Two lovers from Okija in Anambra state have reportedly
committed suicide earlier this month after they were not allowed to marry
because one of them was from a slave descendant.
According to BBC, the duo, believed to be in their early
thirties, were planning how to tie the knot when their parents objected to the
union.
In a note left behind, the lovebirds rued the impossibility
of them getting married “all because of an ancient belief.”
“They’re saying we can’t get married… all because of an ancient belief,” they wrote.
“God created everyone equally so why would human beings
discriminate just because of the ignorance of our forefathers.”
Like the two lovebirds, several people believed to be of
slave descendants still face discrimination and different kinds of stigma in
the south east — home to the Igbo ethnic group — decades after the end of
slavery in Nigeria.
Descendants of slaves among the Igbo fall into two main
categories – the ohu and osu.
While the ohu’s ancestors were said to be owned by humans,
the osu’s were owned by gods – people dedicated to community shrines.
Those linked to the two groups are not only barred from
marrying other Igbo classified as “freeborn” but also prohibited from holding
political positions among others.
Favour, a 35-year-old woman, who was also affected by the
system, recounted how her plan of getting married to her lover was halted about
three years ago.
The lady explained that she was preparing for her wedding to
her lover, whom she had dated for five years, when his family kicked against
their union after discovering that she was an osu.
“They told their son that they didn’t want anything to do
with me,” she said.
She added that her lover initially tried to resist his
family’s objection to the union but eventually threw in the trowel after heated
pressure.
“I felt bad. I was so hurt. I was so pained,” she added.
“They instilled fear in him. He asked me if I wanted him to
die.”
To combat the issue, Oge Maduagwu, 44, had in 2017, founded
the Initiative for the Eradication of Traditional and Cultural Stigmatisation
in our Society (Ifetacsios).
Maduagwu has since been traversing different parts of the
south east where the practice still holds sway to enlighten people and advocate
equal rights for those affected.
“The kind of suffering that the black people are going
through in America, the slave descendants here are also going through the
same,” she said.
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