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By Christian Agadibe
The iconic Nollywood movie, Properties of the Gods, produced by Okechukwu Joseph, has continued to gain support from traditional institutions in the Southeast as the campaign to end the Osu caste system in Igboland intensifies.
The development followed a courtesy visit by the production team to the palace of the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Ugochukwu Achebe, where the monarch expressed support for the message of inclusion being advanced through the movie.
The visit was part of engagements with traditional rulers ahead of the film’s nationwide cinema release and came after an earlier meeting with the Igwe of Nnewi, where the filmmakers said they received a similarly strong position against discrimination based on Osu status.
Speaking after the meeting, the film’s producer, Okechukwu Joseph, said the support from the traditional institutions had reinforced the purpose behind the production.
He said the movie was not created to attack any community or provoke conflict, but to encourage Nigerians to confront a practice that has divided people for generations.
“We didn’t make this movie to spite anybody or to start any crisis. We made the movie to advance the conversation to a point where our people can easily understand that the time has come for us to embrace one another and end the discrimination,” Joseph said.
According to him, the position taken by the Obi of Onitsha and the Igwe of Nnewi has raised an important question for communities where the practice still exists: if respected traditional institutions are calling for equality, what justification remains for treating anyone as an outcast?
The filmmakers urged other traditional rulers in the Southeast to join the campaign and use their influence to promote inclusion, arguing that ending the Osu system requires not only government action but also a change in community attitudes and inherited beliefs.
The Obi of Onitsha, in his remarks, rejected the idea that any human being could be regarded as inferior because of birth, ancestry or historical classification.
“All human beings are equal in the eyes of God who created all of us. No human being is created a lower being,” the Igwe said.
He further described caste systems as products of superstition and ignorance, questioning the contradictions in a society where people may interact freely with those labelled Osu while continuing to maintain discriminatory beliefs against them.
The filmmakers also referenced the position taken by Nigeria’s first President, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, who spoke against the practice in 1956 during the Eastern House of Assembly, describing the branding of a fellow human being as inferior because of an “accident of history” as unacceptable.
Joseph said Properties of the Gods seeks to bring that historical argument to a contemporary audience through cinema, allowing viewers to examine how the Osu classification emerged and the consequences it has continued to have on individuals and families.
He stressed that while legislation has a role to play, lasting change would depend largely on society abandoning the beliefs and practices that sustain discrimination.
The movie features prominent Nollywood actors, including Pete Edochie, the late Onyeka Onwenu, Enyinna Nwigwe, Maria Chike-Benjamin, Zack Orji, Hilda Dokubo and other notable actors. Pete Edochie, who the filmmakers identified as one of the inspirations behind the project, also plays a leading role.
Properties of the Gods opened in cinemas nationwide on Friday.
With the backing of prominent traditional institutions including HRM Igwe Samuel Ikechukwu Asadu who endorsed the movie alongside HRM Igwe Ambassador Dr. Lawrence Agubuzu and Among others while the production team hopes the movie will move the conversation beyond the cinema and encourage communities to reconsider inherited classifications, promote equality and work towards a society where no person’s dignity or opportunities are determined by caste.
