THE ORIGIN OF THE OSU CASTE SYSTEM IN IGBOLAND.

In time past, as against what it should be today, for one reason or the other, some individuals (formally Diala’s were publicly dedicated or if I may say offered as a living sacrifice to some deities in Igbo land. From that moment henceforth, they became sacred beings - "sacred properties", the Untouchables, living as less human mostly at the out sketch of the town/village. They became members of the Osu caste. Without any claim to any communal property except the shrine and items sacrificed to the gods.

People with knowledge or (oral) history when discussing the origin of Osu will tell you the Osu caste system was introduced in Igbo land at a certain time when the land needed to be purified. It was said that the god Amadioha (or Amadiora) informed a native doctor that the land had been defiled and needs cleansing and purification. No one knew the extent of this defilement or who did the ill. But a man was brought to a market square on an afo market day and was publicly dedicated to the gods and ancestors "to atone for the sins of the living". Since the name of this able-bodied man was Osu, his descendants, according to Igbo customs have had to bear his name the same with those who interacted with him.

According to Romeo Okeke’s book "the Osu concept in Igbo land", this system was birthed in the 14th century. He also posited that the practice was devised by the Nri people who by then had emerged as the priestly class in Igbo land as they realized that their job of spiritual cleansing (mostly carried out by “Aka-Nri” - Nri dwarf) was a source of power and Influence.

Beyond this somehow reliable but still vague origin of Osu, which pertains to the human dedication, no one can tell the precise origin of this system. But stories had it that there were periods the benefits of being an Osu outweighed its disadvantages.