Notes On The Osu System Among The Ibo of Owerri Province, Nigeria

International African Institute
Notes on the Osu System among the Ibo of Owerri Province, Nigeria Author(s): S. Leith-Ross Source: Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Apr., 1937), pp. 206-220 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1155783 . Accessed: 21/03/2013 10:38
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NOTES ON THE OSU SYSTEM AMONG THE IBO OF OWERRI PROVINCE, NIGERIA
S. LEITH-ROSS
forma compact masslivingin what THE Ibo of OwerriProvince ' gardencities' best termedvillage-areas, areperhaps straggling and where either of huts standin little a area covering large ground, bunchesor in walled compoundswith farmlands and unprotected senseof the word, forestbetween. The few towns,in the European anddatefromafterthe British thatexistaresemi-artificial occupation. but the bulk of the Schoolsand churchesare multiplying quickly, is still paganand illiterate.It is composedalmost densepopulation of farmers who, in certaindistricts,are also oil-nut exclusively no central democratic, recognizing gatherers.TheseIbo areintensely from the samestock and though comingapparently tribalauthority and speakingthe same language(althoughwith strong dialectical Theircompatriots, individualistic. arecuriously livingin differences) anothervillage-area by ties of only a few miles awaybut unrelated all of bearers as the considered ', are worst 'foreigners kinship, of the darkest and capable crimes. Daily habits, possiblecharacters methodsof farming,methodsof building,taboos,religiousconcepso thatthe investigator finds,aftermonths tions, varybewilderingly of work, that he has still nothingbut bits and piecesthat form no coherent whole. All he cando is to pickout a few of thepieceswhich themto the bestof his admittedly anddescribe him to seem significant in the hopethatothersmayfindthe linksbetween limitedknowledge them. with greatcare,yet Thesenotes on the Osu systemwerecollected remains unless one canalso supply show clearly how faintthe picture the frameinto whichit fits.
When talking to the natives of Owerri Province, one cannot help
to the Osu,nor canone help sooneror later,somereference hearing,

