Who Were The First Set of Igbos To Visit Lagos? (INTERESTING) It has been argued time and time again. However history reported that the very first set of Igbos to migrate and be absorbed by the West were people regarded by the society as the ‘Osu’ caste (often referred to as social outcast). For the record, it is the belief of many Igbo traditionalists that the Osus are people historically owned by deities, and are therefore considered to be a ‘living sacrifice,’ an outcast, untouchable and sub-human. Condemned to living in evil forests and other dehumanising existence, they seized the endless opportunities the West had to offer and made it. In fact, this system received literary attention when it became a focal plot point in ‘No Longer At Ease’ by Chinua Achebe. As professionals or working class, this class of people were the ones who went on to show their tormentors and dehumanisers back home where the new prosperity was going to be. Their affluence and success stories eventually led to an outward gush of the Igbos in the early 1920s. According to Crown Agents archives, 13,000 of this set of people alone sailed from Lagos to build Ghana’s railway. History also claimed that the first executive president of Nigeria, Late Chief Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe’s newspapers and chain of businesses (both in Ghana and Nigeria) were set up mainly with money from the Osus based in Lagos. So much for the caste condemned by society, yet later became the cornerstone of their civilization. Whether this is true or not, only posterity can determined!
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 23:03:44 +0000
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