Chidi,
My broda,
The evidence is clear from which ever angle-
What is Osu?
The broadly understood definition in Igbo history is that of a person bonded to a deity and whose humanity is thereby compromised and contaminated, making them dangerous to relate with as part of normal society and unfit for leadership within the larger society where they were seen as inferior to the diala or freeborn Igbo. They were understood as slaves of deity beacuse they could not be free of their denigrative social status transmitted across generations.
The correlation of priesthood and being osu as a counter to the slave notion does not work for the general understanding of osu in Igbo history.
The osu performed rituals functions but still suffered the stigma of being seen as people performing those functions more as bonds people than as free people. A people negatively contaminated by the mode of their dedication to deity.
It would be boring for me to start listing the summations supporting and developing this understanding and explanations of it by the classical authorities on Igbo culture- M. C. Echeruo, Elisabeth Isichei etc etc.
Anyone who wants that can see the texts provided or linked so far, such as the thorough "Appraising the Osu caste System in Igboland" by Francis Onwubuariri who examines carefully the paradoxical integration of sacred dedication and service and denigration of their humanity that marks the dominant Igbo understanding of osu within verifiable Igbo history till date.
Even Leith-Ross whom Nwakanma favors describes the deep scorn in which they were held as far as the 1930s when she did her research.
What is the Revisionist Understanding of Osu?
The revisionist understanding of osu tries to reinterpret the osu phenomenon as having its origins in the positive sacralisation of the osu but as distorted into negative meanings through pressures from within and beyond Igbo culture.
This revisionist understanding has some evidence to back it up and enjoys some support but is not widely accepted among Ndigbo.
Everything on osu can be contained within these two summations.
Everything written by you, Nwankanma, Victor Dike, M. O. Ene, Nwosu, Leith-Ross etc can belongs to one of these two categories or embraces both of them.
I am pleased to examine any evidence contrary to this summation.
What Way Forward?
One approach is to emphasize one of these definitions and work with them.
I have described how people are doing this.
I am interested in developing the second definition. I realise the evidence for it is not conclusive even though it is highly suggestive.
It has potential, however, as an imaginative focus. Religions are often based on an imaginative focus, the validation of which is not based on correspondence to historical reality.
I am in the process of constructing an Osu Spirituality and Osu Philosophy in the context of Osu Studies based on this understanding of the potential of the second, revisionary definition.
Osu and Monasticism
Some investigators insist on the Osu system as being originally a monastic system.
Some questions could be relevant in relation to this-
1. Volition- monastic orders in the major monastic traditions represented by Christianity, Buddhism and the hermit communities of Hinduism are constituted by people who enter purely through their own volition, with the exception of the old habit of choosing some Tibetan Buddhist leaders through selection in childhood.
To what degree was the osu membership and purported monasticism understood to be voluntary?
The question of volition is central beceause it bears centrally on motivation. Without the commitment that comes from freedom of choice, how will the monk take advantage of the social restrictions that shape their lives, taking these restrictions as opportunities for growth rather than impediments to a full social life?
Does the mindset of osu in the past and present suggest such a sensitivity to the value of their social isolation as an opportunity for dedication to pursuits removed from immersion in society or has such a mindset been obliterated by the brutal discrimination they have suffered over the centuries?
2. Impact- In the monastic and hermit traditions mentioned earlier, a good number of the greatest achievements of the related religions emerged from their monastic and hermit communities and were rightly recognised.
The Hindu hermits who composed the foundational Hindu work, the Upanishads, Buddha's years in the forest, the monastic community he founded, the monastic communities of the various Buddhist schools, from the Hinayana to the Mahayana, from Zen to Tibetan Buddhism and in the Christian tradition, names of great hermits or monks resonate as the core of the Buddhist and Christian achievement- Bodhidharma in Zen Buddhism, Milarepa in Tibetan Buddhism, Nagarjuna in the Mahdyamika school; St. Antony of Egypt, foundational to the Christian hermit tradition, St. Francis of Assisi and the Franciscans,Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, all these and very many more are immortalized through texts and practices flowing from them.
Is there any evidence in Igbo history of particular developments in spirituality emanating from a monastic or hermit class, particularly as represented by the osu?
If such evidence existed, could it have been so thoroughly obliterated?
Even in largely oral societies, great spiritual heroes have been remembered, to a degree. The Ashanti have Okomfo Anokye , the Shilluk have Nyikang, the Sonjo have Khambageu, the Benin have extensive oral histories describing spiritual heroes, the Yoruba have people like Timehin, the man who is described as founding Osogbo after an encounter with the spirit of the Osun river, among other examples.
If Ndigbo really had a monastic institution, are there any references in their traditions to the heroes of these institutions? Would all reference to them have been destroyed?
These are suggestions of questions to ask in relation to claims about the osu as these claims relate to larger questions in Igbo history and culture.
Even if no evidence or inconclusive evidence is found in the affirmative in relation to these questions, that might not invalidate the claims being made about the positive origins of the osu system. It might simply suggest the information is lost or diluted.
thanks
toyin
On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 4:16 PM, OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tvade3@gmail.com> wrote:
Chidi,
My broda,
The evidence is clear from which ever angle-
What is Osu?
The broadly understood definition in Igbo history is that of a person bonded to a deity and whose humanity is thereby compromised and contaminated, making them dangerous to relate with as part of normal society and unfit for leadership within the larger society where they were seen as inferior to the diala or freeborn Igbo. They were understood as slaves of deity beacuse they could not be free of their denigrative social status transmitted across generations.
