This was inspired, after a conversation with a friend, who's in love with an OSU, and is fighting her family, because they won't accept her lover.


Osu!

Why should I suffer?
Why should I be cast-out?
Why should I be blamed today,
for something I know nothing about?

When my friends mock me,
When strangers talk at my back,
When little children point fingers at me,
I wonder...why?

Is it because of sins committed?
Sins by my fathers of old,
atrocities I know nothing about,
a pain that lives on in my life.

My children ask me,
the same questions I asked my father,
‘‘Papa, my friends don’t want me,
am I a bad person?”

In my life, I have been honest,
never taken another’s possession,
never served the spirit of deities,
yet, they say I do!!

A curse was heaped on me,
centuries before my existence,
by people known as my own,
in a land , known as my home.

Today I pay the price,
and live a life of misery.
Tomorrow, my children's children to come,
will live one of repudiation.

I cry out loud,
with a voice that rings far,
far enough for the spirits to hear,
the spirits of my accusers.

For the dry bones of centuries,
to rattle and turn in their graves,
for the souls long gone,
to acknowledge this pain I bear.

I scream out with a voice,
parched from my tears,
I scream out with a body,
weak from discrimination.

What have I done wrong,
to be born into Ibo-land,
a land that rejected me,
even before I was conceived..

Weruche.( aka MissDiva) ©2006

If my memory serves me, we've been down this Osu road before.

really? Well, it doesn't hurt to hear it again, and again and again, until we can hear about the practice no more, right?

I thought this was a thing of the past

Sadly it is still very much a part of Naija as the Ohu caste is too.

The Osu caste system is one of those embarrassing relics of our past that Ndi'Igbo wish would die out for good!

Its served its purpose, and this purpose has been replaced by more mordern and better regulatory societal systems.

We just wish it'd go away!

The Osu caste system is one of those embarrassing relics of our past that Ndi'Igbo wish would die out for good!

Its served its purpose, and this purpose has been replaced by more mordern and better regulatory societal systems.

We just wish it'd go away!And what purpose did such bigotry serve?

This is deja vu

And what purpose did such bigotry serve?

it served its purpose and had its place in the olden days..

Communities used this system for regulatory or policitory purposes as well; people were deemed Osu for all sorts of reasons; sometimes for something as flimsy as stealing (believe it or not!) or murder; it stands that if a man murdered another person (depending on the circumstance) the communitry would brand him and all his decendants Osu, hence policing the rest of community from taking laws into its hands...

Not everything was totally bad about our past, you know; we had organised society before the white man came with their "ways" and the Osu caste system was one way we kept society..

Question to y'all

Is it true that most of the people sold into slavery were mostly osu?

Question to y'all

Is it true that most of the people sold into slavery were mostly osu?No it is not though some where..They were those that owed money and could not pay back....

I really get tired of this topic...enough have been said about it....

This was inspired, after a conversation with a friend, who's in love with an OSU, and is fighting her family, because they won't accept her lover.


Osu!

Why should I suffer?
Why should I be cast-out?
Why should I be blamed today,
for something I know nothing about?

When my friends mock me,
When strangers talk at my back,
When little children point fingers at me,
I wonder...why?

Is it because of sins committed?
Sins by my fathers of old,
atrocities I know nothing about,
a pain that lives on in my life.

My children ask me,
the same questions I asked my father,
‘‘Papa, my friends don’t want me,
am I a bad person?”

In my life, I have been honest,
never taken another’s possession,
never served the spirit of deities,
yet, they say I do!!

A curse was heaped on me,
centuries before my existence,
by people known as my own,
in a land , known as my home.

Today I pay the price,
and live a life of misery.
Tomorrow, my children's children to come,
will live one of repudiation.

I cry out loud,
with a voice that rings far,
far enough for the spirits to hear,
the spirits of my accusers.

For the dry bones of centuries,
to rattle and turn in their graves,
for the souls long gone,
to acknowledge this pain I bear.

I scream out with a voice,
parched from my tears,
I scream out with a body,
weak from discrimination.

What have I done wrong,
to be born into Ibo-land,
a land that rejected me,
even before I was conceived..

Weruche.( aka MissDiva) ©2006
So, you had time to write this long poem about an ancient culture that is almost dinstinct? Why not write something better for your boyfriend and not Osu?

