THE O RO M I AN EC O NO M IS T

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Waaqeffannaa (Amantii Oromoo):The traditional

faith system of the Oromo people
Waaqeffannaa (Amantii Oromoo), the traditional faith system of the Oromo
people, is one version of the monotheistic African Traditional Religion (ATR),
where the followers of this faith system do believe in only one Supreme 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
(believe in Waaqa, the supreme Being), an indigenous faith system to the
continent of Africa. Even though there are different ways of practicing this
religion with varieties of rituals, in truth, the different versions of the African
religion have got the following commonalities:

– Believe in and celebrate a Supreme Being, or a Creator, which is referred to

by a myriad of names in various languages as Waaqeffataa Oromo do often
say: Waaqa maqaa dhibbaa = God with hundreds of names and Waaqa Afaan
dhibbaa = God with hundreds of languages; thus in Afaan Oromoo (in Oromo
language) the name of God is Waaqa/Rabbii or Waaqa tokkicha (one god) or
Waaqa guraachaa (black God, where black is the symbol for holiness and for
the unknown) = the holy God = the black universe (the unknown), whom we
should celebrate and love with all our concentration and energy

 – No written scripture (ATR’s holy texts are mostly oral), but now some
people are trying to compose the written scripture based on the Africans’ oral
literature.

 – Living according to the will of the Supreme Being and love also those who
do have their own way of surviving by following other belief systems, which
are different from that of the Waaqeffannaa. It includes keeping both safuu
(virtues) and laguu (vices); i.e. to love safuu as well as to hate and abhor
cubbuu (sin).

 – Correspondence with the Supreme Being in times of a great need (i.e. in

times of natural calamities, unexplained deaths) and try to walk always on the
karaa nagaa (on the way of peace = on the way of righteousness, on the road of
truth).

 – Having a devout connection with ancestors; in case of Oromo, the ancestors

are all ways blessed and celebrated for the good inheritance we got from them,
but not worshiped as some people want to mis understand.

 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 Oromoo (Oromo culture) being one part of the Cush
culture is one of the sub-cultures within the common African culture, which
consists also the faith system of Waaqeffannaa as part and parcel of the
Oromo/African culture.

 Waaqeffannaa’s interaction with other religions

According to the expert opinions written up to now, the concept of

monotheism is the whole mark of African 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’s 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’s concept of Waaqa
tokkicha in a form of “Waaq humna malee bifa hin qabu (God has no physical
form, but power).” This concept may have been misinterpreted so that the
other religions later started to talk about God with a physical form.

It is also interesting to observe many similarities between some old Egyptian

words and Afaan Oromo words; for instance, the similarities of the ancient
Egyptian words “Anii and Matii” with the Oromo words of “Ana (Ani) and
Maatii.” Anii of Egyptians, which means I (I am who I am), that is equivalent
to God is similar to the Oromo word Ani, which also means I and refers to the
first person singular (the actor = the main character of GOD). Matii being the
designation of God’s congregation and the Oromo word Maatii for the family
which is the “congregation” of ani (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’s
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 Christianity and Islam by Africans is the coming back of
the same belief in Waaqa tokkicha to Africa in different forms.

This historical relation between Amantii Oromoo and the two big religions of
the world suggests that Waaqeffannaa is the older version of monotheism and
humanism. Waaqeffannaa as a faith system and Irreechaa as a major national
celebration were part and parcel of Oromo public life. Now, some Oromo
nationals prefer the name Amantii Oromo/Amantii Africa to Waaqeffannaa. It
is important if we all can agree to call the Oromo traditional religion as
Amantii Oromo/Amantii Africa, just like we agreed on calling our language
Afaan Oromo and our country Biyya Oromo. So in short, we can say: Our land
is Biyya Oromo, our language is Afaan Oromo and our religion is Amantii
Oromo. It is known that some people may argue by saying “how can we call it
Amantii Oromo, when we do see that more than half of the Oromo nowadays
have Christianity and Islam as their religion?” Are Oromo with other first
language rather than Afaan Oromo not Oromo, despite their lost Afaan
Oromo? Should we say just because of these Oromo, who nowadays speak only
English, German, Amharic, etc., that Oromo language is not Afaan Oromo?
The same way, it is not logical not to call Oromo religion as Amantii Oromo
because of the Oromo who overtook other religions. Actually, the designation
Waaqqeffannaa (believing in and living with Waaqa) can also be applied to
Christian Oromo and Islam Oromo even though most of the Islam Oromo
prefer the name Rabbii to the name Waaqa. They all are believers in Waaqa =
God = Allah = Rabbii. Amantii Oromo differs only because of its specificity for
it is the older Oromo faith embedded in only Oromo/African culture without
any influence from alien culture.

