Religion is the belief in and worship of God or gods or it is a set of beliefs concerning the origin and purpose of the universe. It is commonly regarded as consisting of a person\u2019s relation to God or to gods or spirits. The word religion is sometimes used interchangeably with faith system, but it is more than a private belief and has a public aspect. Most religions have organised behaviours, congregations for prayer, priestly hierarchies, holy places and scriptures. Faith is the confident belief or trust in the truth or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing. The word faith can refer to a religion itself. As with trust, faith involves a concept of future events or outcomes, and is used conversely for a belief “not resting on logical proof or material evidence”.\u00a0Faith is often used in a religious context, as in theology, where it almost universally refers to a trusting belief in transcedent reality, or else in a Supreme Being and\/or this being’s role in the order of transcendent spiritual things. So faith is in general the persuasion of the mind that a certain statement is true. It is the belief and the assent of the mind to the truth of what is declared, based on the declarer’s authority and truthfulness.<\/p>\n
Waaqeffannaa<\/em> (Amantii<\/em> Oromo), the traditional faith system of Oromo people, is one version of the monotheistic African Traditional Religion (ATR), where the followers of this faith system\u00a0do believe in only one Supereme Being. African traditional religion is a term referring to a variety of religious practices of the only ONE African religion, which Oromo believers call Waaqeffannaa (<\/em>believe in Waaqayoo,<\/em> the supreme Being),\u00a0an\u00a0indigenous faith system to the continent of Africa. Even though there are diffirent ways of practicing this religion with varieties of rituals,\u00a0in truth the different versions of the African religion have got the following commonalities:<\/p>\n The word “culture” is most commonly defined as the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group; different cultures are the distinct ways that classified people living in different parts of the world, that represented their experiences and acted creatively. African peoples have got our own culture which distinguish us from other parts of the world, of course also having our own sub-cultures among ourselves. Aadaa Oromo (Oromo culture) being one part of the\u00a0Cush culture is one of the sub-cultures within the common African culture, which consists also the faith system of Waaqeffannaa<\/em> as part and parcel of the Oromo\/African culture.<\/p>\n Waaqeeffannaa’s<\/strong><\/em> interaction with other religions<\/strong><\/p>\n According to the expert opinions written up to now, the concept of monotheism is the whole mark of\u00a0African Traditional Religion including the faith system of the Cush nations. It seems that this concept of monotheism have moved from Cushitic black Africans (including the Oromo) first to ancient Egypt, secondly further to Israel of the Bible and lastly to the Arab world of Koran. The experts tell us that Moses was not the first monotheist, but Akhenaten was the first revolutionary monotheist; they even claim that Moses might have been black. It is also argued that Moses was an Egyptian Pharaoh known as Akhenaten before the exodus. Additionally, they do argue that Akhenaten\u2019s monotheism revolution in Egypt was not inspired from inside, but induced from outside by the Cushites, i.e. Akhenaten might have derived his monotheism concept from Africa’s\/Oromo\u2019s concept of Waaqa tokkicha<\/em>\u00a0in a form of \u201cWaaqayyoo humna malee bifa hin qabu<\/em> (God has no physical form, but power)\u201d. This concept may have been misinterpreted so that the other religions later started to talk about God with a physical form.