The religious conversion process among the Sidama of North-east Africa

by John H. Hamer

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the conversion process and the experiences of the Sidama, in being proselytised by Protestant missionaries in an attempt to integrate them into the modernising Ethiopian state. The conversion process is considered in terms of reasons for accepting or rejecting the new religion. A minority of Sidama are shown to have changed from old beliefs and practices, partly because of the ease of moral reinterpretation and secular incentives, but primarily because of dissatisfaction with reciprocal exchange relations with indigenous spirits and a desire to transcend the finality of death. In advancing this proposition it rejects the possibility of Sidama beliefs as constituting a closed system of cosmology. Though Islam is also present in the region, for political and economic reasons it has been less attractive to prospective converts than Christianity.

In the 1960s and 1970s it was possible to observe the beginnings of religious change among the Sidama in North-eastern Africa. (1) I propose to examine the conversion process among a minority of Sidama to Protestant Christianity. I begin by analysing the way in which their experience relates to Horton's theory of 'closed systems' of cosmology and how their conversion has been similar to and different from what has happened in other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. It will then be appropriate to consider proselytisation and the reasons for and against accepting Christianity, the basis of the challenge to the parochial order of kinship continuity, community commitment versus individualism, and the reasons for lack of complete religious schism among the Sidama. I then introduce a brief comparison of similarities to and differences from the Christian conversion process, with an analysis of why the neighbouring Oromo-speaking peoples have tended to adopt Islam rather than Christianity.

Horton has suggested that African cosmologies are partially 'closed systems' in the sense that they have not historically been open to competing explanatory paradigms (1982: 2B). It is not so much that there is a lack of a 'multiplicity of agencies', but that alternative choices can be made only within a 'single theoretical framework'. In this article I wish to examine the conditions under which dissatisfaction with the premises of the indigenous religious beliefs makes some individuals open to alternative explanations provided by Protestant Christianity. Given the exclusionary aspect of Christianity, I want to suggest that syncretism between the two systems of religious beliefs becomes virtually impossible. On the other hand, I agree with Horton that the 'missionaries of the world religions' bring new ideas about Western materialism, but for those who find customary beliefs unsatisfactory they also bring an alternative cosmological paradigm. It has been possible to reinterpret parts of Sidama secular life to fit 'modern Western mechanistic materialism' for all Sidama. It is, however, virtually impossible to syncretise indigenous religious symbols and rituals for those who become converts to Protestant Christianity. But, as I shall demonstrate, religious syncretism is apparent for the even smaller number who have embraced Islam.


Unlike Sidamoland, where Protestant Christian conversion has been piecemeal, involving the commitment of individuals, there was mass conversion among the Ijebu (Nigeria) and Buganda (Uganda) in the late nineteenth century. Peel says this was due to a form of proselytisation that either did not threaten old beliefs, or occurred in a context where the latter had become irrelevant (1974:112, 117, 124-5, 127). Ijebu were representative of the marginalising of the indigenous religion when young men, considered peripheral by the elders who controlled spiritual access, became seriously involved in trade and the British colonial system. Colonialism was drastically changing Ijebu culture. In Buganda youths from differing communities, who became part of the ruler's court, simply retained their old spiritual loyalties but added Islam or Christianity as more appropriate to a new, more inclusive, status. The Tanzanian Ufipa, also, experienced mass conversion when Catholic missionaries encouraged them to reinterpret customary beliefs and rituals to fit Christianity (Smythe, 1999: 129-31).

There are, however, certain similarities to the Sidamo experience elsewhere in East Africa, where the few converts from peoples such as the Kaguru, Maasai, and Kamba, and in South Africa the Tshidi, were largely ostracised by the majority of traditionalists (Beidelman, 1982: 127; Waller, 1999: 83-4, 87; Sandgren, 1999: 177; Comaroff, 1985: 29).

The Sidama have not had to contend with European colonial capitalism (Peel, 1974; Beidelman, 1982: 177; Comaroff, 1985: 36-9). They were not forced, with the encouragement of missionaries, into wage labour, and, though originally reduced to clientage status by the northern Ethiopian conquerors, they never lost control of their subsistence production. Thus without a radically new system of trade and government combined with Christianity there was no incentive for mass conversion.

Many of the East African converts maintained their allegiance to the customary faith and practices while simultaneously attending church (Beidelman, 1982: 48, 138-9; Kimambo, 1999: 68-9, 73-4, 77; Sandgren, 1999: 175-6, 181-5). For the Maasai, the majority simply excluded the small number of Christians from the community, forcing them to reside with the missionaries (Waller, 1999: 92-3). The Ufipa, being encouraged by Catholic missionaries to reinterpret their old religion, considered Christianity to be a new form of the old spiritual meaning (Smythe, 1999: 132, 136-9). And in Nigeria the Ijebu virtually discarded their traditional view of the cosmos in the process of changing their identity (Peel, 1974: 134-5). But Sidamo converts, as we shall see, had reasons for rejecting customary spiritual beliefs which caused them to embrace the Protestant Christian faith. They did not, however, put aside the old moral code which enabled them to participate with the non-Christian majority in secular, everyday, life. As will become evident, however, there was much in the Sidamo code which did not contradict Christian moral teaching and made reinterpretation of non-religious beliefs and practices acceptable.

Material motivations such as education, political or economic advantage, were attractive to some Sidama as well as other African peoples, in enticing potential converts (Biedelman, 1982: 66-9, 119, 124; Lema, 1999: 56, 58; Maddox, 1999: 153-4, 157; Peel, 1974:112-13, 132-3; Comaroff, 1985: 27; Kimambo, 1999: 65-6, 70-1). Peel has proposed, however, that the acquisition of a new sense of power correlates with religious change only if there is a tangible improvement in personal and/or communal wealth (1974: 129). For the Sidama the results were at best ambiguous, as on the few occasions individuals acquired wealth it was shown to have been obtained through corruption (Hamer, 1987: 214-15). And though converts started self-help associations for community development they were soon joined by non-Christians, so that it was difficult to show improvement at the community level as attributable to the new religion.

THE PEOPLE AND THEIR LOCATION

A Cushitic-speaking people, the Sidama are said to number approximately 2 million, dwelling on the edge of the Rift Valley, some 170 miles south of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia (Office of the Population and Housing Census Commission, 1984). Their locale consists of a long plateau broken by small ravines and rivers which create a number of small table lands. They live in hamlets where they plant their gardens, which surround the plateaux on which they graze their cattle. Their principal cultigen is Ensete ventricosum, popularly known as the 'false banana plant', since the fruit is non-edible but the trunk and root are processed as a grain. Other plants such as maize, greens, and root crops are cultivated in small family gardens. Since the 1950s coffee has become important as a cash crop.

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