Toyin Adepoju,
Would you consider a monk in a Catholic monastry a slave? I should actually advise you to be a bit more circusmspect on things you know very little about. You have no idea what the Osu is. You do not know anything about Igbo cultural and religious practices and it is actually degrading to jump too fervently into a dance whose steps you have not mastered. The Osu is not a slave. S/he is actually traditionally a sacred being made into a living companion to the gods. The actual meaning of the Igbo word "Osu" is "Sacred to the gods" or "beloved of the gods" or "dedicated to the gods." Over the years, Christianity and other alien ideas desacralized the intent of the institution and made it antinomic. But the status of the "Osu" is sometimes entered voluntarily, particularly when the individual feels himself or herself no longer able to depend on the protection of the ordinary community; s/he hands the self to the gods for protection through servuice and eternal obligation. They become guardians of the altars and the sacred groves of the deities to which the pledge themselves; they take the oaths of perpetual allegiance; they live in ritual isolation; they grow their hair long as an act of self-mortification; they are also thus, in pledging themselves and being ritually dedicated to the altar and service of the gods and the shrines of the land down generations, they become "publicly protected citizens." No man could therefore, on pain of retribution, kill, draw blood, or cause an "Osu of the gods" to cry. The only barrier is in choosing that life, or being dedicated to that life as a pledge from their families to the gods, the Osu can no longer be expected to live a secular life; aspire to the titles of the land, or even participate in the commerce of daily enterprise. They are fully provisioned through the offerings brought to the altars by the communities; they are in charge of all the votary animals, and assist the high priests in the ritual process. In a society where meat was rather a luxury, the Osu had a constant supply through these sacrifices, of which they were the only ones permitted to partake of the animals offered to the gods. Usually in Communities that instituted the Osu system, the best and most fertile public land, often called "Ohia Agbara" are farmed by the Osu; they are given the best portion of the land because they are the human links to the gods. In the years of yore, an Osu may decide to "free himself" of his obligation, but it often required such an expensive ceremony in that halcyon past, that no Osu could afford to conduct the ceremony. In any case, I'll urge you to read Sylvia Leith-Ross' "Notes on the Osu System amomg the Ibo of Owerri Province" (Journal of the International African Institute," 1937) for starters. There have been terrible terminological errors in describing the Osu as a "cult slave" - an English/christian term that avoids a simple fact: the Osu was on many instances a voluntary act of escaping from the secular self into a more isolate world. It is not slavery. It is the Igbo equivalent of the monastic life. You have what the romantics would sometimes call "enthusiasm," Adepoju, but you also are terribly careless and presumptuous as a scholar, and in fact self-regarding by the ways in which you assume authority over issues that are far beyond your immediate apprehension. If you want to study the Osu cult system, take a chill pill, and start again, and this time with clear intent.
Obi Nwakanma
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:47:24 +0000
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade
From: tvade3@gmail.com
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com; ogbunwezeh@yahoo.com
I am informed on the Osu caste system.
It does demonstrate elements of slavery.
I can provide evidence if required.
Anyone who wants to challenge what I have written should present their case.
Shouting insults is meaningless.
Toyin
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Would you consider a monk in a Catholic monastry a slave? I should actually advise you to be a bit more circusmspect on things you know very little about. You have no idea what the Osu is. You do not know anything about Igbo cultural and religious practices and it is actually degrading to jump too fervently into a dance whose steps you have not mastered. The Osu is not a slave. S/he is actually traditionally a sacred being made into a living companion to the gods. The actual meaning of the Igbo word "Osu" is "Sacred to the gods" or "beloved of the gods" or "dedicated to the gods." Over the years, Christianity and other alien ideas desacralized the intent of the institution and made it antinomic. But the status of the "Osu" is sometimes entered voluntarily, particularly when the individual feels himself or herself no longer able to depend on the protection of the ordinary community; s/he hands the self to the gods for protection through servuice and eternal obligation. They become guardians of the altars and the sacred groves of the deities to which the pledge themselves; they take the oaths of perpetual allegiance; they live in ritual isolation; they grow their hair long as an act of self-mortification; they are also thus, in pledging themselves and being ritually dedicated to the altar and service of the gods and the shrines of the land down generations, they become "publicly protected citizens." No man could therefore, on pain of retribution, kill, draw blood, or cause an "Osu of the gods" to cry. The only barrier is in choosing that life, or being dedicated to that life as a pledge from