To Whom to Pray?

Abstract

The article discusses Booranticha, a sacrificial ritual among Oromo and some Amhara for the well-being of the family, its herds, and possessions, which is performed once a year by husband and wife in many farming households of central Ethiopia. During the ritual, food offerings are made and a higher spiritual being, also called Booranticha, is addressed in prayer. Contestation through monotheism, particularly by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, however, has led to some major linguistic and performative shifts concerning which divinity is being addressed in the offering, and how the ritual is performed. The article suggests that competition in religiously pluralist settings may constitute a major initializing and catalyzing factor for new exegetical propositions about the nature of the divine. Such conceptualization of contestation as a “trigger” for change invites a closer look at the relationship between religiously pluralist settings, the shaping of moral discourses and the evolvement of new hermeneutic interpretations in sacrificial performances.