The fact to be accepted here is that God is universal even though we call HIM
Waaqa, Rabbii or Allah. But, Amantii Oromo is the way how our forefathers
believed in this universal Waaqa of humankind. We don’t have God or Waaqa,
who is specific only to Oromo/Africa and doesn’t care for other nations.
Waaqa is the God of nations. But, we Oromo do have a specific way and
culture regarding how we do practice our belief in Waaqa. This way of
practicing our faith is what we call Amantii Oromo. Amantii Oromo is simply
the Oromo way of practicing the faith in the universal Waaqa. It is part of the
Oromo way of dealing with the problems of life (it is part of Aadaa Oromo).
Accordingly, aadaa (culture) can also be defined as the way, in which a certain
collective or group of people deals with its own life problem.

The difference between this Amantii 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 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 from Cush of Africa/Egypt/Israel, but don’t
seem to exercise 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, also do practice their faith
being colored by their own previous culture; they don’t seem to practice Cush
culture; but again Christianity practiced in Oromia is mostly colored by the
culture of the Israelis, the Habeshas as well as by that of the Western world for
Christian Oromo tend to adopt not only the faith, but also the alien culture.

 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 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
(Qaallu’s drum) and the beat of Tigrinya music shows how Tegarus have
inherited and kept some elements of Oromo’s culture. This can verify that the
suggestion of Donald Levine, who in his book called Greater Ethiopia wrote
that “Tegarus are part of the Cushites of the Old Testament who denied their
identity”, may be true. After all, why do they call their mother Aadde? Where
does the name Barentu 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 once by Luba Shamsadin. He said (paraphrased here), when
we try to accept religions from other nations, we have to identify and separate
“the bone of the fish from the meat”; i.e. we need to identify and leave the
unnecessary cultural elements of other nations, which are usually mixed with
their religions we Oromo do tend to accept and adopt.

 So as it is put here in short,

Waaqeffannaa (believe in one Waaqa of the universe) is practiced not only

among the Cush nations, but also among almost all African nations. This faith
system of Africans including Waaqeffannaa has been devalued as something
“paganism, barbarism, religionlessness, uncivilization, Godlessness, animism,
primitivism, etc”. The black color, which is the symbol of holiness in
Waaqeffannaa was/is demonized as a symbol for Satan. All the blessing
ceremonies of Waaqeffannaa and the utensil used for the blessings are
condemned as a service, an instrument and worshiping of demons/Satan.
Despite this denigration, the current revival of Waaqeffannaa and the
celebration of Irreechaa in Oromia can be a good example-setting for the other
African nations to revive their hitherto devalued and almost lost culture and
religion.

To serve this purpose of revival, the right way of Waaqeffannaa (believing in,
celebrating of and living with Waaqa) must be cleaned from alien non-
constructive elements as well as from non-productive practices and rituals like
that of “qaalichaa” (infiltrating idolatry), which are not serving the purpose of
Waaqa in our personal or national life. That means, we have to differentiate
Waaqeffachuu (realizing God’s purpose in our life) from waaqessuu (serving
alien gods). Waaqeffachuu is applying Waaqa’s goodwill in our practical life,
whereas waaqessuu is making someone or something be our Waaqa, i.e.
practicing idolatry. The Oromo people in general have never had an idol to
worship, but always had only one Waaqa to believe in and to celebrate. Of
course, there are very few Oromo individuals nowadays tending to practice
waaqessuu. Such purification of the African faith system from unimportant
and useless elements must be done in all versions of the practices and rituals
among all African nations.

 
Concept of God in Waaqeffannaa

To make Waaqeffannaa a little bit clear, here is a short narration about this
faith system in practice. Oromo nationals practicing this faith do talk about
Waaqa tokkicha, 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: “Waaq humna malee bifa hin
qabu.” These believers do not misinterpret Waaqa tokkicha as an expression of
physical form for even the whole nature as a physical form is also an
expression of his power. The believers and the Qaalluu or Qaallitti (local
spiritual leader) are usually very lovely; specially the leaders are simply like a
love in person. All their followers are selfless people full of good deeds and
love; they do talk about Waaqa, calling him as abbaa koo (my father), and they
usually do pray for children saying: “akka ijoollee keenyaa eebbisuuf abba
keenya gaafanna (let’s ask our father to bless our children),” they usually don’t
say “abba keenya kadhanna (let’s beg our father).”