their families to the gods, the Osu can no longer be expected to live a secular life; aspire to the titles of the land, or even participate in the commerce of daily enterprise. They are fully provisioned through the offerings brought to the altars by the communities; they are in charge of all the votary animals, and assist the high priests in the ritual process. In a society where meat was rather a luxury, the Osu had a constant supply through these sacrifices, of which they were the only ones permitted to partake of the animals offered to the gods. Usually in Communities that instituted the Osu system, the best and most fertile public land, often called "Ohia Agbara" are farmed by the Osu; they are given the best portion of the land because they are the human links to the gods. In the years of yore, an Osu may decide to "free himself" of his obligation, but it often required such an expensive ceremony in that halcyon past, that no Osu could afford to conduct the ceremony. In any case, I'll urge you to read Sylvia Leith-Ross' "Notes on the Osu System amomg the Ibo of Owerri Province" (Journal of the International African Institute," 1937) for starters. There have been terrible terminological errors in describing the Osu as a "cult slave" - an English/christian term that avoids a simple fact: the Osu was on many instances a voluntary act of escaping from the secular self into a more isolate world. It is not slavery. It is the Igbo equivalent of the monastic life. You have what the romantics would sometimes call "enthusiasm," Adepoju, but you also are terribly careless and presumptuous as a scholar, and in fact self-regarding by the ways in which you assume authority over issues that are far beyond your immediate apprehension. If you want to study the Osu cult system, take a chill pill, and start again, and this time with clear intent.
Obi Nwakanma
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:47:24 +0000
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade
From: tvade3@gmail.com
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com; ogbunwezeh@yahoo.com
I am informed on the Osu caste system.
It does demonstrate elements of slavery.
I can provide evidence if required.
Anyone who wants to challenge what I have written should present their case.
Shouting insults is meaningless.
Toyin
On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 11:39 PM, Dr. Emmanuel Franklyne Ogbunwezeh <ogbunwezeh@yahoo.com> wrote:
Mr. Adepoju;One wonders the mental hinterland which could empower such a misintepretation of an issue that dwarfs one's competence. If you know little about the Osu caste system in Igboland, why don't you go do some research before coming here to empanel hearsay. The Osu caste System is not slavery. Next topic please!!!
Dr. Franklyne Emmanuel OgbunwezehI read somewhere that the Asante used slaves in clearing the forests on which they built their communities.Is that true?What about the osu cast system in Igboland? To what degree were the osu not slaves? I know little about this but a pic I saw of an osu and a dibia on the Igbocybershrine blog a powerful and unforgettable pic, suggested something that reminded me of slavery.toyinOn Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 6:48 PM, Ibrahim Abdullah <ibdullah@gmail.com> wrote:
Skip gates is not bill gates. And a slave mode of production was not dominant in any african society by 1500. It became dominant and hegemonic in some societies only in nineteen century--a result of their involvement in the european slave trade.
History does not repeat itself: you do not swim in the same river twice. Agents of /in history make mistakes but it is not the historical process that is being reproduced. You cannot drink in the same cup twice!
Ib Abdullah
------On Mar 19, 2013 10:45 AM, "Ikhide" <xokigbo@yahoo.com> wrote:"There are some fundamental facts. First, no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production. Africa has produced no economies based on slavery. It was left to Europe to create a system of slavery where humans were chattel to be used as tools in the development of wealth. Secondly, in all massive enterprises where there are oppressors and the oppressed there will be collaborators. It is no secret that some of Afriica's best minds, Fanon, Memni, Karenga, have isolated incidents of collaboration among victims of oppression. Blacks were police officers in the white minority regime of South Africa but one cannot blame apartheid on black people. So when Gates claims that Africans were involved in the slave trade one can accept this, but what one cannot accept is that Africans were equally culpable for the slave trade. Nor should one blame the Judenrats (Jewish Councils) of Germany for Nazi atrocities although they often collaborated with the Germans. Indians collaborated with the British colonialists in India and some Chinese collaborated with the Japanese in occupied China, and while there is no excuse there is certainly explanation for collaboration."- Molefi Kete Asante
http://www.asante.net/articles/44/where-is-the-white-professor-located/
Hmmm/ It is incorrect that "no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production." That is silly hagiography. There are many ways to counter Bill Gates without minimizing the role of Africans in the transatlantic slave trade. Africans are just as culpable as those that came to take away our siblings. *cycles away slowly*
- IkhideStalk my blog at www.xokigbo.comFollow me on Twitter: @ikhideJoin me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
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