<\/p>\n It is also\u00a0interesting to observe many similarities between some old Egyptian words and Afaan<\/em> Oromo words; for instance, the similarities of the ancient Egyptian words \u201cAnii<\/em> and Matii<\/em>\u201d with the Oromo words of \u201cAna (Ani)<\/em> and Maatii<\/em>\u201c. Anii<\/em> of Egyptians, which means I (I am who I am), that is equivalent to God is similar to the Oromo word Ani<\/em>, which also means I<\/em> and refers to the first person singular (the actor = the main character of GOD). Matii<\/em> being the designation of God\u2019s congregation and the Oromo word Maatii<\/em> for the family which is the \u201ccongregation\u201d of ani<\/em> (first person = God) are surprisingly the same. This is only one of many similarities between Oromo and Egypt registered by experts till now. It is not my intention to talk about this historical relationship here, but just to show the relation between Oromo\u2019s traditional religion and the three Abraham religions, even though Judaism is not part of the current religions practiced by the Oromo. It means the new acceptance of both Chrisitianity and Islam by Africans\u00a0is the coming back of the same belief in Waaqa tokkicha <\/em>to Africa in different forms.<\/p>\n This historical relation between Amantii<\/em> Oromo and the two big religions of the world suggests\u00a0that Waaqeffannaa<\/em> is the older version of monotheism and humanism. Waaqeffannaa<\/em> as a\u00a0faith system and Irreechaa<\/em> as a major national celebration were part and parcel of Oromo public life. Now, some Oromo nationals\u00a0prefer the name Amantii<\/em> Oromo\/Amantii<\/em> Africa\u00a0to Waaqeeffannaa<\/em>. It is important if we all can agree to call the Oromo traditional religion as Amantii<\/em> Oromo\/Amantii<\/em> Africa, just like we agreed on calling our language Afaan Oromo and our country Biyya<\/em> Oromo. So in short, we can say: Our land is Biyya<\/em> Oromo, our language is Afaan<\/em> Oromo and our religion is Amantii<\/em> Oromo. It is\u00a0known that some people may argue by saying \u201chow can we call it Amantii<\/em> Oromo, when we do see that more than half of the Oromo nowadays have Christianity and Islam as their religion?\u201d Are Oromo with other first language rather than Afaan<\/em> Oromo not Oromo, despite their lost Afaan<\/em> Oromo? Should we say just because of these Oromo, who nowadays speak only English, German, Amharic, etc., that Oromo language is not Afaan<\/em> Oromo? The same way, it is not logical not to call Oromo religion as Amantii<\/em> Oromo because of the Oromo who overtook other religions.\u00a0Actually, the designation Waqqeffannaa<\/em> (believing in and living with Waaqayyoo<\/em>) can also be applied to Christian Oromo and Islam Oromo even though most of the Islam Oromo prefer the name Rabbii<\/em> to the name Waaqayyoo<\/em>. They all are believers in Waaqayyoo<\/em> = God = Allah = Rabbii<\/em>. Amantii<\/em> Oromo differs only because of its specificity for it is the older Oromo faith embedded in only Oromo\/African culture\u00a0without any influence from alien culture.<\/p>\n The fact to be accepted here is that God is universal even though we call HIM Waaqayyoo<\/em>, Rabbii<\/em> or Allah. But, Amantii<\/em> Oromo is the way how our forefathers believed in this universal Waaqayyoo<\/em> of humankind. We don\u2019t have God or Waaqayyoo<\/em>, who is specific only to Oromo\/Africa and doesn\u2019t care for other nations. Waaqayyoo<\/em> is the God of nations. But, we Oromo do have a specific way and culture regarding how we do practice our belief in Waaqayyoo<\/em>. This way of practicing our faith is what we call Amantii<\/em> Oromo. Amantii<\/em> Oromo is simply the Oromo way of practicing the faith in the universal Waaqayyoo<\/em>. It is part of the Oromo way of dealing with the problems of life (it is part of Aadaa<\/em> Oromo). Accordingly, aadaa<\/em> (culture) can also be defined as the way, in which a certain collective or group of people deals with its own life problem.<\/p>\n The difference between this Amantii<\/em> Oromo and the other two big religions practiced by Oromo is that the other two got not only the faith in one God, but also the elements of cultures from the people in which they first emerged. We can see here the Arabs accepted the concept of Waaqa tokkicha<\/em> while still keeping pre-Mohammad Arab culture in Islam, which is far different from Oromo\/from African culture, but Islam practiced by Oromo in Oromia is colored by Arab culture for it is adopted from there. Interestingly, this is the difference between Islam Arab and Islam Oromo; Islam Arabs adopted only the concept of Waaqa tokkicha<\/em> from Cush of Africa\/Egypt\/Israel, but\u00a0don’t seem to\u00a0exercise alien culture from these areas, whereas Islam Oromo tend to adopt both the faith and the culture from Arabs. Egyptians and Israelis, who accepted the concept of the same Waaqa tokkicha<\/em>, also do practice their faith being colored by their previous culture; they don\u2019t seem to practice Cush culture; but again Christianity practiced in Oromia is mostly colored by the culture of the Israelis, the Habeshas<\/em> as well as by that of the Western for Christian Oromo tend to adopt not only the faith, but also the alien culture.