The Anatomy of Osu: Controversies and Contradictions

by C. Victor Mbakpuo

Bowie, Maryland–April 15, 2009

Osu is a dynamic construct in the Igbo culture without a uniform historical bearing, roils in emotive force, but must be approached with a detached emotion. It has a dual nomenclature in our vernacular, resulting in two categories of osu: the good osu and the bad osu. Contrary as it may sound, the bad osu gave impetus to the goodosu, as we shall see shortly. The good osu is a subtext of some clans, such as Owerri, Nkwere, Isu, etc., and not true of all the Igbo. It was in these clans that the bad osu evolved to good osu. In most places in Igboland, there is no such thing as good osu–you are either an osu or not. This discourse will be broken into four parts: (1) Who is an Osu and What makes a person an Osu?, (2) The Evolution of Good Osu, (3) Is an Osu a Saint or a Shame? and (4) The Eradication of the OsuDiscrimination–to respond to the pertinent questions that have been raised, especially given the dearth of literature on this subject.

Who are these deities and why are they important in the discussion of osu? These deities are fallen angels that sought relevance in human worship, in part to anger God and create their own impact in the lives of humans. The Bible recognizes them and calls them principalities and powers, rulers of darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high places. Eph. 6:12. Thus, when people did not know God but were bewildered by the earth, its expanse, substance and order, they felt that a Supreme Being had put these things in place and deserved worship. This is called teleology. Humans felt that this God that created heaven and earth is too big to be approached directly and is far seated up in heaven that they needed surrogates to approach Him. These surrogate-gods are supernatural. They are powerful, but not omnipotent; know a lot about the spirit and physical worlds and the laws controlling them, but are not omniscient; highly mobile and can get from one far end to the other in a nano seconds, but not omnipresent. Humans depended on these gods and goddesses to obtain answers to myraid problems that confronted them. Because of the agrarian nature of the economy of ancient times, humans looked to the rain gods (and there are plenty of rainmakers in Igboland) for the fertility of the soil, sun god, for photosynthesis that was critical in the growth of the crops. For the Italians, Venus performed these agrarian functions. People depended on these deities for blessings and fortunes. This belief and practice found expression in the names the Igbo took. One such name is Agwumezie, mayagwu do me good (tansliteration), or may agwu bless me. This writer knows one family in the Washington, D.C. metropolis with this name. They are from Umuaka, Orlu, Imo State. In almost all cultures, these evil deities are represented by images. God mocked this practice in Isaiah 40:18-20, having commanded that no graven image be made of anything in heaven or on earth and beneath. Ex. 20: 4. The Roman Catholic madness with images (Virgin Mary, Crucifix, etc.) is pure idolatry. Gods and Goddesses inhabited (and do inhabit) these images as well as manifest in them. In the case of the Virgin Mary effigy, the demon inhabiting that image is responsible for the apparitions of Virgin Mary. Knowledge of these deities is critical in the Igbo heathenism because it is their wrath and judgment against the moral offender for sacrifice or surrender that gave impetus to the evolution of the osu caste system.

The act of sacrificing or surrendering a person to gods and goddesses was a counterfeit alternative, a borrowed practice from Judaism. Samuel was surrendered to God in fulfilment of his mother’s vow to remove the reproach of infertility. Jepthah sacrificed his only daughter-child in compliance with his vow that God should give him victory. Judges 11:30-40. Likewise, the deities that ruled in the people’s lives and conscience demanded that the violator of the moral order be surrendered to him or her. In the same way, goats and cows were surrendered to these deities. They are called sacred cows and no sane person dared not harm them, even if they came to eat a person’s yams and crops. Other goats and cows were beaten and chased with whips and staves.

It is germane to ask, why would a god demand the surrender of a person who has violated the spiritual order of righteousness? In the spiritual, evil spirits, which is what these gods are, have absolute claim to a person of disobedience, and it is their portion. They themselves are creatures of disobedience. Jude 1:9 records that Satan came to carry the body of Moses after he died because he disobeyed God in striking the stone instead of speaking to it to honor Him before the children of Israel. He did not succeed because Moses confessed his sin and was forgiven by God and was no longer a fair game for Satan. On the judgment day, the children of disobedience will be given to Satan. He will not demand for them; they are his.

