Why The Discrimination?

Caste Discrimination in other African states
In most Africa states, lower-caste people are slaves or
descendants of slaves or those who, according to social
stratification, carry out menial, dirty jobs like shoemaking
 or blacksmithing. In Niger, lower-caste persons are slaves,
weavers or well-diggers. They are found among the Hausa,
Djema-Songhai and the Touareg. In Senegal, the untouchables
are the Neenos, the Nyamakalaw and the Jonow. In Mauritania
we have the Haratin or black Moors who are slaves or ex-slaves
of the Bidans – the white Moors. In Burkina Faso the lower
 caste is the Bellah, the slave caste of the Touaregs. In Gambia,
 we have the Jaam or Ngalo people, whose forefathers were collateral
 for debts, were sold to settle debts or were captives of Islamic
jihadists who invaded centuries ago. Lower-caste people in the Great
Lakes Region – Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda – are the Twa. Throughout Africa,
 lower-caste people are in the minority and discrimination against
 them is largely unreported and unacknowledged.


Acts of discrimination
Lower-caste people live separately from upper-caste persons.
 Traditionally the Osu in Nigeria live near the local markets
or shrines. Untouchables are not allowed to interact closely
with upper-caste individuals. The belief is that they could
defile the so-called “freeborns” through such contact or interaction.

Traditionally inter-caste marriage is forbidden. Such a marriage is
regarded as a taboo – an abominable treason against the people and
the land. So a Diala who marries an Osu is automatically ostracized.
 He loses his “Dialaship”. And the descendants for generations after
him are Osu. In his book No Longer at Ease, Chinua Achebe portrayed
graphically and poignantly the pain that accompanies inter-caste marriage.

Upper-caste families go to any length to oppose inter- caste marriages.
 Upper-caste persons wanting to marry members of a lower caste may be
attacked, beaten and brutalized, forced to abort pregnancies, or have
the babies sold after delivery. Many inter-caste marriages end in divorce,
or the lower-caste widow is sent packing as soon as her upper-caste husband
 dies.

Politically, untouchables are second-class citizens: they can vote but
they cannot be voted for. In Nigeria, untouchables cannot hold traditional
leadership positions like Nze, Ozo or Eze, since it would be deemed a
desecration of the position to do so. In Owerri in Imo state a prominent
 Osu politician who won an election was robbed of his mandate, while an
untouchable who emerged as the king of his town was dethroned by a judge
 who ruled that the anti-Osu legislation was unenforceable. In Mbano,
posters of an Osu person standing for the Chairman of his local government
 were torn down by Dialas chanting the common slogan that an untouchable
 could not rule them.

Untouchables lack access to land and their housing rights are violated.
In Nigeria the Osu live near the market and local shrines. They are not
allowed to live, own land or erect houses outside the untouchable areas.
Discrimination continues even after death. In Gambia, lower castes may not
 be buried with the upper castes. In some Nigerian communities, the Osu are
 traditionally buried in the forest.

Discrimination against lower castes affects the siting of developments
like schools and the distribution of social amenities. Lower-caste people
come last in the queue for community development programs. Their access to
development projects sited on upper-caste lands is also likely to be limited.