<\/p>\n That is why it is not actually bad that some Oromo nationals accept and believe in the two monotheist religions (Christianity and Islam) per se, but not good is giving more value to the culture of the nations from which the religions come to us, at the cost of the very valuable Aadaa<\/em> Oromo. Of course, good elements of foreign cultures can be accommodated without damaging the good elements of our own. For instance, the similarity between dibbee Qaallu<\/em> (Qaallu\u2019s<\/em> drum) and the beat of Tigrinya<\/em> music shows how Tegarus<\/em> have inherited some elements of Oromo\u2019s culture. This\u00a0can verify\u00a0that the suggestion of Donald Levine, who\u00a0in his book called Greater Ethiopia wrote that “Tegarus<\/em> are part of the Cushites of the Old Testament who denied their identity”, is may be true. After all, why do they call their mother Aadde<\/em>? Where does the name Barentu<\/em> in Eritrea come from? Are they only inheritance of names or were they part of the lost Oromo\/Cush? Anyways, it is good to follow the advice given by Luba<\/em> Shamsadin. He said (paraphrased here), when we try to accept religions from other nations, we have to identify and separate\u00a0\u201cthe bone of the fish from the meat\u201d; i.e. we need to identify and leave the unnecessary cultural values of other nations mixed with the religions we Oromo do accept.<\/p>\n So as it is put here in short, Waaqeffannaa<\/em> (believe in one Waaqayyoo<\/em> of the universe) is\u00a0practiced not only among Cush nations, but also among almost all African nations. This faith system of Africans including Waaqeffannaa has been devalued as something \u201cpaganism, barbarism, religionlessness, uncivilization, Godlessness, animisim, primitivism, etc\u201d. The black color, which is the symbol of holiness in Waaqeffannaa<\/em> is demonized\u00a0as a symbol for Satan. All the blessing ceremonies of Waaqeffannaa and the utensiles used for the blessings are condemned as a service and worshipping of demons\/Satan. Despite\u00a0this denigeration, the current revival of Waaqeffannaa<\/em> and the celebration of Irreechaa<\/em> in Oromia can be a good example setting for the other African nations to revive their hitherto devalued and almost lost culture and religion.<\/p>\n To serve this purpose of revival, the right way of Waaqeffannaa<\/em> (believing in, celebrating of and living with Waaqayyoo<\/em>) must be cleaned from alien non-constructive elements as well as from non-productive practices and rituals like that of qaalichaa<\/em> (infiltrating idolatry), which are not serving the purpose of Waaqayyoo<\/em> in our personal or national life. That means, we have to differentiate Waaqeffachuu<\/em> (realizing God\u2019s purpose in our life) from waaqessuu<\/em> (serving alien gods). Waaqeffachuu<\/em> is applying Waaqayyoo\u2019s<\/em> goodwill in our practical life, whereas waaqessuu<\/em> is making someone or something be our Waaqa<\/em>, i.e. practicing idolatry. The Oromo people in general have never had an idol to worship, but always had only one Waaqayyoo<\/em> to believe in and to celebrate. Of course, there are very few Oromo individuals nowadays tending to practice waaqessuu<\/em>. Such purification of the African faith system must be done in all versions of\u00a0 the practices\u00a0and rituals\u00a0among all African nations.<\/p>\n Concept of God in <\/strong>Waaqeffannaa<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n To make Waaqeffannaa<\/em> a little bit clear, here is a short narration about this faith system in practice. Oromo nationals practicing this faith\u00a0do talk about Waaqa tokkicha<\/em>, which is one of the evidences for the faith to be monotheism, just as the Christianity and Islam are. The concept of God among these believers is summarized by their usual saying: \u201cWaaqayyoo humna malee bifa hin qabu.