![Text and photo from a BBC article on the Osu, Nigeria’s version of an “untouchable” caste:
“People say the Osu are the descendants of people sacrificed to the gods, hundreds of years ago.
But an academic who has researched Igbo traditions says he believes the Osu were actually a kind of ‘living sacrifice’ to the gods from the community.
‘I remember when I was a child, seeing the Osu and running away,’ says Professor Ben Obumselu, former vice-president of the influential Igbo organisation Ohaneze Ndi Igbo.
‘They were banned from all forms of civil society; they had no land, lived in the shrine of the gods, and if they could, would farm the land next to the road.’
‘It was believed that they had been dedicated to the gods, that they belonged to them, rather then the world of the human,’ he said.
…[Some] Osu have been able to use the ostracism to their advantage, says Mr Obumselu.
Unable to make a way in village life, some Osu embraced ‘Western’ education and became Nigeria’s first doctors and lawyers, he says.
Consequently many of modern Igboland’s prominent families are Osu.”](http://24.media.tumblr.com/W4mRtzGq5m0c42o3BTBmjKVMo1_250.jpg)
Text and photo from a BBC article on the Osu, Nigeria’s version of an “untouchable” caste:
“People say the Osu are the descendants of people sacrificed to the gods, hundreds of years ago.
But an academic who has researched Igbo traditions says he believes the Osu were actually a kind of ‘living sacrifice’ to the gods from the community.
‘I remember when I was a child, seeing the Osu and running away,’ says Professor Ben Obumselu, former vice-president of the influential Igbo organisation Ohaneze Ndi Igbo.
‘They were banned from all forms of civil society; they had no land, lived in the shrine of the gods, and if they could, would farm the land next to the road.’
‘It was believed that they had been dedicated to the gods, that they belonged to them, rather then the world of the human,’ he said.
…[Some] Osu have been able to use the ostracism to their advantage, says Mr Obumselu.
Unable to make a way in village life, some Osu embraced ‘Western’ education and became Nigeria’s first doctors and lawyers, he says.
Consequently many of modern Igboland’s prominent families are Osu.”