being struck by the look and the tone with which such referenceis made. Whether one is speaking to a man or a woman, illiterate or educated, pagan or Christian,the look of aversion is there, the tone
THE OSU SYSTEMAMONG THE IBO
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of horror and contempt. It is possible it may be quite a long time before one chancesto hearthem mentionedand then only by accident, but the fear and the mystery which surround the subject not only make accurateinformation difficultto obtain, but also prove that it has a greaterimportancethan is easy to gauge. One's first impression is that the Osu form a caste apart, in the natureof the Untouchablesof India; yet, as far as one is as yet aware, amongst the extremely democratic Ibo no classes, let alone castes, exist. The contempt these people inspire makes one think they must be engaged in particularlymenial or degrading tasks; yet one finds their chief duty is to offer certainsacrificeson behalf of their masters and to tend the shrines of the jujus.I One hears of certain rich and powerful Osu and yet one learns that not even the poorest peasant would allow his daughter to marry one of them. One thinks they may be of a differentand enemy tribe, or of criminaldescent, marked for ever on account of their ancestry; but one is told they are of ordinaryIbo stock and that their forefathersheld authorityand commanded respect. All one learns concerning their history from superficialinquiriesis that the Osu are men and women who have been, or to a jujuwhose whose forefathershave been, offeredas living sacrifices wrathwas feared,thus becoming' slaves of the juju '. One also learns that they usually live segregatedfrom other people, that no one will willingly eat with them, that no one will marrythem, that there is no greater insult than to call another man an Osu. They farm, trade, travel, like ordinarybeings but always on the edge of society, their existenceso little recognizedthat a non-Osu would not be considered responsiblefor an Osu's death any more than if he had shot a bird or killed a wild animal.2 An explanationof a situationso full of contraditionsand so foreign to the general trend of Ibo tribal life would be psychologicallyvaluable and socially desirable. It is thereforeall the more disappointing that a clear account of the origins of the Osu, of the phases through
I I have fallen back on the use of the word 'juju' through inabilityto decide on a better one, ' god ' or ' spirit' being equally unsatisfactory. 2 This is probablyonly true of descendantsof Osu. An individualwho had been purchased for dedication would be the joint property of the donor and the juju and therefore would have to be replacedby whoever had caused his death.
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THE OSU SYSTEM AMONG THE IBO
which they have passed and their exact functions to-day should be so hard to obtain. Once again (as happens so often when working amongst the Ibo), one must perforcebegin by abandoningthe search for what' facts ' might be and try to lay hold of what' feelings ' there are. Yet a few facts, contradictoryas are those I have collected, are necessaryas a framework. 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 OwerriProvince. They appear to follow the custom of dedicating' slaves of the juju ' who are then known as ' Osu ', but I did not gathertherewas any stigma attached to this form of' slavery' nor that the existenceof such ' slaves ' leads to any sort of social problem. Quite possibly, as Ibo customs vary so much, no such stigmaexists among the Ngwa. In anycase,the account made no great impression and it was not till some time later, when visiting a village-areain the Okigwi Division in the northernpart of the Owerri Province, that my interpreter,a ChristianIbo woman, native of that area, when asked who lived in a certain compound, answered with bated breath: 'Them be Osu ' and, by her attitude, aroused my curiosity. At the same moment, my colleague, Miss M. M. Green, working in anotherpart of the Owerri Province, told me she had also chancedto come across the existence of this institution and had also been struckby the violence of the reactionproduced in non-Osu people wheneverthe subjectwas mentioned. Though our notes concerning it show many discrepanciesas to actual facts, she sharedmy opinion that it had a greatersignificancethan was realized and might take years to disappear,even with the help of the rapid and education. advance of Christianity From that moment I tried to gather all the information I could, both from non-Osu people and from the Osu themselvesbut, so careful had one to be, that it was often impossible to check statements sufficientlycarefullyor to press certainimportantpoints. Nevertheless, the system is so curious from the psychological standpointand has so great, though subtle, a social importanceeven to-day, that it
I I do not think there is any mention of the Osu in any of Mr. AmauryTalbot's books, and in ArchdeaconBasden'sAmongtheIbosof NigeriaI can find only a brief referenceto the fact that slaves were occasionallygiven to the jujus.