\u201d<\/em> These believers do not misinterpret Waaqa tokkicha<\/em> as an expression of physical form for even the whole nature as a physical form is also an expression of his power. The believers\u00a0and the Qaalluu<\/em> or\u00a0Qaallitti<\/em> (local spiritual leader) are usually very lovely; specially the leaders are\u00a0simply like a\u00a0love in person. All their followers are selfless people full of good deeds and love; they\u00a0do talk about Waaqayyoo<\/em>, calling him as abbaa koo<\/em> (my father), and they usually\u00a0do pray for\u00a0children saying: \u201cakka ijoollee keenyaa eebbisuuf abba keenya gaafanna<\/em> (let\u2019s ask our father to bless our children),\u201d they usually don’t say \u201cabba keenya kadhanna<\/em> (let\u2019s beg our father)\u201d.<\/p>\n Whenever they are challenged by life problems, they do assert by saying: \u201cWaaqayyoo abbaan keenya eessa dhaqeetu<\/em> (our God is not far away)\u201d, denoting that Waaqayyoo<\/em> is always ready to help his children. They some times\u00a0also talk as prophets in a way: \u201cAbbaan keenya akkas jedha, ani sin wajjin jira, ani nan sin gargaara<\/em> (our father says, I am with you and I will help you)\u201d. According to them, the spiritual father is Waaqayyoo garaa gurraachaa<\/em>, i.e. Waaqayyoo<\/em> with holy heart, symbolized with black color, most of whose holiness is unknown to humans.\u00a0Knowledgeable\u00a0believers do tell\u00a0that the concept \u201cWaaqayyo gurracha garaa garba<\/em> (black God with heart like ocean)\u201d actually refers to the unknown future. What Waaqayyoo<\/em> may bring in the future is unknown, and that\u00a0is signified by black color. Here garaa garba<\/em> is also about the unknown. One couldn\u2019t know what is inside the body of water from afar.\u00a0This point of view seems to be the reason for the color black in the Oromo tricolor to signify the unknown future.<\/p>\n In some\u00a0regions of Oromia, there are a lot of congregations visited by Oromo at some big houses called gimbi (galma)<\/em> which have got different names: gimbii diloo<\/em>, maram<\/em>, abbaa jama<\/em>, hiike<\/em>, etc; the spritual practices done there include the following: dalaguu<\/em> (dancing), irreenssa kennu<\/em> (green leaf as a gift), wareeguu<\/em> (offerings), hammachiisaa<\/em> (blessing babies), gashaa<\/em> (delicious food brought to gimbi<\/em>), etc.\u00a0 Actually\u00a0people go to such gimbi<\/em> regularly carrying green leaves of Ireensaa<\/em>. In this culture, green grass or green leaf is a powerful symbol for life and prosperity, and it is an element present in all public rituals of Waaqeffataa<\/em> Oromo, including funerals and prayers of remembrance, during which grass is spread on the ground or grave. The above listed different names of gimbi<\/em> are Oromo spiritual holy places and palaces, which are equivalent to temple, church and mosque. In all the places mentioned, everyone prays to Waaqayyoo<\/em>. The practices mentioned above are just variations of spiritual practice to Waaqayyoo<\/em>.<\/p>\n It\u00a0is also to be observed among the practicing Waaqeffattaa<\/em> how balanced is their way of discussion and relationship. During sorts of discussions, they often discuss very wisely. For example, when they give comments, here is a sample of how they do: \u201cIlaa, kanaa fi sana waan gaarii jette. Haa ta\u2019u malee kunimmoo otoo akkana ta\u2019e wayya<\/em> (here and there you said good, but it is better if this one be so and so)\u201d. They do not denigrate the opinion of the other side, but tell the better alternative to the opinion they do disagree with. They do tolerate the mistake of others and just tell the consequence of the mistake. As far as they are concerned, there is always cubbuu<\/em> (sin) in their consciousness, but no concept for hell or condemnation after death. This simply implies that we all do experience the consequence of our trespasses regarding the safuu<\/em> (virtues) and laguu<\/em> (vices) expected from us during our life time.