The correlation of priesthood and being osu as a counter to the slave notion does not work for the general understanding of osu in Igbo history.
The osu performed rituals functions but still suffered the stigma of being seen as people performing those functions more as bonds people than as free people. A people negatively contaminated by the mode of their dedication to deity.
It would be boring for me to start listing the summations supporting and developing this understanding and explanations of it by the classical authorities on Igbo culture- M. C. Echeruo, Elisabeth Isichei etc etc.
Anyone who wants that can see the texts provided or linked so far, such as the thorough "Appraising the Osu caste System in Igboland" by Francis Onwubuariri who examines carefully the paradoxical integration of sacred dedication and service and denigration of their humanity that marks the dominant Igbo understanding of osu within verifiable Igbo history till date.
Even Leith-Ross whom Nwakanma favors describes the deep scorn in which they were held as far as the 1930s when she did her research.
What is the Revisionist Understanding of Osu?
The revisionist understanding of osu tries to reinterpret the osu phenomenon as having its origins in the positive sacralisation of the osu but as distorted into negative meanings through pressures from within and beyond Igbo culture.
This revisionist understanding has some evidence to back it up and enjoys some support but is not widely accepted among Ndigbo.
Everything on osu can be contained within these two summations.
Everything written by you, Nwankanma, Victor Dike, M. O. Ene, Nwosu, Leith-Ross etc can belongs to one of these two categories or embraces both of them.
What Way Forward?
One approach is to emphasize one of these definitions and work with them.
I have described how people are doing this.
I am interested in developing the second definition. I realise the evidence for it is not conclusive even though it is highly suggestive.
It has potential, however, as an imaginative focus. Religions are often based on an imaginative focus, the validation of which is not based on correspondence to historical reality.
I am in the process of constructing an Osu Spirituality and Osu Philosophy in the context of Osu Studies based on this understanding of the potential of the second, revisionary definition.
Osu and Monasticism
Some investigators insist on the Osu system as being originally a monastic system.
Some questions could be relevant in relation to this-
1. Volition- monastic orders in the major monastic traditions represented by Christianity, Buddhism and the hermit communities of Hinduism are constituted by people who enter purely through their own volition, with the exception of the old habit of choosing some Tibetan Buddhist leaders through selection in childhood.
To what degree was the osu membership and purported monasticism understood to be voluntary?
The question of volition is central beceause it bears centrally on motivation. Without the commitment that comes from freedom of choice, how will the monk take advantage of the social restrictions that shape their lives, taking these restrictions as opportunities for growth rather than impediments to a full social life?
Does the mindset of osu in the past and present suggest such a sensitivity to the value of their social isolation as an opportunity for dedication to pursuits removed from immersion in society or has such a mindset been obliterated by the brutal discrimination they have suffered over the centuries?
2. Impact- In the monastic and hermit traditions mentioned earlier, a good number of the greatest achievements of the related religions emerged from their monastic and hermit communities and were rightly recognised.
The Hindu hermits who composed the foundational Hindu work, the Upanishads, Buddha's years in the forest, the monastic community he founded, the monastic communities of the various Buddhist schools, from the Hinayana to the Mahayana, from Zen to Tibetan Buddhism and in the Christian tradition, names of great hermits or monks resonate as the core of the Buddhist and Christian achievement- Bodhidharma in Zen Buddhism, Milarepa in Tibetan Buddhism, Nagarjuna in the Mahdyamika school; St. Antony of Egypt, foundational to the Christian hermit tradition, St. Francis of Assisi and the Franciscans,Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, all these and very many more are immortalized through texts and practices flowing from them.
Is there any evidence in Igbo history of particular developments in spirituality emanating from a monastic or hermit class, particularly as represented by the osu?
If such evidence existed, could it have been so thoroughly obliterated?
Even in largely oral societies, great spiritual heroes have been remembered, to a degree. The Ashanti have Okomfo Anokye , the Shilluk have Nyikang, the Sonjo have Khambageu, the Benin have extensive oral histories describing spiritual heroes, the Yoruba have people like Timehin, the man who is described as founding Osogbo after an encounter with the spirit of the Osun river, among other examples.
If Ndigbo really had a monastic institution, are there any references in their traditions to the heroes of these institutions? Would all reference to them have been destroyed?
These are suggestions of questions to ask in relation to claims about the osu as these claims relate to larger questions in Igbo history and culture.
Even if no evidence or inconclusive evidence is found in the affirmative in relation to these questions, that might not invalidate the claims being made about the positive origins of the osu system. It might simply suggest the information is lost or diluted.
thanks
toyin
On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 2:18 PM, Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi.opara@gmail.com> wrote:
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.
> community in 1999<https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!msg/soc.culture.nigeria...>.
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
>> *Newswatch Magazine* of September 18, *1989** * ago ran a thorough study of
> The scope of this tragedy becomes clearer when one gives names of those
> described as osu.
>
> the subject and gave some indications of some of these people.> Mazrui evokes the magnitude of this loss to the world in his* Trial of
>
> 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
> Christopher Okigbo*, in which the poet is challenged after dearth for
> sacrificing his creative potential to a cause outside his primary vocation> 1999<https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!msg/soc.culture.nigeria...>
> 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
> ?
>
> 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.> On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 8:40 PM, Ifedioramma E. Nwana <ienw...@yahoo.com>wrote:
> 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
>
>> > *From:* OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tva...@gmail.com>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > 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
>
> > *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> > On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 6:48 PM, Ibrahim Abdullah <ibdul...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > 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
>
>
> > 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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Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
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