Waaqa
Waaqa is the supreme being of the Oromo of Ethiopia and northern Kenya and the focus of their indigenous religion, Waaqeffanna. The single word names both the visible vault of the sky and God himself, reflecting an ancient Cushitic conception in which the heavens and the divine are one. Frequently invoked as Waaqa Gurraacha, 'the black Waaqa', a colour associated with the fertile rain-clouds, and as Waaqa Tokkichaa, 'the One Waaqa', he is understood as a single, non-anthropomorphic creator who made the world and continues to sustain it. From Waaqa all individuated beings derive their essence in the form of ayyaana, and he is the guarantor of safuu, the moral order governing right relations among the creator, humanity and nature. His cult was historically mediated by the hereditary ritual experts known as qaalluu, and the women's divinities Atete and Maaram are spoken of as among his creations.
Children
Domains
- sky and heavens
- creation
- rain and storm
- moral order
Powers
- to create the world and all that is in it
- to send rain and grant fertility to land and people
- to uphold the moral order and judge wrongdoing
Epithets
- Waaqa GurraachaBartels, 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)
- Waaqa TokkichaaKelbessa, Workineh. "The Oromo Doctrine of God." Filosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religions 11, no. 4 (2022). (secondary)
Relations
- creator of: AteteOromo tradition speaks of the women's divinity Atete as a creation of Waaqa, subordinate to and dependent on him.Kelbessa, Workineh. "The Oromo Doctrine of God." Filosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religions 11, no. 4 (2022). (secondary)
- creator of: MaaramMaaram, divinity of motherhood and 'mother of the ocean', is described as another creation of Waaqa.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)
- creator of: AyyaanaThe ayyaana are the manifestation-spirits through which Waaqa propels himself into creation; everything emanates from Waaqa in the form of ayyaana.Megerssa, Gemetchu. Knowledge, Identity and the Colonizing Structure: The Case of the Oromo of East and Northeast Africa. PhD thesis, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1993. (secondary)
Sources
- Waaqa is the supreme, uncreated sky-god and creator of Oromo Waaqeffanna religion, upholder of the moral order safuu and source of all ayyaana.: 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); Kelbessa, Workineh. "The Oromo Doctrine of God." Filosofia Theoretica: Journal of African Philosophy, Culture and Religions 11, no. 4 (2022). (secondary)