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seems worth while attempting to describe it, even if the details are often impreciseand sometimes conflicting. The areain which the Osu system is found is ill-definedand is not co-extensive with the Ibo-speaking people; nor, as far as one can judge, is it, at any rate nowadays, co-extensive with the worship of any special juju. It appears to be strongest in Owerri Province, stretching down below Aba and up into Onitsha Province, nearly as far as Onitsha town, on the eastern bank of the Niger. It does not seem to be known in the Enugu area,nor yet among the Ibo-speaking people of Ogoja Province. There seemed little, if any, trace of it at Oguta on the western boundaryof Owerri Province. The present number of Osu must be considerable. An Osu informantput it at 3 per cent. of the populationbut it is probablymore, at any ratein certaindistricts. Their numberis augmented: (i) by the acquisitionand dedicationof new Osu, both male and female; (2) by men and women taking refuge in an Osu household (a form of sanctuary)and thereby voluntarily becoming Osu; (3) by the pawning of young children who are subsequently dedicated by their temporary masters to the family juju; (4) by births; and (5) very infrequentlyby marriage. All childrenof Osu parentsare Osu themselves and all free-born individuals who dare to marry an Osu become Osu. The acquisitionand dedicationof new Osu must be very rarenow though not unknown. A cow would be generallysubstitutedfor an individual or, in the case of certainjujus, certainanimalsthat would in an Osu housebe especiallyagreeableto that juju. Taking sanctuary hold is also rareto-day though I have heard of one recent case. The dedication of pawned children, though, I believe, contraryto native law, is probably still practisedto a certain degree and under various disguises. In general,all childrenof Osu parentsare consideredOsu; only in one or two areasare the children'immediatelytaken'I to their parents'master,brought up with the latter'sown childrenand are not regardedas Osu. The marriagebar will be referredto later. No one wishes to be called upon to dedicatea slave to his juju as it involves so much expense: the purchase of the individual to be dedicated,the fee to the priestwho performsthe dedicationceremony
I Presumablyimmediatelyafter they have been weaned.
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and which I am told is usually about ?2, and the various gifts and sacrificesthat have to be made. Indeed, it is considered a form of maledictionfor one man to say to another: ' May your jujuask you to give him an Osu !' But public opinion is still so strong that even a Christian mightfeel compelledto offereitheran individualor an animal for fearthat otherwisehis familyor his village might sufferif the juju's demands, made through the priest and interpretedby the diviner, were not granted. A man, especiallya Christian,might have either the moral courage or be sufficiently sophisticated to ignore these demands so long as the risk affected him alone, but it is wellnigh impossible for him to endure the thought of a possible retribution falling upon his parents, or his townsfolk. The origin of the system is uncertain. Most informantssay 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 certainit existed in the time of his grandfather-but that it does not date 'from time immemorial'. Only one, himself an Osu, made an attempt to give a detailedhistory, of which the following is a resume in his own words: 'In the dayswhen Ci-ukuru(the Long Juju of AroI fame) was acknowledged the supreme divinity of Ibo-land, the Aro claimed superiorityover the Ibo as being themselves the children of Ci-ukuru. It was their prerogativeto solemnize all sacrificesordered whatever articleswere by their Mother Ci-ukuru,and to appropriate offeredher by her worshippers. In those days of constant feuds and inter-tribalwars, it was the rule that a life should pay for a life and if any difficultiesarose in the way of killing a man to indemnifythe one who had been killed by the enemy, it was the custom to appealto the Long Juju for assistance. It happened once that a chief was killed during a tribalwar between two towns nearAbaja(Umuduru),about thirty miles from Owerri town. Severalfruitlesseffortswere made to avenge his death and, as a last resort, the Long Juju was consulted. The Long Juju ordainedthe sacrificeswhich should be offeredat the grave of the dead chief in orderto entrapthe spiritof the enemy chief,
I Aro or Aro Chuku is in CalabarProvince, not far from the easternboundary of Owerri Province. The Long Juju, through its oracle, had immense influence throughout the country until destroyed by the British during the Aro Expedition of 1901.
2II
