Les espaces sacrés comme lieux de confluence religieuse en Éthiopie

A. Gascon & B. Hirsch — Shrines Where Religions Meet in Ethiopia. Ethiopia, which has been Christianized since the 4th century and had contact with Islam since the 7th, is a meeting-place for monotheisms and "native" religions. The pilgrimage to Jerusalem was a major occasion for cultural exchange between Ethiopia and the Mediterranean. As of the 13th century, centers of pilgrimage in the northern highlands, Verus Israel, had, given the the monarchy's growing power, become more important than Jerusalem, whose route was under Muslim control in Egypt. A few shrines, where "pagan" ceremonies were per-formed, were Christianized following a recuperation process that has been thor-oughly studied in Europe. Following the 19th century conquest, Christianity spread to the south of Addis Ababa, whereas this area had been penetrated by Islam, from Harar in particular, since the 17th and 18th centuries. The Oromo, the majority population in the south, faced a "religious puzzle" as elements from both gada ceremonies and the monotheistic religions were juxtaposed in certain shrines. Local and national pilgrimages (Zuqwala, Qulubi, Sheikh Husayn, etc.), though officially Christian or Muslim, have been transformed from within into manifestations of Oromo identity.Gascon Alain, Hirsch Bertrand. Les espaces sacrés comme lieux de confluence religieuse en Éthiopie. In: Cahiers d'études africaines, vol. 32, n°128, 1992. pp. 689-704