Igbo Culture - Correcting The Misconception Of The Ancient 'Osu' Caste System

One of the evil creations of colonialism in Africa was the demonization of African culture, the bastardization of African traditional practices, and the sheer arrogance exhibited by the colonial masters by describing African culture and traditions as accursed and inferior. One of such misinterpretation was the ‘Osu’ and ‘Ume’ caste system. I have carried out researches & written on many Igbo traditions for many years, excavating any credible ancient history and one of my findings is that, first of all, the caste system in Igboland (South-Eastern Nigeria) was never the same with that in India. Most people who talk about the ancient caste system in Igboland have no clue what they were and how they originated. Therefore, like the proverbial description of an Elephant by the five blind men, each blind man described the ‘Elephant’ from where he touched.

The truth is that an ‘ Osu’ was never a slave in Igboland, and never accursed. A slave is an ‘Ohu’. History has shown that there is no community in the Igboland in the ancient days who were either salves or slave decedents. The closest the Igbos came to slave culture was when someone was used to redeem a debt as an ‘Ohu’. The ‘Ohu’ served a number of years to redeem the financial debt and was usually set free to go back to his/her original home afterwards. Igbos never officially had ‘Ohu’ for any deity. What the Igbo’s had were the priest and this was were the Ancient ‘Osu’ came to play. An ancient 'Osu' or 'Ume' was someone dedicated to serve a deity as a priest. In the Ancient Igbo history he was highly revered, and untouchable because he was the god/goddess personified. Anyone who hurt him hurt the god/ goddess he served and was punished. That untouchability was almost extended to royalty because an Osu could simply seize anyone’s property by simply circling it with fresh palm-fronds ( omu-nkwu ). Afterwards, that property belonged to him. This display of arrogance in taking over people’s property because the “…gods said so…” was what earned the Osu’s the animosity and hate from the rest of the society, since aggrieved people had no one to complain to. The 'Osu' was untouchable and protected by gods/goddesses.

Fast-forward to when the colonial masters came to Igboland, they demonized the Igbo-culture including the traditional religions, titles, music, deities, shrines and the Osu’s who served as the go between the populace and the gods/goddesses. The Osu’s unexpectedly put up a fight to protect the deities they worshiped in other to protect the privileges they enjoyed (understandably). Thereby they became the public enemy number one of the colonial masters. This was what led to the modern definition of the ‘Osu’ as accursed outcasts. Before the colonial masters, they were never treated as accursed. They were not accursed by the Igbo culture rather by the colonial masters who tried to take over their traditional functions by imposing their own religion on the people. Of course the colonial masters came with their own Christian priests who labeled the traditional priests (Osu) as evil, unwanted, accursed; encouraged them to repent and join the Christian religion to be cleansed. Those who refused, put themselves in the line of fire.

Since most African history was written by the literate colonialists, this was where the ‘Osu’, ‘Ume’, and other African traditions were demonized and passed down to generations who read such false histories. Today you would almost need the discernment of biblical Moses to get to the truth of most African culture because they were not accurately documented. The little we know about them today was what the colonial masters either wrote down or misinterpreted to suit their purposes. By all indication from the remnants of archeological findings, the Osu’s were the likes of today’s Reverend fathers who don't marry, are somehow untouchable because they dedicate their lives to the Catholic church, and therefore highly revered by the people. We also know the cold war between modern day Reverend Fathers and pastors of Pentecostal churches over supremacy which could be likened to the battle of supremacy between the Osu’s and the colonial masters over who should be revered in the land.

Osu’s and Ume’s were never slaves (Ohu) in Igboland. They were never accursed in Igbo culture, they were never ‘Ikengas’ . They probably were hated because of their arrogance and untouchablity – because they never went to wars, they and their offspring were never killed and offered as sacrifices to shrines. Therefore, they walked freely when local head-hunters were looking for human sacrifices. In the ancient days they were not allowed to take traditional titles or mingle/ inter-marry with the ‘sinful’ populace because they were supposed to remain pure in order to perform their priestly duties. They were not expected to be ‘worldly’. In those days they could also take over people’s property by claiming “..thus said the gods..”. These were the origin of the jealousy, animosity, and hatred the ancient Igbos had for them that led to the much-talked about discrimination between them and the ‘Diala’s’ (free-borns).

The ‘Osu’ and ‘Ume’ caste system have been abolished by the Government of the eastern region in Nigeria and by the subsequent state governments. It has been abolished by the Catholic church/ most other churches (religion). It has been officially abolished by the council of traditional rulers in Igboland (the custodians of the same Igbo culture that recognized it). Therefore, it is non-existent before the law, man and God today. Anyone today who still discriminates against another based on the misinterpretation of that ancient culture is outright evil and a criminal (because he/she is committing an offense against the state). Today there’s absolutely nothing that forbids inter-marriage between any communities or persons in Igboland. Anyone who tries to enforce that remotely, subtly or aggressively should be reported to the Government for appropriate sanctions. Thousands of descendants of so-called ancient 'Osu', 'Ume', and 'Diala' have inter-married, inter-marrying, living healthily, happily and making progress at all fronts in many Igbo communities.

WE own the land, WE instituted the traditions, WE also have decreed that there’s no more caste systems in Igboland.

Matthew 16:19: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

Matthew 18:18: “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”


- Godwin C. Nwaogwugwu (Founder and Director Imoonline Youth Entrepreneurship Development Program. [url] www.imoonline.org[/url] )