Once a person is sacrificed or surrendered to these evil divinities, they demanded that the person associate his or her name with the particular deity. This practice equally was copied from God, albeit Judaism, by these evil spirits. God commanded the Israelites to put His name in their names. This is recorded in Numbers 6:27. This is why there are such names as Michael (actually Micha-El, El meaning God), Daniel, Gabriel, Israel (prince of God). Many think that Michael is an English name. How wrong they are! Thus, these gods and goddesses wanted to advertize their existence and required that the people sacrificed to them associate their names and that of their offsprings with the particular deity. It is a mark of ownership, just as God marks his children (born-again Christians) with the seal of the Holy Ghost. At the commencement of the trials and tribulations period after the the Rapture, Satan mark will his victims with 666. Rev. 13:18. We have Osuagwu, Ego-Osula, Nwosu (compare with Nwachukwu, son of God), Osuji, Osuafor, Osunkwo, Agwumezie, Agwuamaka, Ikeagwu, Mmawu, Iheagwu, Mbagwu, etc. Another critical question arises: How did the gods and goddesses convey their desire to the humans, the Igbo in this case? They do this by projecting thoughts into human mind as well as speaking inside and outside them. They also manifest in human form.

Some will ask, and pertinently so, how did people come to know about these gods and goddesses? How did they manifest themselves? This happened (and happens) through various means and processes. First (this does not assume any pecking order of occurrence or significance),gods and goddesses have ability to possess people, did possess people, and continue to do so. When a god possesses a person, he acts strangely or smartly and becomes a medium to channel messages for the god or goddess. Second, problems in the society became another source through which humans and these deities found a mutually reinforcing medium of uses and gratifications: humans wanted solutions and the deities wanted worship. For instances, farmlands are sacred in Igboland. If a person goes to the communal farmland and commits any sexual offence, a pestilence will occur to manifest the anger of the deity that had assumed importance in the prosperity of the land. The pestilence may occur through locusts or monkeys and devour what was planted. Rainfall may be withheld. Crop failure may occur. Human beings, in search of solutions, would begin to inquire. The gods and goddesses, eager to receive recognition, will reveal the perpetrator of the moral offense. This is done through divination. Saul went to a witch and consulted her about an imminent war he was about to undertake. Second, gods and goddesses make themselves known to humans through physical manifestation. For instance, Mamiwota manifested herself in July 1962. She stood on River Niger and asked people to take pictures of her and have evidence that she is real (spirits are incorporeal). People trooped to view her. This is recorded in the Drum of July 1962. Critics will still doubt this. Doubting and posing questions of opposition in a cloak of intellectual probity, regardless of the certainty of an evidence, is sheer close-mindedness fostered by self-blindness and nobody will lift the blinder for the critic except open-mindedness nurtured by the fact that spiritual things are mysterious. This notwithstanding, critics and skeptics are critical in the intellectual food chain because their questions and probity help develop a deeper consciousness of a concept, thus adding to knowledge, and for good measure. This writer’s pastor personally witnessed this incident and relayed it to his congregation on the pulpit. Third, these evil deities made themselves known through judgment. In some Igbo communities, these gods performed judicial functions. When two persons are accused of committing a certain offense, they would go before the shrine of a god or goddess dominant in that community and take an oath of exculpation. The oath went like this: If I did this (adultery, theft, etc.), let this god kill me. Usually, a certain number of days is established within which to determine the result. The person that died within that period is taken to be the guilty person. This claimed the lives of many people that a substitute was used. A fowl or goat was used, depending on the severity of the offense. In some communities a fowl is used regardless of the degree of the felony or nature of the crime. In such a situation, the oath went like this: If I committed this offense, let my fowl die within four days. The judgment was quick, the result swift. If it was a murder case, the murderer was killed because the Igbo believed in capital punishment. If it was an accidental murder, known as negligent homicide in the Anglo-Saxon criminal jurisprudence, the offender was expelled from the community and ordered to live in another community for seven years, depending on the locality. The Igbo call this igba oso ochu(murder flight).

