Abba Moras Worqe
Amhara–Tigrinya highland folk religion · numen · Amhara–Tigrinya highland folk religion traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Abba Moras Worqe is a zar of the Gondar possession cult, honoured with the ascetic-priestly title abba, 'father'. Michel Leiris recorded an elaborate sacrifice offered to him within the compound of the healer Malkam Ayyahou during the 1932 Dakar–Djibouti expedition; because Leiris alone among the Europeans had witnessed the rite, a re-enactment was later staged for filming, an episode that became emblematic of the ethnographic encounter with the cult.
Domains
- spirit possession
- sacrifice and propitiation
Powers
- receives a distinctive blood sacrifice
Epithets
- አባ ሞራስ ወርቄ — Father Moras, my goldMichel Leiris, La possession et ses aspects théâtraux chez les Éthiopiens de Gondar (Paris: Plon, 1958). (primary)
Sources
- Abba Moras Worqe is a zar of the Gondar cult to whom an elaborate sacrifice was offered in Malkam Ayyahou's household, documented by Leiris and the Griaule expedition in 1932.: Michel Leiris, La possession et ses aspects théâtraux chez les Éthiopiens de Gondar (Paris: Plon, 1958). (primary)