Locating Politics in Ethiopia’s Irreecha Ritual
10 January 2020
The Hiob-Ludolf-Zentrum für Äthiopistik cordially invites to:
Locating Politics in Ethiopia’s Irreecha Ritual
10 January 2020, h. 6:00 p.m., AAI, Room 222
Presentation of the book Locating Politics in Ethiopia’s Irreecha Ritual, Studies of religion in Africa, 49 (Leiden–Boston, MA: Brill, 2019), by Dr Serawit Bekele Debele.
Dr Serawit Bekele Debele is the Hiob Ludolf Guest Professor at Universität Hamburg for the Winter Semester 2019/2020, funded by the DeutschÄthiopische Stiftung. As the title suggests, the book is an attempt to find politics elsewhere, as it is practiced by those who are on the margins. The book goes beyond interpreting Irreecha as solely an Oromo ritual and situates it within a wider framework, so as to interrogate the deeper political and religious realities of and practices in the country. By locating Ethiopia’s politics in a ritual most Oromo political elites confine to the limits of Oromo national identity, I tried to situate the Oromo political struggle as well as Irreecha within the wider national context. Irreecha offers a window into contemporary political issues. I believe the ritual can be used to rethink the meaning of Ethiopia and enrich that meaning by embracing various narratives.
Dr Solomon Gebreyes Beyene (Hiob-Ludolf-Zentrum, Universität Hamburg) will introduce, in dialogue with the author.