Whenever they are challenged by life problems, they do assert by saying:

“Waaq abbaan keenya eessa dhaqeetu (our God is not far away)”, denoting
that Waaqa is always ready to help his children. They some times also talk as
prophets in a way: “Abbaan keenya akkas jedha, ani sin wajjin jira, ani nan sin
gargaara (our father says, I am with you and I will help you)”. According to
them, the spiritual father is Waaqa garaa gurraachaa, i.e. Waaqa with holy
heart, symbolized with black color, most of whose holiness is unknown to
humans. Knowledgeable believers do tell that the concept “Waaqa gurracha
garaa garba (black God with heart like ocean)” actually refers to the unknown
future. What Waaqa may bring in the future is unknown, and that is signified
by black color. Here, garaa garba is also about the unknown. One couldn’t
know what is inside the body of water from afar. This point of view seems to
be the reason for the color black in the Oromo tricolor to signify the unknown
future.

In some regions of Oromia, there are a lot of congregations visited by Oromo

at some big houses called gimbi (galma) which have got different names:
gimbii diloo, maram, abbaa jama, hiike, etc; the spiritual practices done there
include the following: dalaguu (dancing), irreenssa kennu (green leaf as a gift),
wareeguu (offerings), hammachiisaa (blessing babies), gashaa (delicious food
brought to gimbi), etc. Actually, people go to such gimbi regularly carrying
green leaves of Irreensaa. 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 Oromo, including funerals and prayers of
remembrance, during which grass is spread on the ground or grave. The above
listed different names of gimbi are Oromo spiritual holy places and palaces,
which are equivalent to temple, church and mosque. In all the places
mentioned, everyone prays to Waaqa. The practices mentioned above are just
variations of spiritual practice to Waaqa.

It is also to be observed among the practicing Waaqeffattaa 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: “Ilaa, kanaa fi sana waan gaarii jette. Haa ta’u malee,
kunimmoo otoo akkana ta’e wayya (here and there you said good, but it is
better if this one be so and so)”. 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 (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 (virtues) and laguu (vices) expected from us during our
life time.

 
Not to suffer such consequences of cubbuu, Waaqeffattaa Oromo have got a lot
of very well said prayers in their practical 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 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 celebration with what the
Christian Qesis and the Islam Sheiks usually do pray:

– Yaa Waaq kan dubbatee nu dubbachiisu fi kan hamaa nutti yaadu nurraa
qabbi (God keep us from those who speak evil and make us speak the same).

– Yaa Waaq mirga nu oolch (help us to walk on the right way); hamaa nurraa
qabi (protect us from evil).

– Yaa Rabbii, ilmi ga’e haa fuudhu (Oh God, let the young man be married),
dubarri geesse haa heerumtu (let the young woman be married), this prayer
shows howimportant family building for human blessing is.

– Yaa Waaq, ani galee, kan galee hin rafne narraa qabi; ani rafee kan rafee hin
bulle narra qabi (I am now at home to sleep, save me from the evil ones who
didn’t yet be at their home and didn’t sleep).

– Yaa Waaq galgala koo hin balleessiin (let my old age not be cursed), this is
related with the conse -quence of cubbuu. The believers are asking Waaqa to
help them stay away from cubbuu so that their “galgala (late age)” will not be
bad/painful. Here we see something similar with the native American’s
culture. They say: “when 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”; i.e. to say live your life free from cubbuu and its conse -
quence (suffering), the life style which leads you to the blessing in your old
age.

