₦airaland Forum

Is it on my thread u are using 2 vent ur anger?

I do not really know the section to post this buh I think the mods in charge can help me out here
Osu caste system is an obnoxious practice among
the Igbo in south east Nigeria which has refused to
go away despite the impact of Christianity,
education and civilization, and the human rights
culture.
Many people have condemned the system which
has traumatized many innocent people but the
problem persists. But one fact is that the Osu
system of discrimination is an outdated tradition
with no basis for its continued practice and
observance in the contemporary Igbo society.
Traditionally, there are two classes of people in
Igboland – the Nwadiala and the Osu.
The Nwadiala literally meaning ‘sons of the soil’.
They are the masters while the Osu are the people
dedicated to the gods; so they are regarded as
slaves, strangers, outcasts and untouchables.
Chinua Achebe in his book, No longer At Ease,
aptly describes Osu thus: “Our fathers in their
darkness and ignorance called an innocent man
Osu, a thing given to the idols, and thereafter he
became an . outcast, and his children, and his
children’s children forever”.
The Osus are treated as inferior human beings and
kept in a state of permanent and irreversible
disability; they are subjected to various forms of
abuse and discrimination. The Osu are made to
live separately from the freeborn; they reside very
close to shrines and market places.
The Osu are not allowed to dance, drink, hold
hands, associate or have sexual relations hip with
the Nwadiala. They are not even allowed to break
kola nut at meetings or pour libation or pray to
God on behalf of a freeborn at any community
gathering.
It is believed that such prayers will bring calamity
and misfortune.
According to human rights groups, some of the
atrocities meted out against the Osu in Igboland
include: parents administering poison to their
children, disinheritance, ostracism, organized
attacks, heaping harvest offering separately in
churches, denial of membership in social clubs,
violent disruption of marriage ceremonies, denial
of chieftaincy titles, deprivation of property and
expulsion of wives.
The Osu caste discrimination is very pronounced
in the area of marriage. An Osu cannot marry a
freeborn. The belief is that any freeborn that
marries an Osu defiles the family. So freeborn
families are always up in arms against any of their
members who wants to . marry an Osu.
They go to any length to scuttle the plan. Because
of the Osu factor, marriages in Igboland are
preceded by investigations– elders on both side
travel to native villages to find out the social
status of the other party. And if it is found that one
of them is an Osun, the plan would be
automatically abandoned. Many marriage plans
have been aborted, while married couples have
been forced to divorce because of the Osu factor.
Chinua Achebe also notes this in his book. When
Okonkwo learns that his son wants to marry Clara,
an Osu, Okonkwo says: “Osu is like a leprosy in
the minds of my people. I beg of you my son not
to bring the mark of shame and leprosy into your
family. If you do, your children and your children’s
children will curse you and your memory – you
will bring sorrow on your head and on the heads of
your children.”
Sometime last year, a young educated Igbo man,
a successful business entrepreneur based in
Atlanta (USA) had been engaged to be married to
an Igbo lady, who was a medical doctor. The Igbo
lady was already pregnant for the man. During the
customary family introduction, it was discovered
that the lady was an “Osu” and immediately the
wedding arrangements were terminated. The lady
gave birth to a baby boy and now lives in Houston
(USA) as a single parent. The Igbo man has
refused any form of contact with the lady and his
child with all the education, western culture,
civilization and exposure to Christian teachings.
And not too long ago, I met a lady in a friend’s
house in Lagos. I was told that she was engaged
to a young man from Imo State. Months later, I
learnt that the marriage plan had been cancelled
because the lady was said to be an Osu.
There have been several instances like that where
young men and women of Igbo extraction have
suffered emotional trauma as a result of this
cultural malaise. And now the question is, why is it
that this cultural practice has refused to go away
even among educated Igbos? The reason is not far
fetched. The practice of Osu caste system is
hinged on religion, supernaturalism and theism.
And Igbos are deeply religious and theistic people.
Osu are regarded as unclean or untouchable
because they are (alleged to be) dedicated to the
gods. So it is the dedication to the gods that
makes the Osu status a condition of permanent
and irreversible disability and stigma.
The discriminatory Osu practice involves
inequality in freedom of movement and choice of
residence, inequality in the right of peaceful
association, inequality of residence, inquality in
the right of peaceful association, inequality in the
enjoyment of the right to marry and establish a
family, (and) inequality in access to public office.
That is the crux of the matter with Osu caste in
Igboland. If one may ask, could a right exist if it is
not enforced? To put it differently, can a right
exist without a specific legislation that provides
for its protection and remedies when violated?
Oddly enough, the victims of the Osu system do
not have any legal remedy in Igboland. And
strangely, some people believe that the
humiliating Osu caste system is a part of the Igbo
culture nobody should tamper with.
The Osu case system in Igboland seems to have
changed the meaning of life for the group of
people branded Osu.
The maltreatment meted out to the Osu has
forced many of them to migrate to other
countries, many development projects
abandoned, marriages dissolved and pregnancies
terminated. In fact, so many crimes against
humanity have been committed against
individuals and groups in Igboland in the name of
Osu.
The Osu caste system has caused communal
strifes and wars between the Osu and the
Nwadiala in Igboland. According to the United
Nations definition, discrimination includes any
conduct based on a distinction made on grounds
of natural or social categories, which have no
relation either to individual capacities or merits or
to the concrete behavior of the individual person.
Based on the above, I suggest that something
drastic has to be done to eradicate this obnoxious
system. There is the urgent need for all Igbo
leaders of thought, the traditional rulers, the
governors, the clergymen and all the people that
matter to come together and enact a law
outrightly banning the system generally in
Igboland as there is no basis for its continued
existence

I just love this man

C wat was done 2 a man nd guys here are happy and supporting it buh if it was a female, d hell wuld hv bin let loose, though I dislike trump buh let's call a spade a spade

Y do all this pdp supporter always blaming APC for their woes, did APC forced them to take sheriff as their chairman in the Wst place. Why don't u guys blame yourselves for your grievous mistake and man up and face it

millionaireman:
Pity Oby Ezekwesili of Bring Back Our Girls.
Oby plunged into what she didn't understand much about when Chibok girls were kidnapped.