There are four heinous and unforgivable crimes in the Igbo criminology. They are murder (igbu ochu), adultery (ira nwunye nwanna, as opposed to ikwa iko(fornication), which is now used to refer to these two sexual offense because of its subtle, neutral and non-offensive nature, as opposed to the vulgar orientations ofira nwunye nwanna), incest (imeru nwanne, iru ala), and theft (ohi, oshi, or osi, depending on the local dialect). Such offenses are known as iru ala, that is, committing an offense abominable to the land, abomination, an instance of this. The Igbo revere the land because it is on it that humans live, depend on it for food, build their houses on it, and center their expectations on it. Land is held sacred, the footstool of God. Anyone who committed any of these offenses was given to the gods and goddesses to placate them. As this writer noted in his book, The Horns of Africa, "Those who violated the moral values or committed nefarious practices against the moral sanctity of the society were condemned as slaves and ostracized from the society. They were called osu. They were used as servants. They also were used in ritual murders to appease gods and goddesses. Beyond this, they were used in burying dead kings to signify the dead king’s right to servants in the next world." Page 232.

Later the gods found uses for these outcasts, anointed them and made them priests of its worship. They obtained revelations from these deities and became prophets, better known as false prophets to distinguish them from the prophets of God. Their prophecies earned them importance. In essence, this became a reversal of fortunes.

Contrary to general belief, osu people are not terrible. Quite to the contrary, they strive to exhibit good character more than the so-called freeborn to avoid attracting any additional negative stigma or labels of aspersion in an effort to seek acceptance into the community that has rejected them. But the community never blinks. And the reproach endures. It is a perpetuating system of agony that no one should be subjected to. But like the rest of the human race, there are bad osu, more terrible and vicious than their cursed ancestors. Likewise, there are freeborn from reputable families that have committed heinous crimes that could never feature in the deeper recesses of their ancestors or direct father’s mind. Most of them are the kingpins of the 419 fraud scheme. Who is therefore an osu now? Any person engaging in any form of wickedness against another or committing any of these nefarious evils that earned a person an osu label is an osu, whether the person is physically surrendered to an idol or not.

The controversies and contradictions of the osu issue perpetuates discrimination in people’s psyche and takes away from redemptive efforts. But it must be discussed, now and always. Eradication begins with every individual; shifting the obligation to the government is shirking a moral duty, albeit spiritual. This is undeniably one true way to bring about the triumph of equality.

Mbakpuo is the author of The Horns of Africa, Chance Encounters, and The Conscience of a Nation: Clinton, Sex and Politics Around the World. All three are sold on www.amazon.com.

Robot  # 1 | 16.04.2009 08:02

In most places in Igboland, there is no such thing as goodosu–you are either anosuor not. This discourse will be broken into four parts: (1) Who is anOsuand What makes a person anOsu?, (2) The Evolution of GoodOsu, (3) Is anOsua Saint or a Shame? and (4) The Eradication of theOsuDiscrimination...Read the full article.

DeepThought  # 2 | 16.04.2009 14:48

I suppose we can argue that no one is forced to read, but sometimes people sometimes make me sorry for reading their articles. Not to be unkind to the author but much of this is intepretation in a very narrow frame . I had hoped for something very comprehensive and universal First, the understanding of traditonal religion , at lease the Yoruba one is questionable. In traditional Yoruba culture , Eshu (or Esu) was not the prince of darkness. That current understanding of Eshu is a reintepretation of Yoruba religion in the l(atter light) of Christianity. The Yoruba didn't have a concept of Hell. At least , not the type of hell Christianity teaches. - No. Rather, the Yoruba beieved in reincarnation and brief or long periods of stay in a place not very well defined,usually slightly gloomy, or at least a place devoid of pleasure and sensation, which offered a chance for introspection -in between reincarnations. T hat is quite unlike the finality of punishment of everlasting fire in the place of toture and torment that conventional Christianity teaches. Anyway, much of the rest of the article seems to me to deal with ALL from a religious perspective of a fundamentalist Christian. This would have been o.k if the article had in the title the appelation "from a Christian Perspective" and knowing what to expect, I probably wouldn't have bothered reading.

