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This page is incredibly defamatory, wrong and has wrongfully incited hate toward a marginalized group of people. Every time people correct it, someone else changes it back. I am Igbo and I speak Igbo. Osu wasn't a caste or slave system and the word Osu actually means “sacred". They were set apart from ndiala (which actually means ”people of the land, NOT “free born”. You can literally confirm this with Google Translate and an Igbo-English dictionary so I don't know why this is still up) because they were dedicated to our gods and would intercede with them on our behalf. To be “nwa osu” (sacred child) back then was an honor and ndiala we're unworthy to be in their presence. The New Yorker article that spread this narrative was HEAVILY criticized by the Igbo community because that narrative wasn't a consensus anywhere. There has even been an investigation into the author of that article and their motivations, because it didn't make sense for a major publication to commission someone who clearly knows little about Igbo history and culture to speak with such authority on something like this. The sources for this are unreliable. This Wikipedia page been extremely harmful and offers no educational or informational value, which goes against the mission of this website. It's endangering an entire ethnic group. This page needs to be deleted. Kairanuli (talk) 18:38, 7 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Kairanuli: It seems you need to familiarize yourself with Wikipedia's rules. Wikipedia operates on the basis of WP:RELIABILITY; the encyclopedia just simply repeats what reliable published sources say, not what editors personally believe is true. If you wish to change information on a Wikipedia article, you must demonstrate that the information fails to come from a reliable published source (WP:VERIFY). If there are reliable published sources that claim Osu was not a caste system, then this article can be changed to reflect this information. And Wikipedia is not censored, so this article can't be deleted on the basis of defaming an ethnic group. Helioz9 (talk) 06:51, 10 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I can't even fathom starting this response with the phrase "with all due respect". As a personal victim of the caste system who has permanently been in self-imposed exile for more than 30 years, the mere fact that this wikipedia article refers to the Osu Caste system in the past tense, is highly offensive. It is a caste system that is very much alive and well and affects the lives of many like me, my family members and countless others that I know. We live with the trauma, fear, PTSD, anxiety of having once lived in a society that lives by and enforces this belief. Such hypocrisy. For the person petitioning to have this article removed - it is akin to a white person telling me a person of color that racism no longer exists and therefore, it should no longer be discussed. Denying or trying to publicly deny this inhumane, barbaric system that denies others their basic human rights may be the shame of the Igbo people. Try to eradicate it, but please educate yourself and stop denying its existence. May my fellow so called "Osu" brothers and sisters find hope, peace and justice. 96.244.206.52 (talk) 02:02, 3 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