but to render these sacrificesacceptable,they had to be made by an Aro. In order to get round the difficultyof finding an Aro in such a remote spot (there was actuallya small Aro colony in the districtbut it was settled in the very compound of the enemy chief so could not be communicatedwith) to solemnize both this and subsequentsacrifices, Ci-ukuruadvised that a non-Aro should be "consecrated" as " Osu " or "pro-Aro " and thus becomeeligible to offersuch sacrifices. Such a person should be a strangerto 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 reverenceand lead a chaste and humble life. He was to mediatebetweenthe people and the Long Jujuthrough her son, Otamiri,the principlegod of the Owerri area.' is not known The name of the man chosen for this first consecration but shortly after, again on the advice of Ci-ukuru,one Agobie was consecratedthe firstOsu at Mgwoma(off the Owerri-Abaroad),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 consecratedto them. As a result, one Ehihe was consecratedat Mgahiri, one Mbaleto at Ebu (three miles from Owerritown), Nwaezealaat Owerriand Ewerekeat Umuawka. These Osu soon began to grow rich on the fruits of their officeand thus freeborn men began to volunteerto become Osu, a then enviableposition. One of these volunteers was Gbagwuruegbe, a free-born native of Okwu-Oratta. His descendantsnow inhabit an importantvillage of Orattaand to-day numberover 300. (This informationwas confirmed from another source but my informant stated, I think erroneously, that Gwagwuruegbewas ' the first of the line of Osu ' and becamean Osu voluntarily so as to have ' an extra share of meat '.) Other informants could only state that the system had been instituted so as to appeasethe 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 requiredthat a slave should be given him. Amongst the Ngwa, it appearsthat the victim might offer his own son or, if that gave no result, his own daughter, but other Ibo were horrifiedat the idea and declaredthat no father could be so inhumanas to make his own childreninto Osu. One non-Osu
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informant said that in her part of the country, the Osu system had been institutedmerelyto 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 for him and thus sparehim trouble. It will be seen that some sacrifices of the informantsstress the Osu's role as official sacrificeron behalf of his master, while others only regard him as a sop thrown to the juju to placate his anger and avoid further misfortune. Another version, but which was only given me at second hand by a non-Ibo informant,definitelymade out that the Osu were scapegoats. If a man thought he had been cursed,he would go to a divinerwho would tell him which juju he had offendedand what the juju requiredas a sacrifice. It might be a fowl, or a cow, or a man. If a man, he would be purchasedfrom 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 informanthas corroboratedthis scapegoat aspect, though an Efik seemed familiar with a somewhat similaridea. I have various versions of the ceremony of dedication. The first was written down for me by the sameinformantwho gave the detailed history of the origin of the Osu system. ' The ceremonyof dedication usually takes place at night, the officiating members being the juju priest, the man or the head of the family on whose behalf the Osu is being consecrated,and other Osu. These form a procession led by the priest and sing a song such as the following: "We go in peace, We hopefor peace; We comein peace, Peaceis most desirable." The song is repeateduntil the shrineof the jujuis reached. The priest then throws some palm wine and kola nuts before the shrine and repeatsthe formulafor calling the juju'sattention. The man bringing the Osu stands behind him or her, and says: " I present to thee this day a man (or woman) to be admittedto the order of the Osu according to thy holy desire. Endue him (or her) plenteouslywith grace to
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serve thee as it pleasesthee. May his servicebring thee joy and a blessing to my house. Increasethe birth-rateof 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 worshipthee." Then the Osu says: "0 great god, I have this day taken thee for my father and have been called into this sacred order of Osu. I would not choose to die in the performanceof my duty. Bless me, and bless this man who has brought me to thee, and bless all those who are here present." He then takes native chalk and makes markson the foreheadof his donor, saying: " I markpeace on your forehead-your life-so may you live and live healthily-not straying." He also marksall present,including the priest,in turn,saying: " I mark peace on you-your life-so may you continue to be strong-not dying-not straying." The ceremonyis then brought to a close and all returnhome singing as before:
" We return in peace, &c...."'
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 anothertown and acquiresone. 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 assembledhousehold, the donor of the Osu comes and stands by the door-post of his house with the basket containing the gifts placedon 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' numberamong the Ibo), then walks four times round the assembledpeople, and finallyhas 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.