Wole  # 3 | 17.04.2009 00:29

Big thank you Deepthought, you echoed my sentiments too. Like you, I wouldn't have bothered wasting my precious time if the title of the article had not belied its real intent, that is, pushing the lunatic fringe of xtianity by erroneously believing that xtianity and traditional and indeed all other forms of religions can be looked at with same spectacle. I had thought I will gain something from this article because about a month ago my wife and I had asked (upon a question from my 10 year old daughter asking me what osu means) an Igbo lady visiting Atlanta from Lagos and staying with us what osu meant and its history. The lady had said something same like this author that is, they are people given to serve the gods. I had then told her that well that can't be the case becuase if indeed these people (Osu) are servants/intermidiaries for the gods then mere mortals wouldn't have had the temerity to look down on them or consider them outcast. Are the gods these osu's are serving not gods for the whole community? Is a god servant now on the same pedestal as household servant? Of course, the lady pointed out that I'm mistakenly looking at the issue from the Yoruba perspective. But then, the Monks, Imams, Pastors, Pope, Bishop, cardinal, Arch bishop, Olorisa priestess, Indu Monks etc etc etc are all religious servants of the god/God and are all highly revered, so why not the Osu god servant? And that's the big question that I'm yet to understand.

Iroabuchi Onwuka  # 4 | 17.04.2009 01:30

The academic taste of the essay is too 'sacharine' for me. It is a bit insufferable and gravitate a kind of flight. I was copiously waiting for a tour deforce in Nigerian history but only to choke from the illogically pomposity of certain non academic elements. The conclusions are discuttling and it is such neither an Igbo work nor a standard dialectic on Nigerian history. But Osu, Osun, Oshu refer to much of the same thing about 'marabouts' and the essence of forbidden someone to do anything evil. However we can credit certain movements in the piece concerning the necessity to upend the matter about Osu. But it is a dead and decaying matter in Igbo society and in Igbo society it is forbidden 'almost vulturesquely' to get animated about decaying flesh. The outline of the essay is appreciably fair, but there is an over-hang in the initial part - a very tough read given - which forces the reader to succomb to the phantoms of boredom. As reader begin to master the dialectics of the writing, the writer forces a conclusion. If not mistaken, I could suppose that in fact, the second part of the whole dialectic on 'Osuji' is good writing especailly the compass on Greek and India, but historically and academically the dialectic is bad to the bone. The languid assertion that 'Orisa' in yoruba is part of the 'Osu' denouement makes the case that the man is lacking in linguistic training and as such he introspection misgives in meaning. The writer suggested that Osu is a wanton diablos of a begone era. It might be the case but from overall Igbo history, that position pack alot of punches. But in that same punch which he didn't land, the author's yields up his pre -occupations about the whole essay, that he is intent on enhancing his histronics by attempting to reharse a primitive disquiet, with or without a pedestrain tilt. The best that can be said about the essay is that represented a genuine conclusion of the whole sickness of Nigerian history. Please do better research before you write and let us praise for it. Osuji and Osu has little or nothing to do with deity, they are humans driven out of thier own village for what ever reason...and become residents eslewhere. Osuji means a Sojourner or 'with the Sojourners' in Hebrew. There are thousands of Jewish people with the name Osuji...but the main event in that name Suji. In Hebrew there is no J...which is why you are likely to see Oshu-ein. The hyphen is mine showing the open teeth in the word, where Y in other Hebrew dialectic of Oshu-ein is present Oshuyei. This is all vulgar and they innundate Osuji/Suji, the Sojourner. Osuji it does not mean the 'pounder of Yam' or 'osu husband'. In Igbo, Osuji is the opposite of Omoji (depending on your part of Igbo), Omoji means the natives and Osuji, the immigrant. Sometimes you are forced to depart an Igbo village because of crime against nature...a foul against the land and you are asked to decamp to somewhere else to abate the wrath of the deity to whom the land is designate. But on getting to a different Igbo land, you might be censored or socially stigmatised as the 'outsider'. The people didn't know what you did, but you can win the heart of widow or a pleb who can confine in you and from there, you are asked to settle in among the people. The negative sentiment of being an outsider (an Osu) sometimes endears more closerly than the great embrace that accompany migration from one Igbo society to another by sometimes as a whole clan, who are usually called (Osuji). This is why in Igbo society, in parts of say Mbano, Ngor Okpolla, Ngwa, Owerri, Mbaise and so on, Osuji families are part of thier royalty. It means that they came from elsewhere, possibly among the Benin Igbos (like marginalised and harrased Aniomas of Delta) but where recognised by Igbos further down as perhaps family of Priests and kinfolk (who had to be royalty to retain the name). They are also recent arrivals since the society sojourn must have taken hold. In Hebrew there is what they call 'Nomoji' which simply means 'the law givers or 'those with the laws' '. The word thier is Nomo as in Nomes as in Norm for English. C/C Orieji in Hebrew means 'the guide or the visionaries' for such is thier function is old Hebrew society. For instance Samuel is called in Septuagint 'Sagur Orie' meaning 'Samuel the seer' and his two sons (Joel and Abia) entered the priestly house of Israel and called Hu-Koha/Ha-Koha (Ukoha) and in Modern Hebrew Kohen, after the death of Eli and his two sons. They are the ones that are believed in the saving son of God and it is only among the Abians of Nigeria that you will find that name Orieji.

