of the "Holiest" names for God in Ancient Igbo. God was referred to, by some, as "Osu Ani", meaning, "The God of the Earth".

Kafomdi Anene
 "Osu-Ana" or "God of the Earth"... Osu means God, and Nwosu is synonymous with NwaChukwu, and NwaAni, and NwaOsa, meaning "The child of God".

7.Notes on the Osu System among the Ibo of Owerri Province, NigeriaAuthor(s): S. Leith-RossSource: Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Apr., 1937), pp.206-220Publishe

Only one, himself an Osu, made an
attempt to give a detailed history, of which the following is a resume

in his own words: 'In the days when Ci-ukuru (the Long Juju of AroI

The man bringing
the Osu stands behind him or her, and says: " I present to thee this
day a man (or woman) to be admitted to the order of the Osu according
to thy holy desire. Endue him (or her) plenteously with grace toserve thee as it pleases thee. May his service bring thee joy and a blessing
to my house. Increase the birth-rate of my house and the crops
of my farm. Spare my life and the lives of all my family. Bless this
thy servant (the Osu) and spare his life as I cannot afford to get
another. May he minister to thee as it pleases thee, and spare my
house to worship thee."

Again, in the words
of my Osu informant: ' An Osu was bound to live an upright, chaste,

and pious life, or his god would punish him. He could move about
freely and, as earthly representative of a god, it was sacrilege to illtreat
or molest him. He lived apart, not because he was an inferior
being, but because the people regarded him with awe and thought it
safer not to mingle with him and risk doing him some unintentional
injury which might bring down upon their heads the wrath of the
Osu's god.' For this same reason, 'they did not marry their children
to those of an Osu; and on the other hand, Osu parents who brought

up their children on the strict moral lines incumbent on them, pre-ferred them to marry other Osu children trained in the same way.

Thus the ever-widening gulf between Osu and non-Osu, especially as
regards marriage relations, was fixed. It was purely a question of

religious difference and not of inferiority.'

The head Osu was the senior of the Osu consecrated to any particular juju.
He stood in the relationship of father to a male Osu and to such female ones as he
did not wish to marry, and of a husband to other female ones. In olden days, the
Osu worked for the senior Osu, till the time came when they were made to work
for their purchasers.

7. Igwebuike interviewed Arazu, on the role of an Osu as he maintained that “an Osu is the living symbol of the invisible spirit when he is carrying the emblem (of the spirit or a god). Thee emblem carrier is seen as the most important person on such occasions, this is because, in the very blood of the Osu runs the potency of the spirit, hence, they are feared”. According Igwuike the osu would make the best occultists and mystics thus he said: “if I were an Osu, I would go in completely for occultism and mysticism in order to develop the power inherent in a ‘Kratophany’ because the particular spirit which the Osu was dedicated is not the devil and is not one of the demons” (Interviewed in May 15, 1986).

The Alusi of the Cambridge Museum of Archeology and Anthropology

                              

                 Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

What is at stake in the Osu concept was not so much the idea of being bonded to a deity. Spiritual disciplines often involve such bonds, including, I expect,  that of the priest in Igbo society.

In fact, the process of induction or initiation into a spiritual discipline could be described as one of dedicating the initiate to a power larger than is conventionally accessible, that anchors or empowers  that discipline. 

That power is then expected to work in relation to that person even outside the context of their own conscious will. The drive generated by such a dedication could be so compelling that the individual could feel that they were a vehicle for a force they don't fully understand, they cant break away from or can break away from only with difficulty.

At the conclusion of his autobiography, the great occultist Aleister Crowley declares 'The word I uttered at my first initiation, 'Perdurabo' still echoes in eternity. I shall endure unto the end.'

The problem with the osu dedication was the way they were conceived of and treated by other Igbos. The routes that led to being osu that were not honourable also did not help. It seems the embattled person had a second chance at life in society but at a high price. 

I see both the dedication of the osu to deity and their victimized status as having deep potential for  spirituality. 

