Females’ Subversive Interventions in the Religious Field in Ethiopia

Abstract

In this chapter, I set out to show how female religious leaders use their position in and knowledge of the Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity to self-legitimise, shape and reshape the religious field as well as gain popularity as charismatic leaders whose sanctioning stems from divine sources. To do so, I analyse a female spirit medium called Abebech Wuletu who created a worship centre that challenged the upper-hand Ethiopian Orthodox Church enjoys since centuries of its introduction to Ethiopia. Notwithstanding their characterisation by the Orthodox Church as agents of malevolent spirits, I argue that female mediums find a way to trespass the stark boundary, the Church endeavours to secure its monopoly on salvation. One of the features of subversion is an appropriation of religious capitals that are exclusive to the Church to heal clients of the spirit medium. Another one is taking a strategic position within the field by publicly recognising the Church as a stronger force to reckon with. I elaborate on these two approaches that position female mediums on a strong ground in the competitive religious field. The data is obtained from ethnographic fieldwork conducted on Oromo religion in the Oromia regional state of Ethiopia between 2008 and 2014.