{{short description|Archaic name for God in Cushitic languages such as Oromo and Somali}} {{About||the former WAAQ-FM radio station in Big Rapids, Michigan|WYBR|the former WAAQ-FM radio station in Onsted, Michigan|WAQQ}} '''Waaq''' (also '''Waq''' or '''Waaqa''') is the name for the sky God in several Cushitic languages, including the Oromo and Somali languages.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Thomas|first1=Douglas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2N5DwAAQBAJ&dq=waaq&pg=PA248|title=African Religions: Beliefs and Practices through History|last2=Alanamu|first2=Temilola|date=2018-12-31|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-61069-752-1|language=en}}</ref><ref name="Abdullahi">Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi, ''Culture and Customs of Somalia'', (Greenwood Publishing Group: 2001), p.65.</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Samatar|first=Said S.|title=Unhappy masses and the challenge of political Islam in the Horn of Africa|journal=Horn of Africa|volume=20|pages=1–10}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ali |first=Aweis |url=http://repository.anu.ac.ke/handle/123456789/683 |title=Understanding the Somali Church |date=2021 |publisher=Kenya Projects Organization [KENPRO] |isbn=978-9914-9929-2-2 |language=en |archive-date=2025-01-21 |access-date=2024-05-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250121005747/https://repository.anu.ac.ke/handle/123456789/683 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
''Waaqa'' ({{IPA|orm|waːkʼa}}) still means 'God' in the present Oromo language.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Adam |first1=Hussein Mohamed |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0m9yAAAAMAAJ |title=Mending Rips in the Sky: Options for Somali Communities in the 21st Century |last2=Ford |first2=Richard |date=1997 |publisher=Red Sea Press |isbn=978-1-56902-073-9 |pages=126 |language=en}}</ref> Other Cushitic languages where the word is still found include Konso ''Waaqa''; Rendille ''Wax''; Bayso ''Wah'' or ''Waa''; Daasanach ''Waag''; Hadiyya ''Waaʔa''; Burji ''Waacʼi''.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Hans-Jürgen|last=Sasse|title=Consonant Phonemes of Proto-East Cushitic|journal=Afro-Asiatic Linguistics|volume=7|issue=1|year=1982|page=42}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Hans-Jürgen|last=Sasse|title=An Etymological Dictionary of Burji|publisher=Helmut Buske|location=Hamburg|page=186}}</ref>
In the present-day Somali language, the primary name of God is now the Arabic-derived ''Allaah''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lewis |first=I. M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P5AZyEhMtbkC&q=Eebbe+Waaq+venerated+ |title=Saints and Somalis: Popular Islam in a Clan-based Society |date=1998 |publisher=The Red Sea Press |isbn=978-1-56902-103-3 |pages=136 |language=en}}</ref> The term ''Waaq'' survives in proper names and placenames. The Somali clan Jidwaaq (meaning ‘Path of God’) have derived their name from ''Waaq''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lewis |first=I. M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P5AZyEhMtbkC&q=Jidwaaq+tagalwaaq |title=Saints and Somalis: Popular Islam in a Clan-based Society |date=1998 |publisher=The Red Sea Press |isbn=978-1-56902-103-3 |pages=137 |language=en}}</ref> Names of towns and villages in Somalia that involve the word ''Waaq'' include Ceelwaaq, Caabudwaaq, and Barwaaqo.<ref name="Abdullahi2">Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi, ''Culture and Customs of Somalia'', (Greenwood Publishing Group: 2001), p.65.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lewis |first=I. M. |date=1956 |title=Sufism in Someliland: A Study in Tribal Islam–II |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies/article/abs/sufism-in-someliland-a-study-in-tribal-islamii/F8695731BD8DB8F1199728587834BD2B |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies |language=en |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=145–160 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X00122256 |issn=1474-0699 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>
''Waaq'' is also a word in Arabic for protector (واق) and occurs in the Quran.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Samatar |first=S S. |date=2002 |title=Unhappy masses and the challenge of political Islam in the Horn of Africa |url=https://catalogue.leidenuniv.nl/discovery/fulldisplay?vid=31UKB_LEU:UBL_V1&tab=LeidenCollection&docid=alma9939087315802711&searchScope=lib_asc&context=L&lang=en |website=catalogue.leidenuniv.nl |pages=1–10 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=SearchTruth |title=Search Quran - waq in Quran القران الكريم in English translation by Mohsin Khan |url=http://www.searchtruth.com/search.php?keyword=waq&translator=5 |access-date= |website=SearchTruth.com |language=en |quote=Chapter: Ar-Ra'd. Verses: 13:34 and 13:37.}}</ref> Some traditions indicate ''Waaq'' to be associated with the Harari region.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.3406/ista.1992.2545 |title=Histoire des croyances en Somalie : Religions traditionnelles et religions du Livre |series=Annales Littéraires de l'Université de Besançon |year=1992 |volume=465 |isbn=978-2-251-60465-7 |first1=Mohamed |last1=Mohamed-Abdi }}</ref> The Sufi mystic Ibn Arabi mentions in his Al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya that ''Waaq'' used to be a generic name for God, in comparison to the Turkic people’s tenets of Tengri.