Politics of God in East Africa: Oromo Ritual and Religion

This volume, with a preface by Paul Baxter, outlines some of the central themes of the study of the Boorana, the central ritual group of the Oromo in East Africa. The aim of this work is to highlight the importance, variety and richness of Oromo ritual through essays that cover history, initiation, knowledge, identity, divination, intention, ritual performance, dance, memories, post-coloniality, the role of children, and the particular social life of the Oromo in the towns of Garba Tulla and Isiolo in eastern Kenya.

This collection of essays continues the line of research on Oromo studies, that started in earnest in 1994 when a group of Oromo and Western scholars met in Gothenburg to discuss issues of Oromo history, identity and change. Issues of ‘being and becoming Oromo’ outlined a new agenda of research in what became later an ever-growing number of research projects that tried to understand a variety of ways of being Oromo in Ethiopia, Kenya and within the European and North-American diasporas.