This prayers indicate the fact on the ground how Oromo look at Waaqa and at
the human-being. Waaqa is conceived 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 and
Qaalluu institutions look at all individuals as human with equal rights in front
of Waaqa; that is why there is no a “respect form” of addressing human-being
or God in Afaan Oromo, just as there is non in English language. After losing
our sovereignty, the Oromo people had to learn how to “respect” authority
figures. For there is no such option in Afaan Oromo, we had to use plural
verbs to address the authority figures. Even Abbaa Gadaa (chief of the
government) and Abbaa Mudaa (the spiritual leader) were addressed as “ati =
you in a singular form,” not as “isin = you in a plural form.” Today, we have to
address our fellow human being with certain authority as “isin” to show
“respect.” It is not bad if such addressing would have been
mutual/symmetrical as for instance it is in German language. But such
“respect,” which we are now applying is asymmetrical (only the authority
figure is addressed with the “respect” form, whereas the authority figure can
address the other person without using the “respect” form. Where it is the
reality that we don’t use the “respect” form during addressing our Waaqa, as
seen in the above prayers, why should we bother to use it in addressing our
fellow human being? It would be better if we leave this culture, which we
adopted from others with authoritarian culture in contrast to our own
egalitarian one. Our concept of Waaqa doesn’t allow us to behave so
submissively to any human being, who is equal to us.

 
Virtues and Vices of Waaqeffannaa

Here in short, safuu (virtue) can be defined as the “to do list” in order to serve
Waaqa and to achieve his kaayyoo/goal in our personal and national earthly
life; whereas laguu (vice) is the “not to do list” or the taboo, so that we can
refrain from doing such activities diverting us from the kaayyoo Waaqa for our
life. Cubbuu (sin) then in short includes both not doing the safuu and doing
the laguu. Just as an example, if we take bilisummaa (national freedom) as
Waaqa’s kaayyoo for the Oromo nation, what are the safuu and the laguu to be
respected? If the kaayyoo of Waaqeffannaa is individual healing from any sort
of illness, what are the safuu and the laguu, which both the healer and the sick
person should respect?

In order to look at the virtues and vices of the traditional Oromo/African belief
system for our earthly life, let us now try to describe Waaqeffannaa as we
experienced it and knew it. Note that all the descriptions and notions we try to
put here on paper are based on our own argaa-dhageetti (based on our own
perception), which may differ from that of the other Oromo nationals. For
instance, we could observe that Oromo is a nation filled with celebrations of
eebba (blessing), who do have different celebrations for almost everything and
everybody related to our life. For instance, taaboree as a blessing ceremony for
young boys; ingiccaa for blessing young girls; ayyaana abbaa for blessing the
ancestors for the good inheritance we got from them; ateetee for blessing our
women; borantichaa for blessing adult men; jaarii looni for blessing our useful
animals; jaarii qe’e or jaarii kosii for blessing our residence area; jaarii
midhaani to bless our farms; garanfasa mucucoo as a celebration of the rainy
season and, of course, gubaa and irreechaa for celebration of the coming
birraa (the coming spring season) etc. We hope that Oromo students of
anthropology, sociology and theology will make a scientific research on these
blessing ceremonies and tell us the constructive and non-constructive
elements of the activities in them.

But, let us mention few of the virtues (positive aspects) of Waaqeffannaa in

our earthly life time. Here the reference point to judge certain elements as
negative or positive is the position of the purpose, which Waaqa do have for
our personal and national life, i.e. based on the kaayyoo (goal) our Waaqayyoo
do have for us. To elaborate this relationship between kaayyoo and
Waaqayyoo, we can ask: is Waaq-aayyoo our ka-ayyoo / is our ka-ayyoo the
Waaq-ayyoo? It is about knowing what purpose we do serve in our daily life
both cognitively and behaviorally, 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 purpose 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 Waaqa’s purpose for us or
that of the others’? Simply put, which purpose should we serve? Fortunately
the hitherto cumulative knowledge and wisdom of different societies in
general and that of the Oromo society in particular tell us what we ought to
serve: i.e. to serve Waaqa’s 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 Waaqa.

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 Waaqa, whom we ought to serve? To comprehend this, it
is no where clearly written other than in Afaan Oromo. Surprisingly the words
kaayyoo and Waaqayyoo in our language do indicate to have the same source.
As we know, the short word KA is the name given by our Cushitic ancestors to
God and the word aayyoo is, of course, the name given to a mother, who does
wish all good things for her children and does plan and try to fulfill it. So KA
can be defined as the Supreme Being, which has good purpose for ayyoo’s
children. This purpose is the “Goodness” for her children. So KA-ayyoo is
God’s will (his good objective to her beloved children). The term Waaqayyo is
the short form of waan-KA-ayyoo (what is planned from KA for aayyoo and for
her children). So we can see that the good end, we have to serve, can be called
kaayyoo from Waaqa. So the will of Waaqa is simply to be defined as the good
end we should choose to serve as part of the balanced universe created by
HIM.