The dedication itself implies a connection to the divine on behalf of the community. Their victimisation by that same community evokes the idea of sacrifice. The resonance of a Christ like image begins to emerge. The osu could be seen as  embodying service to the community and their fate as demonstrating the limitations of perceptions that bedevil human communities. The osu becomes a 'wounded healer' to use the title of  Henri Nouwen's   book.

One can construct a meditation and a ritual to utilize these ideas. The esoteric order of the Golden Dawn used similar ideas in conflating Christ and Osiris. The immortal scenes in which the blind Neo surrenders himself to the Matrix in Matrix Revolutions tread similar lines.

It is possible to create an imaginative point of focus for these ideas, perhaps in terms of the persona of a sequence of osu figures, representing perhaps the first osu, representing the Beginning, the last osu at the end of time, representing the Culmination, and, in between, the osu who embodies the beginning of the Denigration, the period of victimization, and another who represents the Restoration, the period of return to or of claiming of the creative potential of osu, which is now understood as a concept anyone may identify with, not an ethnic centred caste system. 

One could construct invocations meant to give voice to both the aspirations and the suffering of the osu across generations, inviting them to empower the devotee in their goal of self and social transformation through dedication to deity

One can even construct a body or college of osu who embody, in various ways, the qualities of being osu, and who watch over all osu and all beings from their place beyond space and time where they ascended to after death,  and even create images and locations for them.

They can be depicted as guiding others on what is now known as the Osu Path, of dedication to deity as manifest in the various permutations of existence, from the elements manifest in the moisture in air to the fire in the sun and in electricity, possibilities beyond the dedication to powers manifest in the elemental natural forms understood as manifestations of the divine in classical Igbo society. 

By the time one adds to this construct rituals, prayers and other practices from classical Igbo religion, the system is up and running.

The fictive character of the imaginative form serves to embody  realities of history and to channel spiritual forces to the degree that such channeling is possible.

One will not need blind faith. All one needs is imaginative participation.

[Chidi Anthony Opara]

Toyin,

I will advise again that you research the Osu agbara phenomenon deeply
before taking position. Your lack of deep research on this issue
manifests in such positions like; the servants of gods (Osu agbaras),
who must carry sacrifices to the inner sanctums of shrines (holy of
holies), for instance, can be described as “contaminated/compromised
(cursed) humanity”, when even those who offer these sacrifices must
first sanctify themselves before presenting these offerings. For one
to even invoke the names of these gods in “iju ogu” for instance, one
must attain a high level of sanctity.

You exhibited further lack of deep understanding of the Osu agbara
phenomenon when for instance, you maintained that an Osu agbara cannot
opt out of his/her status.

You should also re-examine your research method in this matter.

I am done with this thread.

CAO.


On 3 Apr, 15:06, OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tva...@gmail.com> wrote:
> *Apologies. Reposting with addition*
>
>  *   Response to Chidi *
>
>        *Paradox of Spiritual Dedication and Service as Social Stigma in the
> Osu System *
>
> 1. *Spiritual Dedicand and Social Stigmatite [neologisms] *

>
> '(1) Can servants of gods in Igboland be regarded as contaminated/
>
> compromised humanity?
> (2) Can Chukwu’s(God’s) representatives on earth; amadioha and others
> condone being served by contaminated/compromised humanity?'
> Chidi
>
> The answer of collective Igbo cultural memory to this question is  YES.
>
> The logic being that they are understood as contaminated in a way that  is
> dangerous to other humans but is a consequence of their dedication to the
> deity.
>
> Francis Onwubuariri addresses this paradox in 'Appraising the Osu Caste

> System in Igboland<http://www.frasouzu.com/Issues%20and%20Papers/Onwubuariri%20Francis.htm>
> '