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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 informantgave two accounts: (a) Once a man has been finallyconsecrated,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 calledhim by it. (b) The other account was: after the consecrationthe 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 threadwas tied round the Osu's neck, but now they wear no outward sign. Though both these versions were given by Owerriinformants,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, parentsarereadyto offertheirown childrenandthat apparently no stigma is attachedin 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 considerableimportance. It is this change in status, if true, which is one of the most interesting featuresfrom the psychological standpointand which constitutes one of the chief grievances of the present-dayOsu. On the whole, evidence from various sources goes to support their claim that in olden days they were regardedwith awe and veneration ratherthan with the contempt and dislike they inspire now. 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 representativeof a god, it was sacrilege to illtreat or molest him. He lived apart,not because he was an inferior being, but becausethe people regardedhim 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 marrytheir children to those of an Osu; and on the other hand, Osu parentswho brought up their children on the strict moral lines incumbent on them, pre-
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ferred them to marry other Osu children trained in the same way. Thus the ever-wideninggulf between Osu and non-Osu, especiallyas regards marriagerelations, was fixed. It was purely a question of religious differenceand not of inferiority.' The accounts of the consecrationceremonies,if at all accurate,bear out at severalpoints the statementthat the first Osu held positions of trust and importance. It would indeed be strange(againin thlewords of my Osu informant)' that the mediatorbetween the people and their god should be despisedand molested.... Consideringthe important partplayed by the individualin 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.' Unfortunately,the growing wealth and power of the head Osu' excited jealousy, so efforts were made to make any new Osu immediatelyunderstandthat he was an inferior,who would be askedto perform menial tasks in the household of his purchaseras well as fulfil its religious obligations, and was obliged to live outside the compound. This new attitudetowards the Osu was facilitatedby the fact that the slave tradewas then active and that it was easy to buy slaves, men, women, and children,as offerings to the juju. Thus the Osu system quickly degeneratedinto little more than a form of slavery, with all the more stigma attachedto 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 ordinaryslaves (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 interdictionholds good. What exactlywere the past or are the presentrelationsbetween the priests and the Osu is hard to determine. The only priest to whom I could speakfreely on the subjectreferredto 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 regardedthem
I The head Osu was the senior of the Osu consecratedto any particularjuju. He stood in the relationshipof 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.
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merely as individualswho had been offeredto appeasethe wrath of an offendedjuju and in no way as ' mediatorsbetween the people and their god '. Yet even he admittedthat in olden days the position had not been the same and that the Osu, though alwaysfeared, owing to their close relationshipwith the jujus, had been venerated. It is thus possible that jealousyon the part of the priestswho saw some of their to the Osu, may also have been a cause importancebeing transferred of the latter's social downfall. The present-dayattitudetowardsthe Osu as a classprobablyvaries a good deal accordingto the areaunder examination;but in all parts, whether among Christianor pagan, and whether the general attitude is one of toleration or not, the marriagebar holds good. and ChrisIn Owerritown, with its many travelled,semi-educated, it is surprisingto find how strong the anti-Osufeeling tian inhabitants, still is. My impressionshave been gatheredfrom a numberof sources and from casual incidents, and each time I have been struck by the depth of feeling the subject has aroused. An educated Yoruba lady who saw a good dealof the girls had noticed the samething and shared my surprise,such an institution being unknown among the Yoruba. If the unguarded conversations of schoolgirls and the spontaneous remarksof men and women revealsuch strong feelings, it must surely prove that the antipathyis still a living force. All the same, it is not easy to gauge how far discriminationgoes, especially as the native often unconsciouslymisleadsone into thinking that past customs still hold good in the present. Also the discrimination often seemsillogical: a man would buy yams to eat from an Osu but would not buy seed yams to plant. Many people would now eat with an Osu but do not want to live close to them as ' on certainnights, their juju rubs their skins with something that gives them a bad smell ', yet an Osu could be nominatedby the jujuto work on a ' mbari house 'I and would then both eat and sleep with the others. The childrenof an Osu are even more despisedthan their father, who at least started as a free-born, while the children are pure Osu blood. Though no free-born man
I A 'mbarihouse' is a form of temporary shrine apparentlyconfined to the Owerri district. Its erection and decoration demand a considerable number of workers, men and women, who are said to be chosen by the jujuthrough the intermediaryof a diviner.
