The Embelama of Walaabuu-Faajjii Walaabuu

As per the Waaqeffannaa Spiritual Society’s religious beliefs and teaching, Waaqa creates and regulates the existence of all animate and inanimate material placing them in a well-balanced cosmic order as He (Waaqa) is extra-terrestrial being. The interdependence of the dominant is considered a precondition for peace (Nagaa) and prosperity in both metaphysical and practical sense. The Waaqeffannaa Spiritual Society refers to this concept of Peace and Order of Waaqa as Safuu. Safuu is extremely important in Waaqeffannaa religious thought. If the balance is disturbed, it is said that Safuu is lost. The loss of Safuu is the loss of Seera Waaqa (Waaqa’s Law and Order). The loss of safuu points the beginning of the reign of chaos and disorder. Asan extension of this phenomenon, the adherent of Waaqeffannaa Spirituality believe that society collapses unless a balance is struck between female and male, young and old, spiritual and physical power in the cosmic order of Waaq’s wisdom.

Waaqa is the beginning and the end, the one and the multitude, the infinite and the infinitesimal. Waaqa exists in everything and everything exists in Him. Waaqa is the metaphysics that weaves the past, the present and the future. This philosophical, political and religious thought of the Waaqeffannaa Spiritual Society is embodied in their emblem, the Faajjii Walaabuu.The emblem symbolizes Walaabuu as the universe that consisted of the heaven, living things, and the earth including the dead and nonliving. These three realities form the Waaqeffannaa Spiritual Society universe called Faajjii Walaabuu.

The term Faajjii literally refers to ‘banner’, or ‘notable’. Faajjii Walaabuu is a tricolor emblem represented with the colour Gurraachaa at the top, Diimaa in the middle, and Adii hues at the bottom. The symbolic quality of the color Gurraachaa which is literally refers to the colour black or grey but symbolically stands for something mysterious and pure. The primordial black or grey colour symbolizes the invisible Waaqaa, His unfathomable power, His humbleness, tolerance, gracefulness and calmness. The giant sky (Gurraacha Garaa Garbaa) symbolized the heaven in which the Waaqeffannaa Spiritual Society believes Waaqaa seated and lived. The knowledge beyond heaven is black, this darkness is unknown and unknowable to human being, inside the darkness existed fear and power. And so Gurrachaa also represent the supremacy of the Almighty Waaqaa.Waaqaa, equated with power and greatness was perceived in this quality of blackness where Blackness representes Qulqullinaa (Purity). The black represent the future which in turn represents the unknown and the unknowable. Black is the invisible representing the spirit and the soul. Black is holy and sacred. Black is Waaqa. Therefore, the colour gurraacha symbolizes Waaqa which referring to His tolerance, compassion, gracefulness, invisibility, purity, helpfulness. Clouds from which the rain originates are black; iris of the eye is black; hair black and hence black signifies seniority and prosperity.

The colour Diimaa literally means Red. The primordial red colour symbolizes the children of Waaqa, created by His miraculous wisdom in primordial time. Descendant of the first created man and woman have occupied the surface of the earth. They share this symbolic colour by their blood as creatures of Waaqaa. Red symbolized blood and heat (fire), the living things that have blood and produce heat, the sign of ripening, maturity and heroism. Maturity in turn is a period when one can pays sacrifice for the right and freedom of a nation and a pick time to discharge responsibility. Red is courage and sacrifice. Hence it signifies climax and culmination. Red became the symbol of living beings because all living things were presumed to have blood, and it was this blood that was the symbol of life. The red is the present, the contemporary age, the living, the here and now. Red is flesh. Red is the blood that rushes (flows) through our veins. Red is the living fire. Red is the present.

The primordial white colour symbolizes two aspects of life one after another. One concept is the concept of peace (nagaa). This concept of peace is peace with fellow human beings, peace with the Creator Waaqaa, and peace with dachee (earth). The other aspect of peace is peace for the Holy Ghost (ekeraa) of the dead human (ancestors). White symbolizes the end of earthly life. The Waaqeffannaa Spiritual society used to mourn by wearing white cloth made of cotton for their deceased relatives. They also offer the ekeraa of the deceased person what he liked to eat and drink while on earth on a heap of ash around hearth to remember the holy ghost of their near relatives.

As there is blood, there is life, and heat. Where there is no life there is no heat and fire. When fire is out what is left is the ash and when the body disintegrated, it is reduced to skeleton (white). When a person becomes aged, the black coloured hairs become white coloured hair which is the sign of aging and nearing the end of life. Both ash and a skeleton were white, all represented dead. And therefore, the white is the past, the ancestors, the bones, the ashes. White is the past, the bones that remain behind when life flickers out. White is the ashes that remain when the fire is out. White is the ancestors. White is the known and proud past. White is the sun, the moon, stars, earth, the ghost, bone and ashes; and white is the dead and nonliving. White is the barren. Therefore, white represent completion, nearing end point. Water-less clouds are white, gray hair indicates old-age, dead bones are white, and ash is white and hence white is the symbol of conclusions, fading away.Accordingly, heaven is Black (the symbol of Waaqaa), the living beings is red or fire, the earth and the dead in white color.

Including the first human kind, Yaayyaa, Waaqa creates humans with this symbol of Faajjii Walaabuu. Human has the spirit and soul, the black hair, the black retina the symbol of blackness, human has blood flowing in their vein, has flesh, the living fire the symbol of Redness. The bone, teeth,cornea of the eye, the hair when aged, the nail when grow and become dead all represent the whiteness of Faajjii Walaabuu.

Therefore, Faajjii Walaabuu, the Black heaven, the living thing and the material abstract fused together and give the divine, human and the dead components. Thus, in the three colors of Faajjii Walaabuu, Waaqa weaves together the past, the present and the future; the bones, the flesh and the soul.