Religious underpinnings of the Osu caste system

Religion underlies cultural practices of all indigenous societies. If one regards religion as the interface between the mundane and ethereal, then it becomes easier to appreciate societal norms and practices of any given people as authentic reflection of the world in which they exist. Civilization has been advanced through the dissemination of values and influences that are aimed at improving the quality of existence of human societies since primordial times. This process has depended on change as a vehicle for bringing about desired outcomes. Change, whether for good or bad, has become part and parcel of the evolution of humanity. In the process of change, a given society may be radically transformed while others may still be able to retain major components of its past. The change that came to the African continent in the wake of European colonial conquests was intended to radically transform the indigenous African and his cultural values into a new mold that would suit the desires of alien overlords. In practice, however, the desired transformation of the indigenous African societies was truncated by deficiency of manpower and other resources that must be deployed to ensure proper entrenchment of a new order. The Igbo society is one of those indigenous African groups that underwent only a partial transformation during the colonial era.

The pressure to cope with running a global colonial empire while maintaining a home front that was pummeled by wars may have compelled Britain to devise the strategy of indirect rule in administering its vast and diverse Nigerian colony. There must have been a conscious decision to target strategic aspects of the indigenous societies for change while other less important components were allowed to remain intact. The calculation was that passage of time would eventually bring about desired changes in all other less strategic aspects. The prime focus of the Nigerian colonial administration was economic control and exploitation of indigenous manpower and material resources. To effect this, cosmopolitan business outfits were granted free rein to operate in colonial Nigeria with the objective of transforming it into a dependent appendage of industrial Britain. To meet the cost of running the colony, local head tax was introduced to collect money from every adult subject on regular basis as the administrators deemed necessary. Missionary groups were also recruited and deployed in colonial Nigeria to assist in lubricating this exploitative arrangement. The missionary groups were given the dual assignment of proselytizing the Christian faith and setting up rudimentary structure for Western education in most parts of Nigeria. Addressing sociocultural transformation of colonial Nigeria was left almost entirely at the discretion of European missionary societies that were operating inside the country.

The indigenous religion is intricately interwoven with Igbo cultural practices to the extent that might be difficult for outsiders to fully appreciate. The indigenous Igbo regards himself as a meeting point of Mother Earth or “Ala”, which contains all physical creation and the spirit force that is functionally linked to his ancestors. The Supreme Spirit “Chi-Ukwu” or “Chukwu” is the force of creation and the custodian of infinite power over everything. The Igbo man relates to this infinitely powerful God image through the intercession of spirit forces or deities that are ultimately linked up to one’s “chi” or spirit force. Deities are derived out of objects of creation such as geophysical landmarks like seas, lakes, rivers, streams, caves, hills and mountains. They are also created out of notable ancestral spirits such as warrior-kings and legendary spiritual leaders. An individual’s virtues or fortunes are determined by the byproduct of interactions that exist between one’s “chi”, the deities and the Creator or “Chineke”. Humans interact directly with deities which function as intermediaries to the Supreme Spirit or Creator. Being in good terms with powerful deities in one’s domain is an assurance that one is likely to obtain the largesse of creation while, at same time, minimize the wrath of the forces of nature. It is an individual’s obligation to observe taboos and customs of the land since their violation could offend the deities thereby reduce their willingness to intercede on one’s behalf. Deities are amenable to appeasement and supplications from humans in exchange for their goodwill and all the benefits that accrue from such cordial relationship.