To fulfill this service to the good end, fortunately the best thing we do observe
among Waaqeffataa Oromo is the work-ethics they do have to achieve the
purpose of Waaqa in their earthly life, specially in the life areas of career and
family. They do love to be the best in both life areas; they love their family and
most of them are very enthusiastic to be successful in their profession. They
usually say “Waaq taa’i taa’i namaan hin jedhin (let HE not make us idle);”
simply put, diligence is part of safuu and to be idle and lazy is part of laguu.
We know that there are certain contamination from other cultures to be
practiced as rituals contradicting this virtue and which are not serving the
purpose of Waaqa for us. That is why we do recommend not only the revival of
this marvelous belief system, which was the creation of our forefathers, but
also we do suggest a necessary reformation to make the faith system to be fit,
so that it can help us to cope with the 21st century challenge and situation.
Waaqa’s creation and his keeping the balance of the universe is still going on,
so that HE demands also a dynamic creative work from his creature, from the
human being. Another impressive virtue of Waaqeffannaa necessary to be
mentioned is its relation with nature and its persuasion to help us keep the
environment healthy; it is the faith system which is simply through and
through green.

 
Waaqeffannaa’s position on the life after death

According to this belief system, we all will live further after death as ekeraa (in
a form of soul/spirit) with our father, with Waaqa, without any possibility of
punishment in hell. We recently read Martial De Salviac’s translated book, in
which he wrote “Oromo invariably believe that they will go to heaven.” So, the
consequence of our cubbuu is not losing eternal life, but suffering in our
earthly life. To Waaqeffataa Oromo, Waaqa is the one who wants us not to do
a collective cubbuu, but expects us to protect the balanced nature, in which
HIS power is manifested. The wisdom that guides Waaqeffataa Oromo in
fulfilling this mission seems to be our arga-dhagetti (believe and act on a
principle of reality, i.e. based on what we see and hear).

According to argaa-dhageetti, the concepts like “cubbuun ni qabdi (sin has got
consequence), cubbuun ni sirriqxi (the consequence of sin can be inherited),
cubbu abbaatu eeggata or cubbuu irra abbaatu uf eega (everyone should keep
him-/herself from committing sin and everybody is responsible for the
consequences of the sin he/she commit)” are nice and practical. What we liked
most from the principles of Waaqeffannaa is this concept of cubbuu. The
consequences of cubbuu are only to be seen here on this earth, not in the
coming life after death. There is no hell that Waaqayyoo has prepared to
punish the people with cuubbu. This is hilarious and very healing for those
who always have to live with the fear of hell or punishment after death.

Another interesting aspect of Waaqeffannaa is that we never heard from the

practicing believers that they are believing in the presence of an evil spiritual
power in the form of Satan, which acts and lives against the almighty power of
Waaqa. Accordingly, there is only one sovereign power doing and undoing all
things in a universe, that is Waaqa. Unfortunately, the concept Satan is now
already spread among the whole Oromo population as a contamination taken
from other religions. Waaqeffataa Oromo do believe that the evil things we do
experience in life are due to the imbalance of nature as a result of the unwise
or wicked deeds of humans as collective, i.e. it is a human cubbuu with its
consequences on the earth. That is why they usually ask their Waaqa for
wisdom to keep the balance of nature and that HE lead them to only those
with good intention and protect them from those with bad intention, for
example, in a prayer like: “yaa Waaq tolaa nutti qabi, hamaa irraa nu eegi
(God lead who is good to us and keep away who is evil from us). Here it seems
that good is someone, who works to keep the balance of nature; and evil is the
contrary.

According to the faith system of Waaqeffannaa, there is nothing we have to do

now to earn eternal life after death; life after death is simply a free gift we got
from our father, Waaqayyoo, whom we just need to celebrate and thank as we
do daily and during the yearly celebrations like Irreechaa. We also don’t need
a savior, who has to suffer and die for us, so that we can get life after death.
The only area where we have to work on is trying to live the quality life (the
character of the eternal life) according to the will of Waaqa here on earth. To
live this quality life, we need to activate our potentials given to us from Waaqa
and then walk on the karaa nagaa towards the kaayyoo Waaqa for our life,
being free from cubbuu by keeping both safuu and laguu.