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would marryan Osu woman, for in doing so he would himselfbecome an Osu, in some parts he would be quite willing to lie with her and no stigma would be attachedto him. On the other hand, should a free-born girl have intercourse with an Osu before marriage, even though it were not found out and she marrieda free-born,she would have difficultyin conceiving 'after having had intercoursewith an Osu '. Should by chance a girl fall in love with an Osu and insist on marryinghim, ' she would never be allowed to see her mother again nor to speak of her as " Mother ", nor would the mother call her "Daughter" any more'. Segregation ig still maintained,most of the big compounds (nci) having smaller compounds close to them in which live the Osu and their descendantsbelonging to the households which form the big compound. Social discriminationprobablyvaries a good deal accordingto the standing and the means of the Osu in question. But apartfrom the wellnigh inviolable marriage bar, there does seem to be a sort of intangiblebarrierbetween the free-bornand the Osu, which the more educated man feels acutely. 'We can be quite friendly together and talk and make jokes but we would never be told all that is in the other man'smind. We would never be realfriends.' He can sincerely wish to do something for the good of his town, but has the feeling that people will wonder that he daresto put himselfforward,becomes discouraged and gives up. He knows he is always in a minority, becomes super-sensitiveand cannot forget that' the word " Osu " as applied to a man to-day brands him as one to be scorned, maligned, and unjustly treated without any regard for his feelings'. There is and self-pityin these words undoubtedlyan element of dramatization but this particularinformant, a man of about thirty, was above the average in education and intelligence, and he did probablyvoice the feelings of the younger, thinking Osu. And even more telling were the words of his companion: ' On Sports Day, if we win a race, no one cheers us. . .. The more tangible hardshipsare those caused by the marriagebar. Apart from the stigma attachedto the fact that a man may not marry whom he likes, it means that an Osu, especiallyan educatedone, has only a very limited choice; and, curiously enough, Christianityhas
Q
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done nothing to enlargethis choice, for the bar remainsjust as strong among Christiansas among pagans. I have heard of a few isolated instancesof marriagebetween Osu and non-Osu Christians, but every Christianto whom I have spoken myself has repudiatedthe idea with the same horror as the most orthodox pagan. One really earnestand intelligent Christian,from whom I would have expected complete tolerance,at least in word if not in deed, explainedhis attitudethus: ' A man'sreligion is his personalaffair. The fact that a man is an Osu by birth and blood remains. He still lives among the Osu, is related to them, sharesland or palms or food with them. Were he or his forefathersordinaryslaves, it would not matter,but nothing will wipe out dedicationto a juju.' The fellowship and equalityof the Churchmade no difference,marriagewas unthinkable. The man himself might be all right but, Christianor not, his blood was tainted; though what exactlyit is they fear, they seem unable to express, save by a grimace of loathing and the mumbled words: ' They be too close for juju.' Another tangible hardshipis the alleged discriminationagainst the Osu in Courtcases. It is statedby Osu informantsthat they often have no representativesamong the Court members and are therefore at a disadvantage. A number of cases were cited as examples. I had no means of checking the accuracyof the versions given nor did I wish to appeartoo interestedin what was quite outside my own sphere of work, but the details were fairly convincing. Non-Osu informants it is not declarethat no discrimination would be shown but apparently only miscarriageof justice the Osu fear but the disgrace of being subjected to public taunts. Non-Osu themselves will say that if in conversation an argument gets hot, one man will say to another: ' Know yourself before you dare talk to me (i.e. realizewhat you are beforeyou darespeakto a free-bornlike me)!' If the other is an Osu, he will be shamed into silence; if he is not, he will answer angrily: ' Why do you tell me to know myself? Am I an Osu? ' In areasother than Owerri, one finds some variationsof the system and some differencein the attitude of the non-Osu. For example,in a village-areaof the Okigwi Division, I found one colony of some 300 Osu who shareda compoundwith about an equalnumberof freeborn, some of whom were Christians. This shows segregationis not as complete as in, for instance,Owerritown, though the marriagebar
