Some Traditions That Still Uphold Till Today, Osu/Ohu/Ume Caste system Episode1

Since I'm Igbo, I'll stick to Igbo traditions. Hopefully they'll be interactive, interesting and educative and not something that would brew unnecessary bile.

These are the major lower caste groups in Ndi-Igboland. In most places they mean the same thing; #Outcast, Pariah. But from where I come from they have very distinct meanings.

1. @Osu: This is a group of people sacrificed to the gods in Igbo community. They always assist the high priest of the Igbo #traditional religion to serve the deities or the Ndi-Igbo gods in their #shrine.

Making of #Osus:
A. When clans fight, the winning community takes some captives from the losing clan. Now from their captives, they sacrifice the strongest and healthiest humans to the gods as special slaves. Apart from being strong and healthy, they also have to be v!rg*ins. They are kept to serve the deity and as such cannot marry or have an affair with the freeborn (nwadiala).

B. In some special circumstances, those ones who hold the traditional beliefs of the Ndi*Igbos (the elders), could truly transform #Diala who committed the atrocities against the **Igbo land, into an @Osu. This process involves so many things like intricate rituals (offering of libations and sacrificing animals to the earth goddess).

C. Some communities or people who were at risk of extermination either because they were weak or committed a crime would run to the shrine and ask the gods for succour. They automatically become Osus and no matter the crime, become untouchable.

D. A Diala could sacrifice his headstrong child or his personal slave to the gods to attract favour. Such person and his descendants automatically becomes Osu.

E. Getting married to, interacting with or killing an Osu automatically makes a Diala an Osu.
The ancestors of the present-day Osu people inherited their dehumanizing social status through any of these.
Recently, one could late acquire the #Osu status through some inheritance and the marriage.

2. #Ohu: This group of people are slaves too but CONTINUE READING HERE