Because Buhari understands that Oby didn't know what she was doing, Oby can't make Buhari's appointees so far. Lesson.

your types are the reason why I don't comment on NL posts, so because oby fought a just course, she must get an appointment, did she in anyway tell you she is an APC member looking for appointment?

Wat I cn only observe here is dat d haters of dis govt have bin blinded of every reasonable ideas of judgement. Wat is wrong in d army declaring anybody wanted fr security issues, if d tink there's a link between d suspects nd BH den d hv d ryt 2 squeeze out info frm dem, pls buhari haters dis is nt how 2 play opposition. I rest my case

Nice, gud 2 knw

Osehnetworld:
i see
buhari got ur back

if d federal govt makes any move to remove him, ur type wil stil complain, saying he want 2 islamize d country or dat cuz he entad like senate president or all oda tins u say 2 discredit d president. So now I see there is nofin dat dis govt wil do 2 please ur type

My SE brodas yet again d party we claim to b ourz hv shown us dat we rily dnt hv a say in nigerian politics, let's just focus in wat we knw best dats business. Buh I rather support apc wit buhari dan pdp again

Of recent in lagos, there has been news of notorious gang called 1million boys, I don't if any of u guys here have heard about, it mainly loud at ojo area of lagos
BTW. Why is it that all the people arrested under this administration not pleading for there innocence but BAIL?

Tank God nobody cry fowl cry or smash d mic on d floor on dis, atleast people behaved matured

It was last year sept 1st 2014 that my younger sister who was just 16yrs brought a man to our house nd told us that she wants to marry him. Though at that time I was not around, was in my final year in school. We did all we could do to stop her from getting married then because we all know she was not ready yet and is very young to settle down at that age but all our advices fell on a deaf hear. Don't know what the guy have told her or brainwash her wit to make very adamant on the issue as he claim to be 29yrs thou we found out later he lied about his age. I was very much against it that I even stopped talkin to my sister but all I did didn't work because after every said and done she ended up doing her traditional marriage and I have no choice than to support her. The problem started that after few months of less than 2months, there was continuous complaint from the guy. My parents did all the could even I myself tried my own part for tins to work out between them, I constantly remained the guy that my sister is stil a small girl that he has to give her him to accept that she is now a married woman, cuz he was the one who agreed to tolerate her when we were telling him weda he wil be able to cope with a girl of her age. 5 months ago or so he sent my sister back home on the ground that my parents should help him train her a little that he will come back and take his wife, which the whole family agreed. But the story changed cuz each and every passing day story keeps coming out about the faithfulness of my sister, which I later discovered that the guy was the one who was instigating all the rumors cuz he wanted to marry anther woman. During the 1st few weeks of my sister stay at home, my mum discovered that she was pregnant and the told the guy, the idiot guy denied he was not responsible that she was not pregnant at his house. To cut the long story short, my sister is 5months pregnant now and she just turned 17 last month. And this guy has spoilt her future by marryin her and dumping her with pregnancy. And I can't sit and watch this happen, I need advice on whta to do cuz I hv alridy planned to take the case to court though am waiting for when the baby is delivered and DNA test is run and the baby is his, what I need from you guys is to help me with any human right strong lawyer contact who can help me in this case, because I want to make sure this guy pays darely for what he has done to my sister and my family, I wuld prefer a strong human right within the viccinity of ojo LGA of lagos state, pls admin notify me when I get reply on thisn pls no insults put yourself in my shoe and the 1st child/1st born, tanx in anticipation.

My name is obi, am a 24yrs old guy, I hv dis girlfriend who wil be 18 by december, she lives with her cousins in lagos. We are just 3mnths into our relationship buh the problem here is tjat her cousins she is living with want to have canal knowledge of her as she told though one has alridy raped her while the other one want to turn her to his sex slave, I really wanna help buh I don't know what to do as she wouldn't allow me say anytin against them, the one who even raped her has married and they are all living under same roof, please I rily want to do somthing to help herMy name is obi, am a 24yrs old guy, I hv dis girlfriend who wil be 18 by december, she lives with her cousins in lagos. We are just 3mnths into our relationship buh the problem here is tjat her cousins she is living with want to have canal knowledge of her as she told though one has alridy raped her while the other one want to turn her to his sex slave, I really wanna help buh I don't know what to do as she wouldn't allow me say anytin against them, the one who even raped her has married and they are all living under same roof, please I rily want to do somthing to help herMy name is obi, am a 24yrs old guy, I hv dis girlfriend who wil be 18 by december, she lives with her cousins in lagos. We are just 3mnths into our relationship buh the problem here is tjat her cousins she is living with want to have canal knowledge of her as she told though one has alridy raped her while the other one want to turn her to his sex slave, I really wanna help buh I don't know what to do as she wouldn't allow me say anytin against them, the one who even raped her has married and they are all living under same roof, please I rily want to do somthing to help her

Tanoids always looking for sumtin stupid to say, buh sorry no ish yet

Let dem go ahead nd hang themselves, who cares