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was as strictly observed. My informant, a local Christianwoman, unusually charitablyminded, spoke of them with actual repulsion, said they were universally disliked and described with contempt as ' eaters of he-goats ', a referenceto the fact that they have right to certainportions of the sacrificesofferedto the jujus. She also said that the Aro and Osu intermarried.Otherinquirieson this subjectreceived so many conflicting replies that I am not yet clear on this point; but there does seem to be some elusive link between the feared and admiredAro and the feared and despised Osu. This sameinformantvolunteeredthe statementthat many Osu were making great sacrificesto send their children to Mission schools so that they, by adopting Christianity, might escapefrom their Osu-hood, she be would added,they though, disappointedin this. I was not able to check this suggestive statementbut if it were true, which is likely, it would make an interestingparallelto Dr. Ambedkar'sadvice to the Depressed Classes of India to leave Hinduism for other faiths, with a view to end the ' inhumancruelties' inflictedon these classesby the caste Hindus. In anothervillage-areaof the Okigwi Division, an Osu died recently and his body was thrown into the bush. As he had occasionally attended the services of the Methodist Mission, the church people made a collection, got the corpse, and gave it a proper funeral. This much impressed the village and is the only instance of the kind of which I have heard. At Ugueme in the OnitshaProvince, a non-Osu and an Osu can eat but may not sleep together; an Osu may not bathe in a streamat the same time as the wife of a non-Osu. In olden days, both here and elsewhere, the Osu were used on occasion as a sort of police; and in case of war, were sent to carrythe flag of truce. Even in the artificial atmosphereof Enugu and Port Harcourt,both places to which the Osu system is not indigenous, discrimination exists; before a clerk arrivesto take up a post, though he be a stranger from a hundredmiles away, rumourmay say that he is an Osu and the gates of the clerks' tennis club will be closed against him. The Osu system seems to be one of the few native institutions which serves no useful purpose from no matterwhat angle one considers it and, as far as one can see, the sooner it dies out the better.
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That the system itself, that is to say the creation of new Osu, the dedicationof human beings to the service of the juju, will die out in perhapslittle more than a generationis fairly certain;but what of the social stigma attachedto the Osu themselves and their descendants ? Little can be done to eradicateit by Governmentaction, rathermore by the Missions, much more by time and the disintegratingeffect on the firmest-heldbeliefs of travel and sojourns in increasinglycosmopolitan towns. Nevertheless,a belief that containssuch an element of repugnancewill die hard and till it does, one cannot but be sorry for the younger, educatedOsu who are suffering,not for the sins of their fathers, but for the sins done unto their fathers. Their compensation may be that the inferioritycomplexunderwhich they labourhas given them a sensitiveness greatly lacking in their free-born compatriots, and thus a spiritual superioritywhich should atone for their social S. LEITH-Ross. inferiority. Resume
LE SYSTPME OSU CHEZ LE PEUPLE IBO DU NIGERIA on etudie les indigenes de la province d'Owerri, membres de l'importante QUAND tribu Ibo, tot ou tard on entend parler,quoique toujours avec contrainte,de gens appeles Osu, les ' esclaves des dieux '. Quoique les Osu sont de race Ibo et ne portent aucun signe exterieur d'inferiorite,ils sont consideres comme des gens a part et traites avec le plus profond mepris, melange d'effroi. Ce mepris se porte non seulement sur l'homme (ou la femme) qui a ete ' achete ' par un individu, victime de la colere d'un dieu, pour etre dedie a ce dieu afin d'apaiserson courroux, mais sur tous ses descendants. Aucun homme libre n'epouseraitune femme Osu, ni permettraita sa fille d'epouserun homme Osu, quoique le mariageavec les descendantsd'esclavesautresque les ' esclaves des dieux ' est permis. En plus, les Osu doivant vivre a part et n'ont pour ainsi dire aucunepart dans la vie commune. Pourtant les quelques renseignements que l'on peut obtenir sur leur origine, certains details de la ceremonie de consecration, et ce que disent les Osu euxmemesfont croirequ'audebut leurposition etaittout autrequ'ellen'est aujourd'hui. La raison de cette decheanceest encore a chercher,ainsi que la raison de ce melange de haine, de peur, et de dedainqui les poursuit encore, meme aujourd'huiet, ce qui est le plus frappant,meme dans les milieux chretienset instruits.

Notes On The Osu System Among The Ibo of Owerri Province, Nigeria

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Notes On The Osu System Among The Ibo of Owerri Province, Nigeria

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International African Institute

to the Osu,nor canone help sooneror later,somereference hearing,

THE OSU SYSTEMAMONG THE IBO

THE OSU SYSTEM AMONG THE IBO

THE OSU SYSTEM AMONG THE IBO

THE OSU SYSTEM AMONG THE IBO

THE OSU SYSTEMAMONG THE IBO

THE OSU SYSTEMAMONG THE IBO

THE OSU SYSTEM AMONG THE IBO

THE OSU SYSTEM AMONG THE IBO

THE OSU SYSTEMAMONG THE IBO

THE OSU SYSTEM AMONG THE IBO

THE OSU SYSTEM AMONG THE IBO

THE OSU SYSTEM AMONG THE IBO

THE OSU SYSTEM AMONG THE IBO

THE OSU SYSTEM AMONG THE IBO

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