>
> '...they can be given the sacred place of priest, they are still seen as
> priests without power and prestige by the freeborn because they do not and
> cannot command the respect or attract the admiration of the freeborns due
> to their Osu stigma in the sight of the freeborns due to the fact that they
> see themselves as inferior beings.'
> ......
> According to M. M. Green talking about making an Osu priest in his Book
> Igbo Village Affairs, he made the point that “The Osu people looked up as
> horrible and holy by the society do not necessarily make them into people
> of authority, because of their anomalous position in some society, but it
> does not mean that they are or may be a part of the mechanism whereby law
> and order are preserved (1978, 20).
> ....
>

> 2. *Brutal and Once Pervasive Discrimination *

>
> '(3)What are the manifestations of  this Contamination(curse) in the Igbo
> belief system?'
>
> It has been held that relating with Osu is harmful.
>
> People refuse to marry Osu so that cures do not enter into their family and
> so they too dont become Osu.
>
> It has been stated that Osu gives off a bad smell on account of the effect
> of the 'juju' that owns them.
>
> Francis Onwubuariri lists various forms of anti-osu discrimination-
>

> 1. *Marriage* between osu and diala or freeborn, a taboo. Sexual relations

> taboo. Any infringement  makes the offending freeborn osu.
>
> The Facebook groups against the Osu sysyenm describe this as still very
> active among Igbos in Nigeria.
>

> 2.* Birth and Death *

> 3. *Chieftaincy  titles*

>
> One of the enormous social segregation between an Osu and the freeborns is
> prevalent in the case of making an Osu a chief or king over the freeborn.
> It is a sheer abomination in Igbo land till date to coronate an Osu or to
> crown any untouchable or slaves a king that will rule over the freeborns
> even if the person is the most eligible person for the seat in the
> community or land. The people would rather choose a mediocre or an
> unqualified person to rule them instead of seeing themselves being ruled by
> a known slave of the gods.
>
> Kenneth Ezeaguba in an interview made the following assertions “I witness a
> situation where a well educated man was acceded to the traditional
> chieftaincy title of grown town, this man is overtly overflowing with
> benevolence, integrity, dynamism, thus, he was very popular. But some
> people protested, claiming that he was said to be an osu and as such should
> not rule over the freeborn. They therefore chose a less qualified and
> unqualified illiterate as the rightful candidate”(interviewed at Owerri).
>

> 4. *Hospitality- GIVING A COLA NUT TO AN OSU*

>
> From the issue of making an osu a chief, also comes the issue of showing or
> giving cola nut to the osu. Due to the high esteem which the Igbo’s held
> cola nut, it becomes a misdeed for a person to show cola nut to an osu in
> the presence of visitors or to give a cola nut to an osu who visited a
> freeborn
>
>  According to Jude Mgbabukwa, “the reason for this discrimination is
> because there is never a time an Osu is welcomed in the house of a Diala.
> In many social gatherings, by the time cola nuts are broken and eaten, an
> Osu is made to be aware that he is a stranger being manly tolerated” (48).
>
> Osu as at this time are regarded as inferior beings and as such should not
> be given a cola nut by the freeborns nor is it pertinent for an Osu to give
> cola nut to the freeborns.
>

> 5. *Summation of Discrimination*

>
> Children of the free born were forbidden to see the corpse of an Osu. An
> Osu could not be chief or a feasten of any village. If the corpse of an Osu
> was to be carried through the village of a Diala, palm frond was placed
> every where to warn the people that evil was in the air and a bad event was
> to happen. lf an Osu had a sexual intercourse with a Diala woman, the
> offending woman was to be dragged to the Osu to marry for free. Under no
> circumstances would a Diala run into the compound of an Osu even if it was
> raining or he was being chased with gun ormachete, if one did so, he or she
> automatically becomes Osu.”
>

> *Extant Anti-Osu Discrimination *

>
> Those of those discriminatory practices still active are that on marriage
> and that on headship of communities.
>
> People on the Facebook groups against the osu system testify to that on
> marriage and the case of the  Omoude community I linked in an earlier post
> confirms the headship discrimination as active up till 1999. The village
> was seen as an osu community and so the rotational headship of the group of
> villages to which  it belongs to was denied it and its people brutalized
> into the bargain, so the story went:  the tragic story of the Omuode

