Women August Meeting and the Quest against Discrimination of OSU in South-East, Nigeria

Abstract

Abstract
This paper examined the utility of yearly August meeting of Igbo women as a vehicle for denouncing
the orthodox belief that sees the Osu as less humans in the South-East, Nigeria. The paper contends that this annual women meeting holds great promise in this direction in that, it will help to educate and create awareness against the treatment of the Osu as inferior human beings a situation that had caused more alienation among Igbo stock. The paper utilized qualitative data sourced through key respondents’ interviews of chairmen of the August women meeting, leaders of both Osu and Diala extractions purposively selected from two communities each in Enugu and Imo states. Imo and Enugu States were selected because they still have some communities that treat Osu as inferior human beings. While Umuoka community was selected in Imo state, Umuode community was selected in Enugu Sate. The data were analysed using descriptive and content analysis. Results of the analysis showed that discrimination against the Osus in the South-East was based on mere belief and ignorance transferred from one generation to the other and that patterns and levels of discrimination against the Osus took the form of rejection, open abuse, planned attacks, divorce, isolation, separation and applying of poison. The results showed that in spite of the useful potentials of the August meeting, little has been done by women in this meeting to nip the Osu caste system in the bud. The study concluded that effective and rapid mitigation of the Osu caste system in the South- East demands a multi-faceted approach in its implementation as it affects both men and women in the region.