Biko is the last soldier standing with the last ogbonigwe that has refused to explode. He will never accept Jack's no victor no vanquish plea. But he is still my comrade. Recall the heated exchange between Comrade Ola Oni and Ikena at the Marx indaba in Zaria? Biko always reminds me of that encounter whenever he appears with his ogbonigwe. He appears trapped in a past sans closure!
Sent from my iPhone
On 14 Jul 2020, at 9:57 AM, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com> wrote:
Biko,well done on your beautiful summation on igbo achievement.But its vital we face the osu problem head on which you and other igbo scholars on this subject who insist its not a huge problem are not doing.a search for the term 'osu' in the igbo centered facebook group igborant hq brings up at least eight posts on the subject.the richest of these is this active post and thread linked below with 392 comments as of today, a post where young igbo are actively demonstrating the permeative force of usu caste discrimination in igbo society.they are doing this through first hand accounts of the agonies of victims and their own self declared allegiance to this evil ideology-even in the face of fellow igbo who are so discriminated agst, other so described 'second class igbo' who would also be on that group, victims watching in pain as their fellow igbo openly describe them as less than fully human.
unless igbo elite address this horror forcefully, its going nowhere.and even when they do so, its depth of superstitious and classism- being a means of feeling superior to others- and the heavy investment in it by those who call themselves 'freeborn' or 'diala', if i get the name right, in contemporary igbo society, means it might take up to 100 years of active campaigning to bring this evil practice to an end.we should avoid ethnic gymnastics and semantic pyrotechnics in addressing this delicately painful culture of dehumanization within and by members of the same ethnic group agst their own kin.we should be wary, agst stark and overwhelming evidence to the contrary, of claims that non-igbo dont understand the reality of usu caste culture bcs non-igbos are outsiders to the culture or that those igbo who criticize it dont understand it.
we should focus on the evidence.it is a mark of the greatest inhumanity that a people facing the double challenge of a struggle within their own country and as black people on the global stage could insist on continuing to be so evil to each other.
we must rise above ethnic self defense and indifference to and mockery of ethnicities not ours and address this horror as the whole world is struggling for african-americans-Akwaugo was supposed to be married tomorrow but a particular reoccurring Igbo Tradition tarnished that eternal bliss.
Akwaugo met Kenneth in the University and they both fell hopelessly in love. Both from Imo State, they were novice to any Culture and Traditions. They were in love for 3 years and after giving her a promise ring 💍, it escalated into an Engagement 💍 ring and Boom!!!
Marriage.
Both parties introduced themselves to their various families but something happened. The Mum knew the place of the girl very well. She sent spies to investigate 'Nchoputa' and found out the girl was an Osu. Her world came tumbling down. Ken who has a First Class in Physics says "I won't marry you baby cos of the future of our kids!"
Akwaugo weeps on. 😨😫
Footnotes:
Honestly, I don't think your Bible, Church or Religion has taught you anything if you still believe in the 13th century barbaric custom of OSU CASTE SYSTEM.
You cannot be shouting BLACK LIVES MATTER or complaining of discrimination by whites when you discriminate against your own brothers and sisters at home.
Our extant Constitution condemned discrimination at all level but in IGBO LAND, the OSU CASTE SYSTEM is still prevalent. 🌚🌚There are many customs that have been abolished because they're repugnant to natural justice, equity & good conscience. Customs like forbidding females from inheriting their parent's property, sleeping with the corpse of their husbands to prove their innocence, what's so difficult in abolishing the OSU CASTE SYSTEM?
Like how do you tell a 2 years old boy that he's an OUTCAST simply because your forefathers married their forefathers to the gods over 1000 years ago?Your Bible said you should treat others the way you would want to be treated (golden rule). How would you feel if your fellow being discriminate against you? 🌚
CUSTOM is the people's way of life.Discrimination is not our way of life & shouldn't be one of our customs.
🌚🌚🌚
Or what do you think? 🤔
I'm a freeborn tho. Will I say I'm lucky or blessed? 🤷🏾♂️ I'm just not happy to see a friend treated like she has a plague.