> community in 1999<https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#%21msg/soc.culture.niger...>.
>
> *Further Questions from Chidi*

>
> (4) How are these manifestations handled?
> (5) Are these manifestations part of the hallmarks of the Osu agbaras?
>
> I would like clarification on these questions.
>
> Also, I am yet to observe a distinction known as 'osu agbara' in any
> source, apart from your summation, Chidi. Can you give any info that will
> confirm your summation?
>
> thanks
>
> toyin
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 3, 2013 at 2:55 PM, OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tva...@gmail.com> wrote:

> >  *   Response to Chidi *
>
> >        *Paradox of Spiritual Dedication and Service as Social Stigma in
> > the Osu System *
>
> > 1. *Spiritual Dedicand and Social Stigmatite [neologisms] *

>
> > '(1) Can servants of gods in Igboland be regarded as contaminated/
>
> > compromised humanity?
> > (2) Can Chukwu’s(God’s) representatives on earth; amadioha and others
> > condone being served by contaminated/compromised humanity?'
> > Chidi
>
> > The answer of collective Igbo cultural memory to this question is  YES.
>
> > The logic being that they are understood as contaminated in a way that  is
> > dangerous to other humans but is a consequence of their dedication to the
> > deity.
>
> > Francis Onwubuariri addresses this paradox in 'Appraising the Osu Caste

> > System in Igboland<http://www.frasouzu.com/Issues%20and%20Papers/Onwubuariri%20Francis.htm>
> > '

>
> > '...they can be given the sacred place of priest, they are still seen as
> > priests without power and prestige by the freeborn because they do not and
> > cannot command the respect or attract the admiration of the freeborns due
> > to their Osu stigma in the sight of the freeborns due to the fact that they
> > see themselves as inferior beings.'
> > ......
> > According to M. M. Green talking about making an Osu priest in his Book
> > Igbo Village Affairs, he made the point that “The Osu people looked up as
> > horrible and holy by the society do not necessarily make them into people
> > of authority, because of their anomalous
>

> ...
>
> read more »

[OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU]

My broda Chidi,

If you have any sources on Osu agbara apart from those I mentioned please show them to us.

If you have any evidence that my assertion about osu being seen as having their humanity negatively compromised in relation to other human beings  is not supported by the majority of evidence, both scholarly and general on osu, please show it to us.

Paradoxes of the kind as unlikely  are central to much of spirituality, which is often perceived in non-linear terms:

'Your lack of deep research on this issue manifests in such positions like;'the servants of gods (Osu agbaras), who must carry sacrifices to the inner sanctums of shrines (holy of holies), for instance, can be described as “contaminated/compromised (cursed) humanity”, when even those who offer these sacrifices must first sanctify themselves before presenting these offerings. For one to even invoke the names of these gods in “iju ogu” for instance, one must attain a high level of sanctity.'

The description of osu as sanctified in relation to the deity they are dedicated to but contaminated  in themselves and poisonous to other humans might not be as anomalous as it seems in an analysis of the relationship between ideas in the Igbo context as well as in terms of comparative understanding of spirituality. 

The theology of osu suggests that classical  Igbo spirituality understood  two major ways of dedication to deity, the path of the priest walked by the diala, those belonging, according to Victor Chikezie Uchendu  in "Ezi Na Ulo:The Extended Family in Igbo Civilization",  his 1995 Ahiajoku lecture, perhaps the premier intellectual convenor  in Igboland, as among  those belonging in the sphere of free men and women ,  or the path of osu, among  those whom he describes as belonging in the sphere of bondage.

The character of relationship with deity of the osu and  diala are understood as very different. This difference emerges from various factors, which include the mode of entry into being osu, modes of entry often understood as being ignominious- Francis Onwubuariri provides a list of some of these modes of entry. This ignominy implies that the new social role the osu assumes is not one that enhances their humanity but subtracts from it as the price they pay for their mode of entering into that social order, modes that are not consonant with ideals of the honorable life in Igbo society.