Every homestead in indigenous Igbo community maintained a shrine where the family’s ancestral spirits resided and communed with the living. There were also village and town deities which became more powerful as their sphere of influence widened. There are still deities whose influence spans several communities due to the reputation or notoriety that they might have accumulated over the years. This category of powerful deities are almost like institutions unto themselves. They are usually attended to by a retinue of high priests and assistants who are engaged in serving the spiritual needs of seekers who could come from far away places to commune at the famous shrines. Historical accounts have it that, about 6 centuries ago, the growth in number of powerful deities created the need for establishment of permanent assistants for high priests of major shrines possibly in order to mitigate the shortage of their much-needed role. Miniature monasteries were established in the vicinity of major shrines to train and maintain a constant supply of high-priest assistants. The indigenous monks, upon mastering their spiritual functions, were called the “osus” of the deities they were deployed to serve. They resided in the vicinity of the shrines of major deities and for all practical purposes, excluded themselves from routine engagements with the greater society. Being agents that collaborated with deities, the osu maintained an aloof relationship with the mundane world and rest of the civil society.

The early osu ranks, in spite of their spiritual duties at the shrines, were non-celibate and thus had families with offspring that ultimately grew into sizeable communities that dwelt in close proximity of major shrines in parts of Igboland. The civil society maintained a set of taboos that regulated routine interactions between the osu and the general public mostly out of fear or respect for the powerful deities under whose aegis they thrived and performed their religious functions. Intimate social interaction, including marriage, was forbidden between osu and non-osu, for example. In some locales, it is forbidden for the non-osu  to spill the blood of osu , even in non-hostile situations. Some go as far as forbidding the non-osu  from eating meat that was butchered or prepared in an osu  homestead. The list of items that maintain a social divide between the osu  and non-osu  grew and till date, varies from place to place. The usual sanction for breaching the osu taboo was to compel the offenders to involuntarily join the osu  ranks. Even though the offenders did not physically relocate to cohabit with the osu , they were regarded and treated in similar fashion by the civil society. Until the arrival of colonial rule and Christianity, the dichotomous relationship that existed between osu  and non-osu  did not ruffle anyone’s feathers because everyone virtually understood the basis for it. The minority osu  population fulfilled their lives in playing their spiritual role in the society. In return, they obtained a reasonable livelihood from proceeds of offerings that pour steadily into the premises of the deities they that served.

The arrival of Europeans commenced a process of changes which wrought major dislocation of the state of equilibrium that held the indigenous Igbo society together for millennia. Trans-Atlantic slave trade spurred inter-clan wars which often resulted in neighboring communities raiding each other for slaves and other booties. The osus were forbidden to be combatants in warfare for fear of spilling their consecrated blood which could unleash the wrath of the deities. Some defenseless small communities were often compelled to seek refuge in the premises of nearby shrines in order to avert impending doom when under sudden attack from superior invading forces. Once the deity’s high priest acknowledged and granted protection from attack and harm to the refugees, they were automatically made to join the osu ranks en masse. In some circumstances, prisoners captured during inter-communal raids were sold elsewhere where their new owners could elect to enlist some of them to join osu ranks as gestures of placation or beneficence to a local deity. Other captives could eventually end up in slave ships or become objects of ritual murder which occurred sometimes upon the death of powerful chieftains or nobilities. Trans-Atlantic slave trade could have contributed to the increase of osu population because most captives would have preferred the osu status rather than being flung far away to distant lands as slaves.

Since the cessation of trans-Atlantic slave trade and the inculcation of new alien values, the lot of the osu  has been on a downward spiral. European missionaries orchestrated massive onslaughts on the indigenous religious practices which were then perceived as impediments to proselytization of the Christian faith. Assault on the Igbo indigenous religious practices was multi-pronged. Children were effectively indoctrinated in the emerging school system to reject their parents’ way of life which was characterized as both primitive and barbaric. Enlistment into schools was tantamount to conversion into the new faith. Children were used effectively as conduits for transforming the rest of the family. In most cases, parents opted to join their children by converting to Christianity in order to avert major internal family crises. Where such was not the case, the aging parents were simply allowed to die out with their indigenous religious and cultural belief system. Converts to the new faith were used by early missionaries as effective tools for orchestrating massive destruction of cultural artifacts and religious objects like shrines, traditional sculptures and a host of other valuable indigenous artwork. Test of the new converts’ faith in Christianity was usually their ability to destroy and expunge all relics of our past within their reach. But the resilience of Igbo culture did not lie only in its artistic, cultural and religious artifacts. In spite of all the destruction that was evident everywhere, the average Igbo still retained the core essence of his cultural heritage deep within his consciousness. Almost everyone became churchgoers on Sundays but remained loyal to the indigenous culture otherwise.