<\/p>\n Not to suffer such consequences of cubbuu<\/em>, Waaqeffattaa Oromo have got a lot of very well said prayers in their\u00a0practical life activities. The following are very few of the impressive prayers in the day to day life of the Oromo, which need to be presented here as examples. They are usually heard from the believers of Amantii<\/em> Oromo, and they are almost similar to what the believers in Christianity and Islam do pray, let alone the similarity of the greatly formulated prayers we do hear during Irreechaa<\/em> celebration with what the Christian\u00a0Qesis<\/em> and the Islam Sheiks usually do pray:<\/p>\n – Waaqayyoo kan dubbatee nu dubbachiisu fi kan hamaa nutti yaadu nurraa qabbi<\/em> (God keep us from those who speak evil and make us speak the same). This prayers indicate the fact on the ground how Oromo look at Waaqayyoo<\/em> and at the human-being. Waaqayyoo is concieved as a holy father with whom we can correspond during our day to day life problems or when ever we face calamities or difficulties for his will is always good, whereas human-beings can be with either bad or good intention in relation to each other. Both Gadaa<\/em> and Qaalluu<\/em> institutions look at all individuals as human with equal rights\u00a0in front of\u00a0Waaqayyoo<\/em>; that is why\u00a0there is NO a \u201erespect form\u201c of adressing human-being or God in Afaan<\/em> Oromo, just as there is non in English language. After losing our sovereignity, the Oromo people had to learn how to \u201erespect\u201c autority figures. For there is no such option in Afaan<\/em> Oromo, we had to use plural verbs to adress the autority figures. Even Abaa Gadaa<\/em> (chief of the government) and Abbaa Mudaa<\/em> (the spritual leader) were adressed as \u201eati<\/em> = you in a singular form\u201c, not as \u201eisin<\/em> = you in a plural form\u201c. Today we have to adress our fellow human being with certain autority as \u201eisin<\/em>\u201c to\u00a0show \u201erespect\u201c. It is not bad if such adressing would have been mutual\/symmetrical as for instance it is\u00a0in German language. But such \u201erespect\u201c, which we are now applying is asymmetrical (only the autority figure is adressed with the \u201erespect\u201c form, whereas the autority figure can adress the\u00a0other person\u00a0 without using the \u201erespect\u201c form. Where it is the reality that we don’t use the \u201erespect\u201c form during adressing our Waaqayyoo<\/em>, as seen in the above prayers, why should we bother to use it in adressing our fellow human being? It would be better if\u00a0we leave this culture, which we adopted from others with autoritarian culture in contrast to our own egalitarian one. Our concept of Waaqayyoo<\/em> doesn’t allow us to behave so submissivly to any human being, who is equal to us.<\/p>\n Virtues and Vices\u00a0of Waaqeffannaa<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Here in short, safuu (virtue) can be defined as\u00a0the \u201eto do list\u201c in order to serve Waaqayyoo<\/em> and to acchieve his kaayyoo\/<\/em>goal in our personal and national earthly life; whereas laguu<\/em> (vice) is the \u201enot to do list or the taboo\u201c, so that we can refrain from doing such activities diverting us from the kaayyoo Waaqayyoo<\/em>. Cubbuu<\/em> (sin)\u00a0then\u00a0in short\u00a0includes both not doing the safuu<\/em> and doing the laguu<\/em>. Just as an example, if we take bilisumma<\/em> (national freedom) as Waaqayyo’s kaayyoo<\/em> for the Oromo nation, what are the safuu <\/em>and the laguu<\/em> to be respected? If the kaayyoo<\/em> of Waaqeffannaa<\/em> is individual healing\u00a0from any sort of illness, what are the safuu<\/em> and the laguu<\/em>, which both the healer and the sick person should respect?