Maaram

Maaram is the Oromo divinity of motherhood and fecundity, paired with Atete in the ritual life of women and, in some districts, treated as another name for the same feminine power. Oromo tradition describes her as a creation of the supreme Waaqa and gives her the title haadha boorraa, 'mother of the ocean'. She is invoked and praised at birth-rituals to help barren women conceive and to bring pregnant women safely through childbirth, and her care is understood to extend to the health of animals, crops and the natural environment as a whole. Under the long influence of Christianity her name has converged with that of Maryam, the Virgin Mary, yet the figure addressed in the women's feasts remains an indigenous mother-divinity of the Waaqeffanna tradition.

Parentage

• parent: Waaqa

Domains

• motherhood
• fertility and fecundity
• waters and ocean

Powers

• to make barren women able to bear children
• to protect the wellbeing of people, animals and crops

Epithets

• haadha boorraaBartels, Lambert. Oromo Religion: Myths and Rites of the Western Oromo of Ethiopia — An Attempt to Understand. Collectanea Instituti Anthropos 8. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 1983. (secondary)

Relations

• subordinate to: WaaqaMaaram is explicitly described as a creation of Waaqa and dependent upon him.Bartels, Lambert. Oromo Religion: Myths and Rites of the Western Oromo of Ethiopia — An Attempt to Understand. Collectanea Instituti Anthropos 8. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 1983. (secondary)
• companion: AteteMaaram and Atete are paired in women's fertility ritual and are sometimes treated as alternative names of a single feminine motherhood power.Bartels, Lambert. Oromo Religion: Myths and Rites of the Western Oromo of Ethiopia — An Attempt to Understand. Collectanea Instituti Anthropos 8. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 1983. (secondary)

Sources

• Maaram is the Oromo divinity of motherhood and fecundity, a creation of Waaqa addressed as 'mother of the ocean', invoked at birth-rituals and paired with Atete.: Bartels, Lambert. Oromo Religion: Myths and Rites of the Western Oromo of Ethiopia — An Attempt to Understand. Collectanea Instituti Anthropos 8. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 1983. (secondary); "Atete: A Multi-functional Deity of Oromo Women with Particular Emphasis on Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Management." Current Research Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities 2, no. 1 (2019): 15–30. (secondary)