Waaq

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Waaq (also Waq or Waaqa) is the name for the sky God in several Cushitic languages, including the Oromo and Somali languages. [1] [2] [3]

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Waaqa (Oromo pronunciation: [waːkʼa] ) still means 'God' in the present Oromo language. Other Cushitic languages where the word is still found include Konso Waaqa; Rendille Wax; Bayso Wah or Waa; Daasanach Waag; Hadiyya Waaʔa; Burji Waacʼi. [4] [5]

In the present-day Somali language, the primary name of God is now the Arabic-derived Allaah. [6] The term Waaq survives in proper names and placenames. The Somali clan Jidwaaq (meaning ‘Path of God’) have derived their name from Waaq. [7] Names of towns and villages in Somalia that involve the word Waaq include Ceelwaaq, Caabudwaaq and Barwaaqo. [8]

Some traditions indicate Waaq to be associated with the Harari region. [9] The Sufi mystic Ibn Arabi mentions in his Al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya that Waaq used to be the generic word for Allah, comparing the term with the Turkic people’s tenets of Tengri. [10]

In Oromo and Somali culture, Waaq, Waaqa or Waaqo was the name of God in their pre-Christian and pre-Muslim monotheistic faith believed to have been adhered to by Cushitic groups. [11] It was likely brought to the Horn by speakers of the Proto-Cushitic language who arrived from North Sudan in the Neolithic. [2] In more recent times, the religion has mostly declined since the arrival of Islam and Christianity to the Horn of Africa. [12]

See also

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References

  1. Thomas, Douglas; Alanamu, Temilola (2018-12-31). African Religions: Beliefs and Practices through History. ABC-CLIO. ISBN   978-1-61069-752-1.
  2. 1 2 Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi, Culture and Customs of Somalia, (Greenwood Publishing Group: 2001), p.65.
  3. Samatar, Said S. "Unhappy masses and the challenge of political Islam in the Horn of Africa" . Horn of Africa. 20: 1–10.
  4. Sasse, Hans-Jürgen (1982). "Consonant Phonemes of Proto-East Cushitic". Afro-Asiatic Linguistics. 7 (1): 42.
  5. Sasse, Hans-Jürgen. An Etymological Dictionary of Burji. Hamburg: Helmut Buske. p. 186.
  6. Lewis, I. M. (1998). Saints and Somalis: Popular Islam in a Clan-based Society. The Red Sea Press. p. 136. ISBN   978-1-56902-103-3.
  7. Lewis, I. M. (1998). Saints and Somalis: Popular Islam in a Clan-based Society. The Red Sea Press. p. 137. ISBN   978-1-56902-103-3.
  8. Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi, Culture and Customs of Somalia, (Greenwood Publishing Group: 2001), p.65.
  9. Mohamed-Abdi, Mohamed (1992). Histoire des croyances en Somalie : Religions traditionnelles et religions du Livre. Annales Littéraires de l'Université de Besançon. Vol. 465. doi:10.3406/ista.1992.2545. ISBN   978-2-251-60465-7.
  10. Ibn Arabi (1240). كِتَابُ الفُتُوحَاتِ المَكِّيَّة[The Meccan Revelations] (in Arabic). p. 1123.
  11. Lewis, I. M. (2017-02-03). Islam in Tropical Africa. Routledge. ISBN   978-1-315-31139-5.
  12. Mire, Sada (2020-02-05). Divine Fertility: The Continuity in Transformation of an Ideology of Sacred Kinship in Northeast Africa. Routledge. ISBN   978-0-429-76924-5.

Further reading