So, you had time to write this long poem about an ancient culture that is almost dinstinct? Why not write something better for your boyfriend and not Osu?

what if the boyfriend is Osu?

I really get tired of this topic...enough have been said about it....

The same here.

it served its purpose and had its place in the olden days..

Communities used this system for regulatory or policitory purposes as well; people were deemed Osu for all sorts of reasons; sometimes for something as flimsy as stealing (believe it or not!) or murder; it stands that if a man murdered another person (depending on the circumstance) the communitry would brand him and all his decendants Osu, hence policing the rest of community from taking laws into its hands...

Not everything was totally bad about our past, you know; we had organised society before the white man came with their "ways" and the Osu caste system was one way we kept society..If you call blaming the child for the sins of the father organized society, then, Houston, we've got a problem! You do not keep peace here by damning it elsewhere! You do not keep order by whimsical condemnation by association!

Those who resort to intimidation and coercion to keep "order" are simply exhibiting the smallness of their intellect: brawn over brains!

Osu system was our shameful past history, and no evil can serve any purpose!

No it is not though some where..They were those that owed money and could not pay back....

I see! I never knew people with bad credit was slaved too.

I really get tired of this topic...enough have been said about it....No, MVP, we should never be too weary to condemn evil anywhere, anytime! Osu was an evil system, through and through!

No, MVP, we should never be too weary to condemn evil anywhere, anytime! Osu was an evil system, through and through! I condemn it just like you but having said that is that going to make people start marrying an osu ? i seriously doubt it. In the past and till now they really believed in the practise as sad it sounds most still believe till today...

If you call blaming the child for the sins of the father organized society, then, Houston, we've got a problem! You do not keep peace here by damning it elsewhere! You do not keep order by whimsical condemnation by association!

Those who resort to intimidation and coercion to keep "order" are simply exhibiting the smallness of their intellect: brawn over brains!

Osu system was our shameful past history, and no evil can serve any purpose!

AGSOBA69 before you willfully jump down my throat and dismiss me, read very calrefully what I have written....

I agree the Osu caste system has no place in mordern society, but back in the olden days it did, whether wrong or right; communities used it to serve some purpose of sanity in the society...

Our people did not make random "out-of-the-blue" decisons back then, they had a reason for setting a system such as that in place.. they were not stupid (as you've already deemed them out!) but worked with what they had!
Today you can say they were "exhibiting smallness of their intellect" in relation to what you know TODAY; but not from back then...

I'm sure the Yorubas have some outdated practices/systems which are no longer required becos they do not fit in mordern society, but served a purpose in the olden days....

I see! I never knew people with bad credit was slaved too.

:roll
:roll
:roll

I see! I never knew people with bad credit was slaved too. Goes to tell you that you are doomed with bad credit so borrow carefully...

And who will that boyfriend be, obiora? dash me, if you have to spare o, biko!

AGSOBA69 before you willfully jump down my throat and dismiss me, read very calrefully what I have written....

I agree the Osu caste system has no place in mordern society, but back in the olden days it did, whether wrong or right; communities used it to serve some purpose of sanity in the society...

Our people did not make random "out-of-the-blue" decisons back then, they had a reason for setting a system such as that in place.. they were not stupid (as you've already deemed them out!) but worked with what they had!
Today you can say they were "exhibiting smallness of their intellect" in relation to what you know TODAY; but not from back then...

I'm sure the Yorubas have some outdated practices/systems which are no longer required becos they do not fit in mordern society, but served a purpose in the olden days....I understand what you were saying, and that is the problem: you tend to believe that the only problem with Osu is that it no longer fits our modern world, that it was okay back then because it satisfied some warped idea of their jungle justice system, but I am saying it could not fit the world even back then, because it was an evil system even though they might know it! There can be no justification for evil at any time!

You may say they did not know any better back then even when they were killing off twins. They had no rational reason for doing so (fear is not rational!), not then and definitely not now!

It is wrong to condemn a whole bloodline for the sins of one person! I am glad they did not think of incarcerating the whole lineage for the sins of one person, there would have been no one left in the land!

Osu system was our shameful past history, and no evil can serve any purpose!

I think say u be from Abule Egba before..when u trans-relocate go the other side of the Niger?