<\/p>\n In order to look at the virtues and vices of the traditional Oromo\/African belief system for our earthly life, let\u00a0us now try to describe Waaqeffannaa<\/em> as\u00a0we experienced it and knew it. Note that all the descriptions and notions\u00a0we try to put here on paper are based on\u00a0our own argaa-dhageetti<\/em> (based on\u00a0our own perception), which may differ from that of the other Oromo nationals. For instance,\u00a0we could observe that Oromo is a nation filled with celebrations of eebba<\/em> (blessing), who do have different celebrations for almost everything and everybody related to our life. For instance, taaboree<\/em> as a blessing ceremony for young boys; ingiccaa<\/em> for blessing young girls; ayyaana abbaa<\/em> for blessing the ancestors for the good inheritance we got from them; ateetee<\/em> for blessing our women; borantichaa<\/em> for blessing adult men; jaarii looni<\/em> for blessing our useful animals; jaarii qe\u2019e<\/em> or jaarii kosii<\/em> for blessing our residence area; jaarii midhaani<\/em> to bless our farms; garanfasa mucucoo<\/em> as a celebration of the rainy season and, of course, gubaa<\/em> and irreechaa<\/em> for celebration of the coming birraa<\/em> (the coming spring season) etc.\u00a0We hope that\u00a0Oromo students of anthropology, sociology and theology will make a scientific reasearch on these blessing ceremonies and tell us the constructive and non-constructive elements of the activities in them.<\/p>\n But, let\u00a0us mention\u00a0few of the\u00a0virtues (positive aspects) of Waaqeeffanna\u00a0<\/em>in our earthly life time. Here the reference point to judge certain elements as negative or positive is\u00a0the position of the purpose, which\u00a0Waaqayyoo<\/em> do have for our personal and national life, i.e based on the kaayyoo<\/em> (goal) our Waaqayyoo<\/em> do have for us. To elaborate this relationship between kaayyo<\/em>o and Waaqayyo<\/em>, we can ask: is Waaq-aayyoo<\/em> our ka-ayyoo<\/em> \/ is our ka-ayyoo<\/em> the Waaq-ayyoo<\/em>?\u00a0It is about knowing what purpose we do serve in our daily life both cognitively and behaviourally, as individuals or as a nation. Be it that we do think and walk at political, religious or private level, we do try to serve certain purose in life. In order to identify that purpose, we only need to be conscious about it, reflect on it and ask our selves: whom do we privately or collectively serve in our endeavors? Do we serve\u00a0Waaqayyoo’s<\/em>\u00a0purpose for us or that of the others’? Simply put, which purpose should\u00a0we\u00a0serve? Fortunately the hitherto cummulative knowledges and wisdoms of different societies in general and that of the\u00a0Oromo society in particular tell us what we ought to serve: i.e\u00a0Waaqayyo’s<\/em> purpose which is good for us as an individual and as a collective. This good purpose is given a sacred name and it seems to be what people call the will of Waaqayyoo<\/em>.<\/p>\n As a support for this assertion, we can look at an example written in the Bible of christians, that states : “God is my objective”. Is this to be understood also as: “my objective is God”? Can we say that our good personal or political purpose is the will of Waaqayyo<\/em>, whom we ought to serve? To comprehend this, it is no where clearly written other than in Afaan<\/em> Oromo. Surprisingly the words kaayyoo<\/em> and Waaqayyoo<\/em> in our language do\u00a0indicate to have the same source. As we know, the short word KA<\/em> is the name given by our ancestors to God and the word \n
\n– Waaqayyoo mirga nu oolch<\/em> (help us to walk on the right way); hamaa nurraa qabi<\/em> (protect us from evil).
\n– Yaa Rabbii, ilmi ga\u2019e haa fuudhu<\/em> (Oh God, let the young man be married), dubarri geesse haa heerumtu<\/em> (let the young woman be married), this prayer shows how important family building for human blessing is.
\n– Yaa Waaqayyo, ani galee, kan galee hin rafne narraa qabi; ani rafee kan rafee hin bulle narra qabi<\/em> (I am now at home to sleep, save me from the evil ones who didn\u2019t yet be at their home and didn\u2019t sleep).
\n– Yaa Waaqayyoo galgala koo hin balleessiin<\/em> (let my old age not be cursed), this is related with the consequence of cubbuu<\/em>. The believers are asking Waaqayyoo<\/em> to help them stay away from cubbuu<\/em> so that their \u201cgalgala<\/em> (late age)\u201d will not be bad\/painful. Here we see something similar with native American\u2019s culture. They say: \u201cwhen you came to this world, you cried and everybody else laughed; live your life so that when you leave this world, you laugh and everyone else cries\u201d; i.e. to say live your life free from cubbuu<\/em> and its consequence, which leads you to the blessing in your old age.<\/p>\n