This is a system of class discrimination which incorporates the belief that a class of people is to be disinherited and excluded from all association with others either because they are victims of ritual offering or are descended from such people. This system has its origin in the unholy religious culture of the Igbo people which used human beings for ritual sacrifice. The problem here is that even after the idols to which the people were dedicated to have been displaced by Christianity (to which about 85% of the people now belong), the caste system still resists all efforts made so far to stamp it out. The mere mention of the word Osu/Ohu in Igboland instills fear into both the freeborn and the Osu/Ohu themselves. The name causes a stir and discomfort and truly creates an atmosphere of suspicion or despair, pride or jealousy. The word “Osu/Ohu” is surrounded with an aura of the unholy and is usually mentioned in a whisper. Among those discussing or arguing, one may not know who is Osu or Ohu and who is not, since they are not physically different from the rest of their brothers and sisters in the environment in which they
259
live. Consequently, people are usually cautious to be careful when discussing an issue involving the use of the word.
In the course of this research, the writer found it very difficult to interview people. Those who opened up did so under confidentiality and anonymity. We discovered that the issue of Osu/Ohu caste system, though no more active as before, is not yet totally wiped out. Christianity has really brought enlightenment among the Igbo people but there are still people including our so-called Christians who do not accept that we are all created equal in the image and likeness of God. It is clearly observable in the issue of marriage where parents will not allow their sons or daughters to marry an Osu/Ohu. For such people Osu/Ohu are seen as second class citizens and they are treated as such most often. A. O. Gbuji reacting to the implication of such divisions among Christians (of which Osu/Ohu Priests are not spared) says:
A serious impediment to God’s mission of reconciliation in our time is not only the reality of destructive divisions and conflicts around the world, but also quite often the Church being caught up in these conflicts... It is scandalous that after many years of evangelization in our diocese that there are still places where the blood of ethnicity, tribalism, racialism, gender, caste, social class or mere friendship flow stronger than the waters of baptism and our confession of Christ... We experience today, divisions on the basis of origin and the persistence of son of the soil syndrome. Ethnicity, tribalism and clannish mentality and unhealthy competitiveness therefore threaten our beloved Christians. These forces can so pervade our diocese and people that they are passed on from generation to generation perpetuating distrust, fear, bitterness, exclusion, retribution, and the politics of hatred.260
His reaction is not out of place in anyway. For instance, in the course of this research someone narrated to the writer her experience that she received a gift from Osu family who is a Christian, of which on getting home, she informed her father about the gift and the source. The
260 Gbuji O.A., Homily at the Cathedraticum Mass at Holy Ghost Cathedral, Enugu”, in: Amuh, C.U., (ed.), Here I
father forbade her from using it although her father is a Christian.261 Thus, even among the Christians, some still fear the oracle or juju to which the Osu/Ohu must have been pledged, although with the advent of Christianity many of the Igbo traditional gods fell from their thrones and in their places the supreme and the one God of the Christians has been accepted and adored. The Osu/Ohu caste system in actual fact seems to challenge the Igbo concept of egalitarianism and freedom of association, even when the entire human race and governments of various political systems have come to acknowledge, at least in principle, the equality of all men before the supreme creator of all things or their equality before the law. The persistence of the practice and discrimination in Igboland is a cultural aberration which contradicts the basic cultural ethics of the Igbo achievement-oriented society. In Igbo worldview, people are generally believed to achieve their fame, rather than inherit it. But the defective socio - religious status of Osu/Ohu is believed to be inherited. Ndiokwere criticizing the hypocrisy of the practice of Osu said thus; “the Osu/Ohu begets an Osu/Ohu respectively. But the contradiction becomes more apparent in that the same contact of an Osu/Ohu with a 'diala' (that is a free-born), converts the latter into an Osu/Ohu and never vice - versa. Many Christian’s dialas have clandestine sexual contacts with them. But they do not have the courage to get into marriage with them.262 The Osu/Ohu caste system has become a real scourge and the most challenging problem confronting all Igbos - Christians and non - Christians in Nigeria as well as in Africa. It seemed however that Christianity failed to face the challenges or rather did not address itself sufficiently to the problems raised since the structure of the Igbo society gave no rights to the Osu or slave. According to Mbefo, “Ohuabunwa”, the slave is not a child means the slave can never have an inheritance nor enter the council of the owners of the land. This statement given as a name announces to the world the lack of status accorded to the slaves in Igbo society. Slaves were separated from the “diala” (free - born).... They could not marry nor be married by the “diala.”263