Lemeechi  # 5 | 17.04.2009 05:36

Thanks to the writer for the rather controversial essay. It seems to me though that he will find it quite hard indeed convincing Hindus and other non-Christian peoples that they worship The Devil. =Iroabuchi Onwuka;347231>For instance Samuel is called in Septuagint 'Sagur Orie' meaning 'Samuel the seer' and his two sons (Joel and Abia) entered the priestly house of Israel and called Hu-Koha/Ha-Koha (Ukoha) and in Modern Hebrew Kohen, after the death of Eli and his two sons. They are the ones that are believed in the saving son of God and it is only among the Abians of Nigeria that you will find that name Orieji. Is this to say that Igbos really have a verifiable link to the Jews?

akuluouno  # 6 | 17.04.2009 05:51

In Hebrew there is what they call 'Nomoji' which simply means 'the law givers or 'those with the laws' '. The word thier is Nomo as in Nomes as in Norm for English. C/C Orieji in Hebrew means 'the guide or the visionaries' for such is thier function is old Hebrew society. For instance Samuel is called in Septuagint 'Sagur Orie' meaning 'Samuel the seer' and his two sons (Joel and Abia) entered the priestly house of Israel and called Hu-Koha/Ha-Koha (Ukoha) and in Modern Hebrew Kohen, after the death of Eli and his two sons. They are the ones that are believed in the saving son of God and it is only among the Abians of Nigeria that you will find that name Orieji. Dear Ambassador Onwuka Iroabuchi, Not only have I read the biblical Book of Jasher where this epistle highlighted above by you was written, but to say that the State of Abia under HE Orji and all Abians are descendants of Abia the son of Samuel get as ebeeeoo:hail: As for me on this very Bad Friday, I take solace in the Book of Numbers Chap 21, Vs 16 where the Israelites went to Beer, drank and sang to teh Lord. Search closely among that congregation and you will surely find Aku Luo Uno Okwue Ebe Osi, singing loudest by the Rivers of Beer:D:2love:

