Two Souls, One Rationality: Navigating Daraaro Ritual and Protestant Christianity Through Theological Labour in Gedeo, South Ethiopia

Abstract

This article examines how Gedeo believers in southern Ethiopia rationally navigate competing truth claims at the intersection of indigenous Daraaro ritual and Protestant Christianity. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork across multiple sites in the Gedeo Zone, it introduces the concept of theological labour as the process of conscious, reflective deliberation within and between received traditions. Rather than treating religious plurality as a binary choice between mutually exclusive systems, the article shows how Gedeo believers exercise creative agency by negotiating tensions, selectively drawing on diverse theological resources, and forming coherent religious identities in response to existential and communal needs. Central to this negotiation is the ontological tension between divine immanence, articulated through Daraaro, and divine transcendence, emphasised in Protestant Christianity. The article argues that authenticity under such cross-pressure may lie not in final resolution but in the quality of ongoing negotiation. In doing so, it contributes to philosophical debates on religious rationality, tradition, and identity in contexts of cultural contact.