Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade

Toyin,

Without prejudice to what your further research on the Osu agbara
phenomenon as part of the Osu system may be, I am of the opinion that
you keep coming up with evidences of notion of Osu agbaras as slaves
and/or cursed people because that is the focus of your research.

I suggest you refocus to what the Osu system in general and the Osu
agbara phenomenon in particular really is.

CAO.


On 26 Mar, 17:31, OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tva...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks, Ifedioramma.
>
> Granted, in Igbo society, the names for slaves and for osu were different,
> as you and other sources point out.
>
> At the same time, however, the dominant status of osu in Igbo society, past
> and present was a form of servitude and social denigration  that may be
> described as slavery, as various writers agree.
>
> It was a form of servitude because it involved  a denigrative social status
> from which the osu and their descendants  could not escape, a status based
> on dedication to deity in a spirit more suggestive of bondage than of
> empowerment.
>
> True, as you state "An osu is one dedicated/sacrificed to a god; he or she
> is holy and one does not hurt him/her without incurring the wrath of the
> god to whom he/she is dedicated" this status went with a paradoxical
> denigration
> of the humanity of the osu. Their dedication to deity went with a
> dehumanization so much so that at its most extreme, interaction with them
> was seen as capable of bringing disaster and marrying them capable of
> bringing a curse into the family line.
>
> This discrimination was so thorough that it followed the osu into the
> Westernization and Christianization  of Igbo culture. The osu are described
> as the vanguard of Igbo Westernization, being the first to immerse
> themselves  in the new order beceause it  promised a sense of being
> regarded as full human being equal to other humans, an  acceptance of a
> common humanity denied them by their fellow Ndigbo, who saw themselves  as
> freeborn or diala while the osu were understood as lower than fully human
> bondspeople.
>
> The osu paradox therefore continued. From being people dedicated to deities
> and performing sacred functions on behalf of the community and yet reviled
> as being subhuman and contaminated in as way that made association with
> them dangerous, they now became the cutting edge of the new Igbo
> intelligentsia and embodiments of a new order of economic power and yet,
> they were  still discriminated against!
>
> Imagine the irony-the very people who spearheaded the Igbo Westernisation
> Achebe uses as a central thrust of his description of the place of Ndigbo
> in Nigerian history, the people who enabled what he describes as Igbo
> ascendancy in modern Nigeria, were still regarded by their fellow Ndigbo as
> not fit for intimate association, as not fit  to be allowed public
> leadership in Igbo communities  and even as open to oppression from fellow
> Ndigbo, the last being suggested by the tragic story of the Omuode
> community in 1999<https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!msg/soc.culture.nigeria...>.
>
> The scope of this tragedy becomes clearer when one gives names of those
> described as osu.
>
> *Newswatch Magazine* of September 18, *1989** * ago ran a thorough study of
> the subject and gave some indications of some of these people.
>
> It is dangerous to call anyone osu publicly on account of the stigma
> associated with it and because there is some legislation against it, so
> Newswatch used pregnant suggestions.
>
> I remember clearly it mentioned 'a famous Igbo poet'.
>
> Of course, the only 'famous Igbo poet' who does not need to be named is
> Christopher Okigbo, perhaps one of the world's greatest poets, a pioneer in
> the emerging field of animistic mysticism in his interpretation of the
> goddess Idoto of the village stream of which his grandfather was priest in
> terms of the "water spirit that waters all creation", a poet whose carer
> was cut short, his work in progress lost, when he was lost in action
> fighting on the Biafran side in the Nigerian Civil War, supposedly as he
> covered the rearguard of his men retreating from Nigerian forces. Ali
> Mazrui evokes the magnitude of this loss to the world in his* Trial of
> Christopher Okigbo*, in which the poet is challenged after dearth for
> sacrificing his creative potential to a cause outside his primary vocation
> the way he did.
>
> Describing Christopher Okigbo as osu  would thus  include economist his
> brother Pius Okigbo, described by ex-Permanent Secretary Philip Asiodu  as
> one of the greatest intellects in Nigerian history and as a key figure at
> Ojukwu's side at the fateful Aburi Accords, a presence that to Asiodu,
> suggested that Ojukwu grasped the importance of the Accord much better than
> Gowon, a grasp that made all the difference in the events that led up to
> the civil war.
>
> Whether or not it is true that the the Okigbos are osu, the fact that
> Neswwatch could present a description  that fits Okigbo suggests the depth
> of the social tragedy at play, a significant  number of osu being described
> as being among the most successful Ndigbo.
>
> Does it include  Bart Nnanji, stellar engineer, ex-Nigerian Minister of
> Power and pioneer in private energy generation in Nigeria,  issues around
> whose impending return to his community  led to the attacks against the
> Omuode community in
> 1999<https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!msg/soc.culture.nigeria...>
> ?
>
> In *Broken Back Axle:Unspeakable Events In
> Biafra<http://www.amazon.co.uk/Broken-Back-Axle-Ignatius-Ebbe/dp/1453573615>
> * [Amazon link that enables one read a good part of the book]  Obi N.
> Ignatius Ebbe presents the anti-osu discrimination problem in particularly
> poignant terms as being fundamental to the fall of Biafra through sabotage
> of Biafran efforts by osu who saw themselves  as likely to continue  to
> suffer discrimination at the hands of other Ndigbo even in a Biafra they
> had fought to create.
>
> In my response to Chidi, I will describe the need to disengage the various
> strands of the description of what it means to be osu and the various
> strategies being  adopted to engage with the problem.
>
> Avoiding the dominant negative interpretation might  not be likely to
> succeed because that perception   is too strong, too old, too entrenched,
> it seems. More likely to succeed, as Okenwa Nwosu suggests in an essay I
> link in my response to Chidi, is to fight the denigrative interpretation
> directly.
>
> One effort used is to claim the osu identity  in the name of what is
> understood as an orginary valoristic significance before this was
> purportedly  distorted. Another is to acknowledge the negative valuation
> but insist  on focusing on positive possibilities inherent in the character
> of osu as sacred dedication and communal intercession.  One can even
> develop a Osu Spirituality and Philosophy which I will outline,  as one
> demonstration of the creativity of classical Igbo culture.
>
> thanks
> toyin
>
> On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 8:40 PM, Ifedioramma E. Nwana <ienw...@yahoo.com>wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Osu is different from slave.  An osu is one dedicated/sacrificed to a god;
> > he or she is holy and one does not hurt him/her without incurring the wrath
> > of the god to whom he/she is dedicated.  A slave is an ohu or oru.  He/she
> > belongs to another human and may, indeed, be able to purchase his/her
> > freedom, become a free citizen and rise to any height.
> > IEM Nwana
>
> >   *From:* OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tva...@gmail.com>
> > *To:* usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> > *Sent:* Tuesday, 19 March 2013, 21:37
>
> > *Subject:* Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Henry Louis Gates is Wrong
> > about African Involvement in the Slave Trade
>
> > I 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.
>
> > toyin
>
> > On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 6:48 PM, Ibrahim Abdullah <ibdul...@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" <xoki...@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
>
> ...
>
> read more »

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