Alien norms, including the Christian faith, were superimposed on the indigenous Igbo value system in a haphazard fashion by a new army of “civilizing” forces from overseas. The sociocultural dislocation that emanated from this phenomenon still reverberates across the land and will likely continue to do so for the foreseeable future. One could assert that such is the lot of a conquered people. Some military conquests have historically ended up with the annihilation of indigenous cultures and peoples followed by methodical implantation of the value system of the dominant group. The impact of military conquest of Igbo society on the indigenous culture is unique in what it accomplished as well as what was left undone. The factors that compel an invading force to seize a foreign land are clearly distinct from those that determine the conquerors’ pattern of behavior after securing their new acquisition. As far as the British perceived interest in Nigeria are concerned, economic considerations took precedence over everything else. Much of the sociocultural engineering that was attempted, such as inculcation of Christian faith, should be seen as a necessary tool that complemented the exploitative agenda of the imperial power. The osu caste system, a dynamic offshoot of Igbo indigenous religious practice, remains alive today even though the cultural milieu from where it derived its relevance has almost been totally obliterated. To make things worse, those entrapped in the caste system cannot be helped by their new Christian faith which is powerless to deal with the peculiarities of this social dilemma.

One of the factors that enabled early Christian missionaries to establish a foothold quickly in the Igbo heartland was their promise to new converts that the new order would guarantee equality of rights and opportunities to everyone. In most Igbo communities, the osu  were the first group of converts to flock en masse into new churches and schools that mushroomed everywhere. Disillusionment soon dampened their enthusiasm when it gradually became clear that even the Whiteman’s church was powerless to stop discriminatory treatment meted out to the minority osu population.  Osu pursued Western education in large numbers and many of them joined the new Christian mission as priests and school teachers. In spite of these accomplishments, the osu’s right to equal treatment remained unfulfilled because neither the Christian missionaries nor the sketchy colonial administration in place at the time could muster what it would take to dictate a needed change of attitude at the grassroots level. Before too long, there was mass conversion to Christianity and this reduced osu converts to a minority, just like in the society at large. The majority, in spite of their acquiescence to widespread inculcation of new faith and Western education, never saw the urgency in undertaking a major transformation in Igbo sociocultural practices, particularly as regards discriminatory treatment that the osu  continued to receive.

The osu caste system took its root in indigenous religious practices of Igbo society long before its encounter with alien influences. The osu  are like refugees who have been abandoned to wonder in the wilderness after being dislodged from their comfortable places of abode. The Igbo religion gave impetus to creation of the caste system, more than 600 hundred years ago, as a practical means for civil society to better relate to and interact with the spiritual world in which it existed. The holistic existence in which the average Igbo lived in dynamic equilibrium with his cosmos was embellished by the roles that osu  played in facilitating the interplay that existed between humans and their spiritual world. Foreign conquest and subsequent acculturation practically obliterated the essential components of Igbo indigenous religion but left the osu  to their fate in their new transformed world. The respect and dignity that they experienced as important functionaries within the indigenous religion has now been replaced with a de facto social ostracism from which escape is extremely difficult or impossible. Self-redemption for the osu and Igbo society at large cannot be accomplished fully without revisiting aspects of the past that can help to explain the rational basis of a once vibrant culture. Osu caste system remains a sad reminder of our historical past which suffered defeat in the hands of alien invaders. The only way to put those sad memories to rest forever is to find the ways and means to terminate the discriminatory practices of the osu caste system as it exists today. This can be done successfully because the majority of Ndiigbo are now poised to orchestrate a cultural renaissance that is committed to granting equality of rights and access to all of its own.