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ibn Arabi |title=كِتَابُ الفُتُوحَاتِ المَكِّيَّة |year=1240 |pages=1123 |language=ar |trans-title=The Meccan Revelations}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lewis |first=I. M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cEIiEAAAQBAJ&q=Waaq |title=Islam in Tropical Africa |date=2017-02-03 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-315-31139-5 |pages=274 |language=en}}</ref> It was likely brought to the Horn by speakers of the Proto-Cushitic language who arrived from North Sudan in the Neolithic era<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shillington |first=Kevin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=umyHqvAErOAC&q=Waaq&redir_esc=y#v=snippet&q=Waaq%20Sudan&f=false |title=Encyclopedia of African History 3-Volume Set |date=2005 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-45670-2 |pages=332 |language=en}}</ref> and may share roots with the Religions of the Book but is not derived from them.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schlee |first=Günther |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s2h5Lb6obkkC&dq=Jewish+Travellers+zawilah&q=oromo+Monotheism#v=snippet&q=oromo%20Monotheism&f=false |title=Islam & Ethnicity in Northern Kenya & Southern Ethiopia |last2=Shongolo |first2=Abdullahi A. |date=2012 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd |isbn=978-1-84701-046-9 |pages=58 |language=en}}</ref> The Cushites were similarly among the first people to have practiced circumcision, a central religious rite in the Abrahamic religions.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Perry |first=Rufus Lewis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ehhFAAAAYAAJ&dq=Jewish+Travellers+zawilah&q=+Immemorial+circumcision#v=snippet&q=Immemorial%20circumcision&f=false |title=The Cushite, Or, The Descendants of Ham: As Found in the Sacred Scriptures and in the Writings of Ancient Historians and Poets from Noah to the Christian Era |date=1893 |publisher=Willey & Company |pages=58 |language=en}}</ref> In more recent times, the usage of the term ''Waaq'' has mostly declined since the arrival of Islam and Christianity to the Horn of Africa.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mire |first=Sada |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J6nODwAAQBAJ&dq=Waaq+Islam+cushitic&pg=PA139 |title=Divine Fertility: The Continuity in Transformation of an Ideology of Sacred Kinship in Northeast Africa |date=2020-02-05 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-76924-5 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ahmed |first=Akbar S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WahTAQAAQBAJ&dq=info:G_WTwDY-R5cJ:scholar.google.com/&pg=PA127&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=Islam in Tribal Societies: From the Atlas to the Indus |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-56527-6 |pages=127-128 |language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== {{refbegin}} * {{cite journal |last1=Cerulli |first1=Enrico |title=Les noms personnels en somali |journal=Onomastica. Revue Internationale de Toponymie et d'Anthroponymie |date=1948 |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=139–142 |doi=10.3406/rio.1948.1044 }} * {{cite book |doi=10.1057/9781137091635_6 |chapter=The Indigenous and the Foreign |title=Integration and Peace in East Africa |year=2012 |last1=Etefa |first1=Tsega |pages=127–167 |isbn=978-1-349-29788-7 }} * {{cite journal |last1=Gascon |first1=Alain |last2=Hirsch |first2=Bertrand |title=Les espaces sacrés comme lieux de confluence religieuse en Éthiopie |journal=Cahiers d'études africaines |date=1992 |volume=32 |issue=128 |pages=689–704 |doi=10.3406/cea.1992.1533 |url=http://www.persee.fr/docAsPDF/cea_0008-0055_1992_num_32_128_1533.pdf }} * {{cite book |last1=Geda |first1=Gemechu Jemal |editor-first1=James L. |editor-last1=Cox |chapter=Irreecha: An Indigenous Thanksgiving Ceremony of the Oromo to the High God Waaqa |pages=143–158 |title=Critical Reflections on Indigenous Religions |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-315-57509-4 |chapter-url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315575094-17/irreecha-indigenous-thanksgiving-ceremony-oromo-high-god-waaqa |doi=10.4324/9781315575094 }} * {{cite journal |title=Pouvoir de bénir et de maudire : cosmologie et organisation sociale des Oromo-Arsi |journal=Cahiers d'études africaines |date=1997 |volume=37 |issue=146 |pages=289–318 |doi=10.3406/cea.1997.3515 |last1=Abbas Haji }} * {{cite journal |last1=Kelbessa |first1=Workineh |title=The Oromo Conception of Life: An Introduction |journal=Worldviews |date=2013 |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=60–76 |doi=10.1163/15685357-01701006 |jstor=43809476 }} * {{cite journal |last1=Mire |first1=Sada |title=Wagar, Fertility and Phallic Stelae: Cushitic Sky-God Belief and the Site of Saint Aw-Barkhadle, Somaliland |journal=The African Archaeological Review |date=2015 |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=93–109 |doi=10.1007/s10437-015-9181-z |jstor=43916848 |s2cid=162114929 |doi-access=free }} * {{cite journal |last1=Mohamed-Abdi |first1=Mohamed |title=Les anthroponymes Somalis |journal=Collection de l'Institut des Sciences et Techniques de l'Antiquité |date=1993 |volume=495 |issue=1 |pages=177–184 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/ista_0000-0000_1993_act_495_1_2875 }} * {{cite journal |last1=Mohamed-Abdi |first1=Mohamed |title=Villages-maisons-parcours ou la structuration Somalie de l'espace |journal=Collection de l'Institut des Sciences et Techniques de l'Antiquité |date=1993 |volume=495 |issue=1 |pages=137–156 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/ista_0000-0000_1993_act_495_1_2873 }} * {{cite journal |last1=Prunier |first1=Gérard |title=Segmentarité et violence dans l'espace somali, 1840-1992 |journal=Cahiers d'études africaines |date=1997 |volume=37 |issue=146 |pages=379–401 |doi=10.3406/cea.1997.3519 |url=http://www.persee.fr/docAsPDF/cea_0008-0055_1997_num_37_146_3519.pdf }} {{refend}}
{{Religion topics}}
Category:African gods Category:Monotheism Category:Religion in Ethiopia Category:Religion in Kenya Category:Religion in Somalia Category:Sky and weather gods