First published on 2nd August 2005 in Buzzle Excerpt: With the Exodus dated at the times of Merenptah, Akhenaton antedates Moses by approximately 120 years; we can safely claim that the great grandfather of Moses lived at the times of Akhenaton. There is an ostensible continuation of ideas, ideological and philosophical, theological and literary approaches, with plenty of social - historical events ensuing from one another. The 'white terror' of the restored Amun Theban polytheism, as practiced by rulers imposed/controlled by or expressing the Theban priesthood, namely Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb, Seti I and Ramses II, was detrimental for the early monotheistic party of Egypt and their adepts and followers, during the entire period between the collapse of Akhenaton's Amarna Monotheism and the Exodus. Under Moses, many Egyptians left their country along with the Hebrews. So, we can safely claim that without Akhenaton there would be no Moses – either this pleases Jewish, Christian and Muslim theologians or not.

1. Oromos among Waaqeffanna,
Christianity and Islam
Nowadays, Waaqeffanna (the Oromo monotheistic religion, spirituality,
Weltanschauung and wisdom tradition), Christianity and Islam are the three
major doctrines that the Oromo people follow.
Oromos among Waaqeffanna, Christianity and Islam
By Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
Contrarily to Amharas and Tigrays, Oromos became acquainted with either
Christianity or Islam relatively recently. As a matter of fact, nowadays
Waaqeffanna (an Oromo monotheistic Weltanschauung and wisdom
tradition), Christianity and Islam are the three major doctrines that the Oromo
people follow. Taking into consideration that all these faiths and doctrines are
also wisdom traditions, some people believe that Waaqeffanna is the best
Oromo answer to the current worldwide challenges and to winds of friction
and destruction that blow in the wider Middle East and North Africa region.
This is especially supported through comparisons between Waaqeffanna and
the other two religions. A recent study by Dr. Marco Bassi of Bologna
University in Italy suggests that the genuine, historical Oromo religion is
monotheist and similar to Christianity and Islam. Another European scholar
and explorer back in the 17th c., namely M. de Aimeida, stated the following:
"the Gallas (Oromo) are neither Christians, nor moors, nor heathens, for they
have no idols to worship."
To be succinct and pertinent in our analysis, we should clarify that
Waaqeffanna is rather a monotheist Weltanshauung and Spirituality doctrine
that one could not properly call it ‘religion’. An all-encompassing spiritual
and theoretical system of popular beliefs and systematic faiths is far from
being a religion. This does not undermine its importance whatsoever. The
quintessence of the religion is an understanding, interpretation, and
identification of the Holy, constantly involving holy places, sacred objects,
temples, priests, and rituals.
In search of a Cushitic Monotheism
Throughout long centuries of emigration and isolation, various developments
may have led the Cushitic Oromos to the monotheistic and aniconic
conceptualization of the faith. Ethiopian Meroe was particularly polytheistic;
the religious impact of Hamitic Egypt on the early Cushitic phases of
civilization (with epicenter at Kerma and Napata) was polytheistic.

