THE HISTORY OF THE OSU CASTE SYSTEM

THE HISTORY OF THE OSU CASTE SYSTEM

THE HISTORY OF THE OSU CASTE SYSTEM

Osu in ancient Igbo simply means “SPECIAL”

There was nothing like Osu caste system in Igbo land until the invasion of the foreigners with Slave Trade.

Men and women were being sold for slavery, sometimes because of their stubbornness or because the families needed money. You can research about why people were sold into slavery.

Those refered to as Osu were those who decided not to be sold into slavery; so they had to run but who are they running to and where will they run and hide that they won’t be caught? Even if they are not caught, how will they survive?

So the best way for safety was to run to the shrines of their deities for protection and refuge.

Because of the respect the people had for these deities, they won’t harm them and by that, no one would touch them because they are “SPECIAL ONES FOR THE GODS”.

This remind me of our practice in the village, if you are being chased by someone, you can run to an elder for cover because that person pursuing you will respect that person and leave you. You can even run to a tree for protection if you see no one to protect you and that person will respect the tree and leave you because they know it’s bad to drag you out and punish you cause even the tree can fight you, it’s not a cooked up story but that’s reality.

Because the practice of running to the deities for protection against being sold to the Westerners for slavery, they made a proclamation that no one should buy, sell, marry or associate with those regarded as OSU (SPECIAL PEOPLE) because they now belong to the Gods.

This was aimed at scaring people from running away from being sold into slavery, so they can easily be sold because they don’t want to be excommunicated from the people because survival won’t be easy.

Only those known as Osu were interacting with others.

This is how the Osu Caste system came into our land.

Note: That you see people answering Nwaosu, Osuji, Osuagwu does not mean they are of the Osu Cas