Waaqeffanna

Among the Oromo and other Cushitic-speaking peoples of the Horn of Africa, the followers of Waaqeffanna, the Waaqeffataa, worship one God, Waaqa Tokkicha, who is said to have many names and is also called the Black God. Waaqeffanna has no canonical scripture and was handed down orally.

Waaqa acts through the ayyaana, spirits that carry messages but cannot create; they possess the men and women who become qaalluu, priests and ritual leaders. The Abbaa Muudaa, the Father of Ointment, was the highest qaalluu, and pilgrims travelled far with a bull and a sheep to be anointed.

The thirty-year struggle of 1529 to 1559 among Waaqeffanna followers, Christians and Muslims weakened all three. Many Oromo were later drawn into Muslim sultanates and the Christian Ethiopian Empire.