2. Of course, there were great theological schools of Monotheism in Egypt, and
the phenomenon may have also characterized Ancient Cush – Meroe –
Ethiopia (i.e. today's Sudan). The Hermupolitan and the Heliopolitan dogmas
and systems in ancient Egypt were of strong monotheistic inclination,
contrarily to the Memphitic and the Theban systems; furthermore, a great
monotheistic rise of Aton occurred in the 14th century BCE with Akhenaton
and Nefertiti at its top. Certainly, all this does not allow us to say that the
Ancient Egyptians were properly speaking 'monotheistic'. The same concerns
the Ancient Ethiopians, the Cushites of Ancient Sudan, whom the Ancient
Egyptians always considered as highly experienced Black Magic practitioners!
Of course, we can find some monotheistic elements among the Meroites, but
this does not lead Africanists to eventual conclusions that ‘the Cushites were
typically monotheistic’.
Monotheism concerns the Semitic peoples as well; we attest early Semitic
Monotheism in Mesopotamia already during the 3rd millennium BCE. We
have strict Assyrian Monotheism in Nineveh during the Sargonid times (722 –
625 BCE), and we have explicit Babylonian Polytheism during the Nabonid
times (625 – 539 BCE). The same is correct for the Indo-Europeans: we have
Monotheistic Zoroastrian Iransians during the Achaemenid times (550 – 330
BCE), and we have polytheistic and monotheistic tendencies in Greece.
Relating the aforementioned to religions in which ‘Prophets’ were believed to
have a particular role to play, modern scholarship concluded that what
characterized the prophets’ minds was a basic concept and a precise principle.
Theirs was always an abstract perception of the Divine in a totally
monotheistic way. Cultic, social, historical and ideological data did not matter
to them, and were meaningless for their spiritual and intellectual endeavors.
Prophet Elijah may well have known details about the Egyptian Monotheism
of Aton, as it was introduced by Pharaoh Akhenaton. Of that major historical
event that shook Egypt from its foundations during the 14th c., Moses and the
Exodus (as narrated in the Hebrew – Christian Bible and the Quran seem to
be a minor emanation and a continuation.
Despite the fact that Moses was an Egyptian (and not a Hebrew) and there is
plenty of Amarna Atonic monotheistic evidence within the Old Testament,
we cannot possibly afford to say that Elijah was ‘inspired’ by that historical
fact, faith and ideology. We have full proof that the prophetic thought is a
high level spiritual endeavor and an abstract conceptualization that do not
consist in mere inspiration due to earlier events. The early priestly
monotheistic perception of the Creation, as attested in some Assyrian –
Babylonian, Hittite and Egyptian holy texts, seems also to be a matter of
abstract conceptualization, and as such very close to what we call a 'prophetic
mindset'. But later literary, religious, and theoretical compilations were not.

3. Finally, there is no such a system of thought as ‘Cushite Monotheism’ or
‘Semitic Monotheism’ or ‘Indo-European Monotheism’. Monotheism is
monotheism; the cultural environment may vary among different nations, but
it matters little.
Among the following people or groups of people, there are only minor
spiritual – religious – philosophical – theoretical - conceptual differences:
- the sacerdotal authors and editors of the Ancient Egyptian 'Book of the
Caves',
- the priestly scribes and composers of the Assyrian Messianic Epic 'Etana',
- the esoteric hierophants and writers of the Holy Book of the Hermetic
Gnostics 'Poimandres' – i.e. the first book in World History which is said to be
written by God Himself, namely Hermes Trismegistus),
- the wise elders who wrote the books of Jonah, Daniel and Tobias,
- original Ancient Greek philosophers like Thales, Pythagoras and Socrates
- monotheistic kings and emperors, who supported monotheistic priesthoods
during their rule, e.g. Akhenaton, Solomon, Sargon of Assyria, and the
Sargonids.
All the aforementioned sacerdotal and royal establishments of the 2nd and
the 1st millennium BCE are very close to one another.
Retracing an early Hamitic - Cushitic Monotheism in periods antedating the
Exodus may be a difficult or even meaningless endeavor. Yet, there are
intellectuals, who deploy a great effort in this direction. In a 2001 article, John
Graham, a Canadian who worked for an NGO in Ethiopia and also wrote
extensively on the cultural history in Ethiopia, reported the following:
"Moses, for one, is said to have derived his monotheist beliefs from the
example of Waaqa [equivalent of God – hence Waaqeffanna]. As with Moses,
the staff is a sacred object for the Waaqa followers". By staff, he was referring
to Bokku, a stick like object, held by any Oromo leader, and Kalacha, a rare
spiritual symbol kept by Oromo Qallus – spiritual leaders. This sort of
approaches cannot prove anything concrete, although they may be correct.
With the Exodus dated at the times of Merenptah, Akhenaton antedates
Moses by approximately 120 years; we can safely claim that the great
grandfather of Moses lived at the times of Akhenaton. There is an ostensible
continuation of ideas, ideological and philosophical, theological and literary
approaches, with plenty of social - historical events ensuing from one another.
The 'white terror' of the restored Amun Theban polytheism, as practiced by
rulers imposed/controlled by or expressing the Theban priesthood, namely
Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb, Seti I and Ramses II, was detrimental for the
early monotheistic party of Egypt and their adepts and followers, during the
entire period between the collapse of Akhenaton's Amarna Monotheism and
the Exodus. Under Moses, many Egyptians left their country along with the
Hebrews. So, we can safely claim that without Akhenaton there would be no
Moses – either this pleases Jewish, Christian and Muslim theologians or not.

