An Igbo man, Didi Mehn on Facebook has narrated how his girlfriend and family initially accepted his marriage proposal, but gone against it after they discovered some things about him.
Didi narrated the story on Social media, and revealed his girfriend family disoveed he is an Osu (outcast), and they called off the engagement between the love birds.
Hear him;
“We so much love ourselves… We’ve been together in difficult times… I think she’s the woman I would want to spend the rest of my life with.
She has already said yes to my marriage proposal, but there’s a problem.. She’s Amadi while am an Osu…
Her parents initially accepted me wholeheartedly but after investigations they made about my family.. they discovered am an Osu and now they said that the relationship should end, reason is because they don’t wanna give their daughter to an Osu…
Am so confused right now,, please what do I do???”
Discrimination against the Osu people has been going on for ages, especially when it comes to marriage. The Amadi, who see themselves as the freeborn, treat the Osu as people who are unclean, and once you marry into an Osu family, you become an Osu and so will your offspring.
The Osu caste system is an ancient practice in Igboland that discourages social interaction and marriage with a group of persons called Osu.
Osu are the people dedicated to the gods; so they are regarded as slaves, strangers, outcasts, and untouchables.
Oral history has it that an osu was a respected monk devoted to the service and worship of a deity. The origin of the osu caste system can be traced back to the era when deities were believed to ask for human sacrifice during festivals in order to clean the land from abomination thus leading to the purchase of a slave by the people.
The osu caste system also has its origin traced to the Nri Kingdom. It is believed that the Nris possessed a hereditary power and thus do go about cleansing various kingdoms of abomination; any community that refuses to be cleansed are called osus.
Another view on the history of the osu caste system centres on ostracization. This occurs when a person or group of persons who refuse the orders of a king or the decision of a community are banished from the community thus resulting to the victim and its generation being called osus.
