Newsie Events:-
According to a news report from Oriental Times, yet to be identified lovers from Okija, Anambra State have allegedly taken their lives after drinking popular insecticide, Snipper.
Reports show that their reason according to the suicide letter was because their parents refused to give their consent for them to get married to each other because one of them is Osu.
“The Osu Caste System is an ancient practice in Igboland that discourages social interaction and marriage with a group of people, referred to as Osu (outcasts). This is because they dedicate these Osu people to the Alusis (deities) and are thus seen as inferior to the Nwadiala (free-borns).
This system has been traced back to a time when people were offered to the deities to clean the land from an abomination. Another view on the historical perspective of the Osus puts them as defiant people who simply refuse to head to the orders of the king or the decision of the community.(culled from Guardian)”
Recall that sometime last year, Igbo Born Actor, Joe Okechukwu led a campaign for the dissolution of the ancient practice of Osu Caste System.
After his campaign which crisscrossed the whole Igboland, some communities heeded to his campaign and abolished the practice while a few others are still holding on to it.
The two lovers reportedly left a written note before their death.
Read below.
“Racism in disguise…
How can we separate after 6 solid years of dating and getting so used to each other? how???
Is it a crime to be held from Okija Anambra state? We both are from Okija in Ihiala Local Government Area, Anambra State, Nigeria. We have always wanted to spend the rest of lives together, we’ve always planned our future together. We have always struggled to secure a better future, now that things are gradually turning around for us, they’re saying we can’t get married, all because of Osu and Ohu Caste, all because of an ancient belief that has been abolished in other villages. The people of Okija chose to live in the past, all as a result of ignorance. God created everyone equally so why would human beings discriminate just because of the ignorance of our forefathers? Why will we keep suffering for what we know nothing about, for something we didn’t do??? Why do we still choose to stay in the dark? This is racism in disguise, yet we want to be treated equally in the white man’s land, charity they say begins at home.
We made up our minds to end it all because we can’t stay without each other. Ndi Okija, say No to Osu Caste!!!”
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