Waaq

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

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 their name derived 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[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Thomas, Douglas; Alanamu, Temilola (2018-12-31). African Religions: Beliefs and Practices through History. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-61069-752-1.
  2. ^ a b 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.

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