4. But comparing the rise (or reinstatement) of a monotheistic religious system
among fugitive masses in the desert and solitude of Sinai (i.e. the Egyptian
monotheists and the Hebrews under Moses and Aaron) with a monotheistic
Weltanschauung of a settled Nile community that emigrated further in the
south through the African pasturelands of the Blue Nile Valley (the early
ancestors of the Oromos, who had left Meroe after the Axumite king Ezana's
invasion), seems to be farfetched. This is so because in the second case
apparently many different East African peoples, cultural backgrounds, and
languages are definitely involved. Furthermore, there is a period of no less
than 3000 years that separates the two systems of thought and belief, namely
Moses' monotheism and Modern Times' Waaqeffanna. Such attempts lead
always to generalizations that help nobody.
Pondering on possible reasons for the lack of a 'prophet' or outstanding holy
figure among the Oromo people, several Oromo intellectuals specified that it
is quite relevant of Cushitic mentality to sidestep from the responsibility of
being God’s messenger. This might be so, and if we limit our considerations
about this subject within the various contexts of Waaqeffanna, Hebrew
religion, Judaism, and Christianity, we have to apparently conclude that no
prophet originated from the Oromo people.
But if we apply the Islamic approach, it is not quite sure that the Oromos did
not actually have a 'prophet'! According to Islam, there have been several
unknown or unidentified prophets at all times and all over the world. Of
course this statement concerns all the historical periods before the last
prophet, Muhammad, who has been described as the 'seal of the prophets'.
All the same, this approach enlarges the concept of the prophethood and the
number of possible prophets tremendously. To state an example, as per the
Islamic approach, the Monotheist Pharaoh Akhenaton may well have been a
prophet. Practically speaking, any unknown average fellow of that – or any
other – period before the prophet Muhammad could have been a prophet
without any other person understanding it. So, in this case, there may well
have been a Cushite prophet whom we simply don't know by name.
Long discussions have also been dedicated to the topic of the eventual
correspondence of the terms Muslim and Waaqeffata among Oromos. Taking
into consideration the Islamic belief that non-Muslims, who happen to believe
in Monotheism, are ipso facto genuine Muslims (even if they never heard of
Islam), one can surely draw the conclusion that the two terms are genuinely
interchangeable and that they overlap each other; in this case, we can also
claim that a Muslim is a Waaqeffata and vice versa.
The time of the formation of Waaqeffanna is another seminal issue. Since we
know that for many long centuries a polytheistic system, revolving around
Apademak, Amun, Isis, Horus and other Meroitic and Egyptian gods,

5. prevailed in Meroe, we can definitely conclude that, during the last pre-
Christian and the early Christian times, any eventual monotheistic current in
Meroe was limited and rather clandestine. It must have taken some centuries
for the ancestors of the Oromos, moving around the banks of the Blue Nile, to
shift to a full monotheistic system without idols, which is Waaqeffanna as
system attested over the past three to four centuries. The change may have
gradually come within a virtually different natural environment, for instance
settlement far from the Nile.
Lacking explicit eschatological and messianic dimensions, Waaqeffanna is
devoid of any sort of related fanaticism. This is in striking difference from the
theories and the ideologies of numerous modern fanatic groups awaiting a
Messiah, Jesus, Mahdi, Maitreya, and other mythical figures – or
misinterpreted historical figures, which makes no difference – said to come
for a second time to save the world (God only knows from what !!!!). I must
make clear at this point that I don't reject genuine, historically attested,
messianic and eschatological concepts mentioned in Ancient Holy Texts, the
Old Testament, the New Testament and the Quran, but their modern
falsification by our times' vicious theologians of all religions.
Quite interestingly, colonial powers proved to be unable to manipulate
elements of the Waaqeffanna in order to create generations of extremist
Oromos, as they did in the case of Islamic extremism. And among the Muslim
Oromos, Islamic extremism and fanaticism do not exist. This is probably due
to the fact that the Oromos accepted Islam in recent times, after negative
developments had taken place within Islam (by this I am referring to the
fallacious theological systems of Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, Ahmad ibn Taimiyyah
and Muhammad ibn Abdelwahhab), but at the same time, the Oromo
proselytes accepted Islamic teachings and ideas over an earlier monotheistic
background (Waaqeffanna), and were therefore able to stick to diachronic
monotheistic principles, rejecting tendencies to attribute importance to points
relevant of rigid and narrow-minded interpretation, deformation and forgery.
Oromo Muslims devoid ofthe Decay of Islam and the Islamic
Extremism
It is crystal clear that, if the negative developments (9th – 18th c.) within Islam
had not taken place, and if the Western colonial powers had not found (200 –
250 years ago), studied and observed the decayed beliefs and the perverted
and obscurantist mentality of the then uneducated Muslim sheikhs and
imams (who are the forefathers of the present day Islamic terrorists), 19th c.
French and English agents, explorers, academia, intelligence and diplomats
would not have got the opportunity to possibly manipulate the Muslim
sheikhs and imams further, and to manage and maneuver them in a most
disastrous way without them being able even to detect and realize it. It is
certain that within Islam a gradual superposition of always more perverse,
more deformed and more devious theoretical systems created a lethal