Happy Weekend! ❤️
--On Tue, 14 Jul 2020 at 01:27, 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:--Sista Glo,On the Igbo not being perfect, no one ever said that they are perfect for they name their children, Uwaezuoke, the world is never enough. Yet, with all their very human imperfections, the Igbo do not deserve the hatred that the rest of Nigerians reserve for them. That is what Soyinka keeps reminding us, we have things to learn from the Igbo just as we have things to learn from other cultures. Threatening the Igbo with genocide is a form of phobia that is unjustifiable given their actual and potential contributions to the reconstruction of democratic praxis in Africa. Democracy itself is not perfect, it is the worst system of government, except for all the other alternatives, said Churchill. He would know because he preferred to impose colonial dictatorship in line with the philosophy of Plato - The Philosopher King - and Aristotle - the Aristocracy - as better models compared to democracy or what they called mob rule.Eze Nri was not a king but a chief priest whose authority never extended beyond the hamlets of Nri. It is true that chiefs were emerging in some parts of Igboland as documented by Nzimiro but Uchendu identified them as 'intrusive traits' from our monarchical neighbors. Rather than scoff at the deeply democratic traditions in places like Igboland, Rodney invited us to study them and celebrate them as much as we celebrate the empires of Western Sudan. The fascination with the Igbo by Rodney is all over HEUA where he praised them for building their own schools when the colonizers pretended that there was not enough money for schools; he celebrated their resistance to the double squeeze of underpaying the peasants for their harvests and hiking up the prices of manufactures, leading to the Women's War of 1929; and he dismissed claims that the genocide against Biafra was as a result of tribal war since the nations of Nigeria are too big to be called tribes, and there was never a record of genocide by Nigerian nations against their neighbors before colonization, while there are no African tribes called the Labour Party government of Britain nor Shell BP that orchestrated the genocide with Soviet Union help.The Osu and Ohu institutions, in my humble opinion, were impositions resulting from the slave raids and they are not present in every Igbo community. The Ohu system of slavery came about as a result of the slave raids to capture people for sale but the Igbo resisted such raids as much as they could. The British claimed that they burnt down the Long Juju of Arochukwu in order to end the slave trade that they themselves imposed and ran for 4 hundreds years. Chinweizu dismissed such a claim as false because the British had long ended their slave trade by the time they organized the punitive expedition to Arochukwu over the struggle to dominate the lucrative trade in palm oil.Osu came about, in my own opinion, as a sacred order for people who ran into the shrines to dedicate themselves rather than join in the resistance against the slave raiders. The Igbo would say, O sukwa, or it is happening; and those who fled into the refuge of the shrines were feared for having made contact with supernatural forces and became ndi Osu. A goat that is dedicated to the shrines is never beaten and it can come into your house and eat your dinner without fear. The Osu were untouchable because no one could beat them or kill them.Azikiwe made it his priority to abolish the Osu system once he became Premiere of the Eastern Region in 1952. The problem remained a burden to the Igbo because anyone who married an Osu was regarded as an Osu too. Parents would still make enquiries to make sure that their children will be happy in their marriage rather than face discrimination. Other nations in Nigeria also discriminate in the choice of spouses for their children.The Osu system has already been dissolved by the Igbo who are dynamic and cosmopolitan more than any other nation in Nigeria. For instance, no parents would withdraw their child from school if the teacher was known to be Osu, no one would refuse to go to church if the priest is an Osu, and no one would refuse COVID-19 relief if the governor or senator sharing it is an Osu. With the Igbo excellence in modern education, their success in trading and widespread enthusiasm for travel to other lands, the distinction between Osu and Amala is almost completely erased as people make friends in school or at work or on the sports field or in a musical band without bothering to find out if there is still a caste system. It may still be a problem in local politics but it is fast dying out.The residues of Ohu and Osu among the Igbo could be additional points to make in a legal writ or negotiations for reparations for the slow healing wounds of slave raids and post-colonial genocide for which the Igbo suffered more than most. The Diaspora demand for reparative justice should be extended to Africa too.Baba Sho cannot be imagined to be a scholar-activist who never paid homage to the Civil Rights Movement. That is exactly the theme of his play, Bachae, a homage to the civil rights movement in the US. Much more than almost any other African writer, Soyinka has been fascinated by the survival of African cultures of struggles for freedom in the Diaspora. His joke about the tiger and the tigritude should be understood as a critique of Senghore who preached Negritude but relished being an evolved Frenchman, though Senghore understood the joke and retorted that Soyinka does not speak tigrese or he would know what the tiger professes. See a commentary on Soyinka and the Civil Rights Movement in the US: Postcolonial Identity in Wole SoyinkaBikoOn Monday, 13 July 2020, 17:27:27 GMT-4, 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:--From ten years ago, this Oriki still dey fresh:Ode to Soyinka @ 76
Ode to Soyinka @ 76
ODE TO BABA SHO AT 76 By Biko Agozino 'Unlike societies right next to the Igbo for instance – more famously the...
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