 
Further recommendation
The very important aspect of Waaqeffannaa as part of Oromo/African culture
is its principle of argaa-dhaggeetti (it is relatively an evidence based faith
system, possibly trying to be free from superstition). This principle is about
reading the real situations at hand and finding the appropriate solutions for
the situations. Waaqeffannaa teaches that only Waaqa is not prone to change
for HE is perfect, but all his creature and all the situations are changing with
time; that is why his creative action is still going on and that we also need to be
in a position to find new solutions for the changed situations. In short, we
need to be situation oriented, time oriented and live accordingly. That means,
it is good to know the past version of aadaa and Amantii Oromo/Africa; but
better is to live and practice the present version of aadaa and Amantii Oromo;
of course the best is to create the most beneficial version of aadaa and Amantii
Oromo as well as to inherit it to our coming generation. So let’s learn from the
past version, live the present version and love to create the future verion of
aadaa Oromo in general, and Amantii Oromo in particular.

This article is of course coloured by subjective perceptions, so that Oromo

nationals are welcome to complement or contradict it. All the sub-titles given
in this article need a further meticulous research and study. Through scientific
studies, it can be possible to cleanse Waaqeffa -nnaa from certain meaningless
rituals adopted from the other sub-cultures, e.g rituals like that of “qaalichaa”
(idolatry), xinqolaa (sorcery), etc, where the practitioners are actually making
business in the name of the religion. Waaqeffannaa needs not only revival, but
also reformation as part and parcel of the ongoing liberation from such
sensless practices. Elements, which are against the will of Waaqa for all
human-being in general and for African nations in particular must be
removed, so that we can say Waaqa bless Oromia/Africa and then live
accordingly. Adopting good elements, which serve the will of Waaqa for us,
from other cultures and faiths is not bad as it is usually said: “waan gaariin
bade hundi kan Oromo ti” (every good thing lost belongs to Oromo). Again,
good and bad is defined from the position of the will of Waaqa for our life, i.e.
from the position of his kaayyoo in our life, which is always a good purpose.

So, only celebrating the holidays and reviving the religion are not enough, if
we want to be fit for the present 21st century situation and for the situation in
which our future generation will live. Our forefathers created a faith system as
part of the solution to their situation; we also need to do the same. So let’s not
try to use the same key used by our forefathers in the past to open doors with
totally different keyholes at the present and the future or we don’t need to ride
a donkey at this age of driving a limousine; in short we need a right solution
for the present and the future situations. Our next generation need to inherit
from us the latest and modern model/edition/version of our faith system,
Waaqeffannaa, which they also can reform, edit and secure for their children
and grand children, so that we human-being continue to be as creative as our
father, Waaqa.

Let’s give a simple suggestion as an example in the required reforming: why

can’t we use bundle of flowers for Irreechaa, instead of only grass used by our
forefathers? Why don’t we use water or oil, instead of butter to anoint others
during the blessing ceremonies just for the sake of hygiene? Why don’t we use
candle light or the modern beautifully colored electric light decorations
instead of bonfire during wa-maraa (demera)? etc. Now it is a time to have
Waaqeffannaa free from non-productive and untimely elements, so that it will
be a faith system, which will be accepted and believed by the enlightened and
informed Oromo in particular as well as by Africans in general (so that it will
be a faith system serving the will of Waaqa for Oromia in particular, and for
Africa in general).

Last but not least, Waaqeffataa Oromo need to be creative in realizing the will
of Waaqa in our life, which is the only way to “evangelize” and convert others
to the “karaa nagaa (to the right way) HE wants us to walk. We need to learn
from the past (the known part of life, which is symbolized by white color), live
the present (the challenging part of life symblized by red color) and love to
know the future (the unknown part of life symbolized by black color). The
karaa nagaa at this particular era/time includes the virtue of a passinate
struggle in life both individually and collectively, not an attitude of the
pacifistic stoicism. Waaqeffannaa doesn’t persuade us to do things to secure
life after death, but it tells us that our effort and enthusiasm are part of the
safuu we have to keep and implement in order to make our life here on earth
the excellent success story.
Read the full article from original source
@http://gihonpostsite.wordpress.com/2014/08/07/waaqeffannaa-the-
african-traditional-faith-system/