6. environment for spirituality, true faith, knowledge, wisdom, ethics, arts,
philosophy, literature and sciences. The greatness of the Islamic civilization
(8th – 16th c.) was truly, systematically and continually targeted by ignorant,
idiotic, perverted, malignant, pseudo-Muslim theologians and evil
demagogues, who had totally misunderstood the real nature of Mankind and
the divine purpose of the Creation.
Whatever darkness was shaped as a fake school of jurisprudence (madhhab)
around Ahmad ibn Hanbal was vicious alteration of the spirit of Islam and
the essence of Humanity; already Tabari, the Islamic Times greatest historian
denigrated Ahmad ibn Hanbal as a non-jurist. On this early system was
superimposed an even worse development, the introspective bogus-Islamic
theological system of Ahmad ibn Taimiya, which constituted merely a
thoughtless, and idiotic reaction against the truly traumatic experience that
the Muslim World had because of the Crusaders. During those times, no one
perceived Ahmad ibn Taimiya as a threat, because he was insignificant, and
his heretic theories could influence only the socially low level people, the
uneducated, the illiterate and the marginal ones. But the ominous theological
system advanced and expanded a lot in the next three to four centuries to the
prejudice of the erudite scholars of Islam, who gradually lost their contact
with the besotted and fanaticized masses that were guided by the satanic
sheikhs – followers of the perverted and barbaric system of Ahmad ibn
Taimiya. When the Sultans and the Shahs realized that there was a problem,
the locusts were already all over the place. This is how the Islamic Civilization
collapsed dragging also the true Islamic Faith to ultimate disappearance.
The point of no return had already been crossed when the fanatic, ignorant
and satanic sheikhs of Istanbul, threatening the Sultan with the massive
support that they had gathered, obliged him to close down the Observatory of
Istanbul, as well as all centers of knowledge, research and creative thought.
The closing down of the Ottoman State Observatory in 1579 is the date of the
real end of Islamic Civilization, and of Islam itself. Following that date,
barbarism replaced civilization throughout the Muslim World, expanding
from the theologically contaminated urban centers to the genuinely Islamic
remote periphery. The last structures of civilization had ended approximately
100 years before the arrival of Napoleon in Egypt (1798). The Islamic World
was out of competition with the West for a foreseeable future.
The same barbaric and satanic sheikhs rule many Islamic countries today.
This is either evident, as in Saudi Arabia and Iran, or hidden, as in Egypt,
Pakistan and, after 2003, Turkey. They want to expand their monstrous,
inhuman system all over the world; this is what they believe when they say
that Islam will be accepted worldwide at the end! It has to be stressed that this
barbarism is not Islam, but 'Islamic Terrorism'. In striking contrast with them,
the concept of Islam prevailing all over the world had a completely different
meaning for great Islamic mystics, erudite scholars, poets, historians,

7. polymaths, scientists, philosophers like Tabari, Ferdowsi, Ibn Sina,
Mohyieldin Ibn al Arabi, Ibn Rushd, Nezami Ganjavi, Makrizi, Ibn Khaldoun
and others.
By Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
Published: 8/2/2005