Oromo’s religious conversion in Ethiopia: Historical perspective

Year 2021, , 66 - 77, 28.06.2021

Negesso Jima Duibe

https://doi.org/10.33613/antropolojidergisi.798859

Abstract

The Oromo are one of the indigenous peoples of Ethiopia who lived in the country for time immemorial. Nowadays, most of the Oromo are Christians (Orthodox, Protestant) and Muslim. Still, some Oromo adhere to their indigenous religion called Waqefanna. After the coming of Christianity and Islam, however, the Oromo abandoned Waqefanna and embraced either Christianity or Islam. The Oromo has undergone a major religious conversion over the past 150 years. While Oromo’s history has undergone a remarkable phase of study in recent years, it has remained quite impervious to the anthropological field. Specifically, issues related to Oromo’s religious changes have not been sufficiently studied, debated and historically reconstructed across many disciplines. The main purpose of this article is to document and overview the process of religious conversion in Oromo and how they were positioned in Ethiopian history until 1974. The current religious study, therefore, adds to the existing body of knowledge by presenting an outline of the Oromo religious conversion and its place before 1974. It discusses the Oromo religious conversion in Ethiopian history using oral and secondary sources. In fact, oral sources formed an integral part of the research due to insufficient written material on the previous history of Oromo until recently. The article shows that the religious conversion in Oromo took place as a means of resistance against the Ethiopian central government administration.

Keywords

Religious conversion, Islam, Christianity, cultural change, Evangelism, Oromo and Ethiopia

Etiyopya’da Oromo’nun dini dönüşümü: Tarihsel perspektif

Abstract

Oromo, çok eskiden beri Etiyopya’da yaşayan yerli halklardan biridir. Günümüzde Oromo’nun çoğu Hristiyan (Ortodoks, Protestan) ve Müslümandır. Yine de bazı Oromolar hâlâ Waqefanna adlı yerli dinlerine bağlıdır. Ancak, Hıristiyanlık ve İslam’ın gelişinden sonra, Oromolar Waqefanna’yı terk etmiş ve Hıristiyanlığı veya İslam’ı kucaklamıştır. Oromo halkı bu nedenle son 150 yıldan beri büyük bir dini dönüşüm geçirmiştir. Oromo’nun tarihi son yıllarda dikkate değer bir çalışma aşamasından geçerken, antropolojik alana oldukça kapalı kalmıştır. Spesifik olarak, Oromo’nun dini değişimleriyle ilgili konular yeterince incelenmemiş, tartışılmamış ve disiplinlerarası şekilde tarihsel olarak yeniden yapılandırılmamıştır. Bu makalenin temel amacı, Oromo’daki dini dönüşüm sürecini ve bunların Etiyopya tarihinde 1974’e kadar nasıl konumlandıklarını belgelemek ve gözden geçirmektir. Bu nedenle mevcut dini çalışma, Oromo halkının dinî dönüşümünün ve 1974’ten önceki yerinin ana hatlarını sunarak mevcut bilgi birikimine katkıda bulunmakta, sözlü ve ikincil kaynakları kullanarak Etiyopya tarihindeki Oromo dini dönüşümünü tartışmaktadır. Aslında sözlü kaynaklar, yakın zamana kadar Oromo’nun önceki tarihi hakkında yetersiz yazılı materyal nedeniyle araştırmanın ayrılmaz bir parçasını oluşturmaktaydı. Makale, Oromo’daki dini dönüşümün Etiyopya merkezî hükümet yönetimine karşı bir direniş aracı olarak gerçekleştiğini gösteriyor.

Keywords

Dini dönüşüm, İslam, Hıristiyanlık, kültürel değişim, Evanjelizm, Oromo ve Etiyopya

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