Exorcizing the Spirit of Protestantism: Ambiguity and Spirit Possession in an Ethiopian Orthodox Ritual

Summary

In Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Orthodox rituals exorcise 'Protestant spirits' from church members to reinforce Orthodoxy as central to Ethiopian identity and to mark Protestantism as a foreign threat. These exorcisms, however, employ methods, aesthetics, and themes that closely resemble Protestant practices, creating profound ambiguity. Rather than clearly separating the two faiths, the rituals publicly expose the irreparable permeability of the religious boundaries they aim to draw. The article argues that exorcism becomes a hazardous event, balanced on the edge of becoming the other, rather than a straightforward ordering process.

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Abstract

ABSTRACT This article discusses the exorcism of Protestant spirits from Ethiopian Orthodox hosts in Addis Ababa. This controversial ritual is animated by injunctions to draw essential distinctions and boundaries between Protestantism and Orthodoxy, at a time of religious liberalisation. The expulsion of Protestant spirits provides an occasion to reaffirm the centrality of local Orthodoxy to Ethiopian identity, construing Protestantism as a foreign religion at odds with the country’s ancient Orthodox history. However, this ritual project is marked by profound ambiguities, as exorcism’s means, aesthetics and themes are suspiciously similar to those characteristic of Protestantism. By foregrounding ritual ambiguity, I argue that exorcism publically exposes and vividly magnifies the irreparable permeability of the very inter-religious boundaries that it seeks to demarcate. In contrast to classic understandings of ritual as an ordering process, exorcism rituals become hazardous events that balance uncertainly on the edge of the ever-present risk of becoming the other.

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