 This understanding is reinforced by the genetic interpretation  of being osu as an inheritance carried in the genetic line and seems to be described as  capable of shaping the fortunes of all who enter into that line. This fear of an invisible, genetic strain is central to the fear of marrying into osu families. This genetic strain may be described  as the mark of the deity to which the osu ancestor was dedicated and seems to be perceived as  capable of dealing  dangerously  with non-osu who come within its radius.

Look at ideas of vampirism, for example, particularly as developed in the iconic Blade films. The vampire gains heightened powers, but pays a high price for being resurrected from death through becoming a vampire. Sharing the vampire's blood, through blood transfusion, for example,  could gain one one some of the positive and not so desirable qualities of being a vampire since it is transmitted through a virus/genetic strain(?) as shown in the film.

Another view is simply that those who like to feel superior to someone else insist that the system should live on and keep it alive. If not, is there evidence that marrying osu really harms anyone? The worst those people could do is brand the osu marrying person an osu as well but since human beings value social acceptance so much, this branding might not be something they would wish on themselves or their descendants so they give in to the redmail.

My major interest here though, is your conviction that this contradiction is unsustainable:

'Your lack of deep research on this issue manifests in such positions like;the servants of gods (Osu agbaras), who must carry sacrifices to the inner sanctums of shrines (holy of holies), for instance, can be described as “contaminated/compromised (cursed) humanity”, when even those who offer these sacrifices must first sanctify themselves before presenting these offerings. For one to even invoke the names of these gods in “iju ogu” for instance, one must attain a high level of sanctity.'

The mainstream Igbo conception could be described as assimilating this contradiction in terms of seeing osu as positive towards the deity they are dedicated to but negative towards other humans. That implies that their relationship with the deity is one of purity and sanctity but that very purity is of a kind that is a contamination from a human point of view.

If we want to speculate, one could say that the issue here is the rationale for the dedication to the deity. That rationale may be described as shaping the fundamental effect of the dedication.

In other spiritualities, related but not identical paradoxes exist.

In contemporary Goetia, for example, a  controversial Western spiritual system, debates on various listserves serving enthusiasts of such practices seem to be in consensus that when dealing with the Goetia, the terms of the relationship must be spelt out as precisely as possible and the scope of assistance to be given by the spirit carefully circumscribed, even as the traditional form of the rituals must be painstakingly observed, unless one wants to court danger.

Circumscribing the character of assistance, its range and kind of action, prevents the fate of the magician who invoked the Goetia to give him, lets say $1,000 and subsequently had a electric pole fall on his family home, wipe out his family and leave him with $1,000 in insurance payment in compensation for the calamity. A Google search for Goetia might bring up some of this information.

The collection of Tibetan meditation practices, Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines [ free on Scribd] edited by Evans-Wentz, states on p. 268, Note. 3,  that the continuous practice of the Yoga of Consciousness Transference tends  to shorten life by ripening the physical body for death and recommends an antidote to lengthen life.

Yet, these two purportedly dangerous forms of spiritual practice, the Goetic and the Tibetan Buddhist Consciousness Transference   require a high level of discipline and sanctity in their performance.

Other examples can be given describing how one has to be careful in one's method of dedication to or alliance with spirits since the stated terms of the alliance, spelt out in words and/or  ritual, make a lot of difference to the eventual outcome in that relationship.

Having summed up these issues, how does a person who sees any value in such ideas  address the osu issue?

I suggest one ignore all these theories. They deal with issues that are best verified by experiment. I doubt if the experience of marriage between people is one one would describe as the best character of  an experiment.

The discrimination against osu has shrank in Igboland over the vears without any harm but with only positive results  to Ndigbo. All the other discriminations should fall as evidence of freedom from subservience  to ideas that have been elevated as being above the interests of the communities they are supposed to serve.

thanks

toyin

> ...
>
> read more »

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