akuluouno  # 7 | 17.04.2009 05:52

In Hebrew there is what they call 'Nomoji' which simply means 'the law givers or 'those with the laws' '. The word thier is Nomo as in Nomes as in Norm for English. C/C Orieji in Hebrew means 'the guide or the visionaries' for such is thier function is old Hebrew society. For instance Samuel is called in Septuagint 'Sagur Orie' meaning 'Samuel the seer' and his two sons (Joel and Abia) entered the priestly house of Israel and called Hu-Koha/Ha-Koha (Ukoha) and in Modern Hebrew Kohen, after the death of Eli and his two sons. They are the ones that are believed in the saving son of God and it is only among the Abians of Nigeria that you will find that name Orieji. Dear Ambassador Onwuka Iroabuchi, Not only have I read the biblical Book of Jasher where this epistle highlighted above by you was written, but to say that the State of Abia under HE Orji and all Abians are descendants of Abia the son of Samuel get as ebeeeoo:hail: As for me on this very Bad Friday, I take solace in the Book of Numbers Chap 21, Vs 16 where the Israelites went to Beer, drank and sang to the Lord. Search closely among that congregation and you will surely find Aku Luo Uno Okwue Ebe Osi, of the lost Jewish Tribe of Eri, now Nri in Anambra State, singing loudest by the Rivers of Beer:D:2love:

Iroabuchi Onwuka  # 8 | 17.04.2009 06:48

Yes Akuluouno Abia is the second son of Samuel. Abia remained in the province of Judah, near Bethlehem until the AD 70. In fact, Christ was actually born in Abia, Bethlehem. Christ's kindred and John's Kindred were from the province of Abia of Bethlehem in Judah. You jumped ahead of me in linking Abians to their genealogical ancestry but I merely alluded to the evident presence of certain names in Igbo that cannot easily be understood in the context of current Igbo history and Anthology. Names like Osuji is such an instance, Woye/Nwoye is another, and in current Hebrew, Woye is identified as Moye meaning the 'teachers'. Is like when you say Agada in Igbo (Hagada in Hebrew) both are names of the people and a saying, and in Hebrew, Hagada refers to a kind of school on interpretation. Th names of Nwoye explains the presence of Agada among their people. I bet you don't know that their names like Nkafa/Kafa, Kama Ode/Kamode, Ahanyi, names Agbai/Hag'gai > the pilgrims, and a place called Alake/H-alake/H-alakhic in Abia. The above are purely Halakhic Jewish names. The Halakhic as you probably know is also a school for Rabbinic Priest that is still extant in Isreal and in Jewish societies allover the world. P. Kyle McCarter, Jr's '1st and 2nd Samuel, Anchor Bible series, 1982. Page 156 "Joel...Abia. The names of Samuel's sons find their place in the Levital genealogy attributed to him by the Chronicler (see the note at 1;1). The two sons are also identified in 1 Chronicles 6;13 (English 6;28),...in a list of Koha-thite (Koha-him) Levites, Joel, son of Samuel, appears as father of Herman, chief singer to David and Solomon".

Bamaguje  # 9 | 17.04.2009 15:11

No doubt the writer of this inane diatribe is one of those narrow-minded, misguided Africans who have been brainwashed by bogus intolerant alien dogmas (Christianity, Islam) that demonize our ancestral spiritual heritage. Hence his profuse use of negative terminology with regards to African spirituality – “evil deity”, “prince of darkness”, “fallen angels”, “heathenistic” etc. As DeepThought rightly points out, there is no devil in African spirituality. The devil is a puerile figment of imagination and JudeoChristian-Islamic construct to explain the incompetence and ineptitude of their false deity (Allah, Yahweh) in running (or rather ruining) this world; as well as a convenient fall-guy to rationalize the moral lapses of weak minded Christians and Muslims…na devil push am !! Even in the Bible we read of certain people being specially dedicated to the service of the Jewish deity…like the tribe of Levi, first born sons, prophet Samuel and John the baptist before they were even born. In a hypothetical setting where Judaism is systematically and institutionally demonized as traditional African spirituality is, the Jewish tribe of Levites that is specifically dedicated to the priestly service of Yahweh, could well become Osu’s.

omoboi  # 10 | 17.04.2009 21:22

interesting...

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