The Sacrificial Coffee Ritual of the Oromo People
Story by Ramsha Zubairi
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Please enjoy today’s story, from Ethiopia, by Ramsha Zubairi.
The Sacrificial Coffee Ritual of the Oromo People
By Ramsha Zubairi
Important milestones in life are usually knitted together with cultural or religious rituals, often of food or animal sacrifice. These rituals have possibly run parallel with mankind since the earliest records of our existence on Earth.
In Ethiopia, the Oromo are the oldest Cushitic group still practicing “buna qalla,” the sacrifice of coffee berries in exchange of fertility, health, and blessings. The ritual, which is best translated as “coffee slaughter” or “coffee sacrifice,” is a sacred ceremony practiced by the Oromo since time immemorial, symbolizing a sacrifice of flesh and blood for new life: It is believed that the ritual helps women conceive.
Buna qalla is always performed by a married woman who bites open the coffee fruits and simmers it in butter. For the Oromo people, the biting open of the fruit is symbolic of sex; the stirring of the coffee in butter represents the pleasure achieved through the action. The entire process of roasting the beans can take up to half an hour, sometimes more.
Though the ancient ritual prayer is more commonly performed to gain the Creator’s blessings for childbirth, it is also performed for the fertility of cattle and sheep; ample food productio;, blessing the house; marriage; childbirth and the occasion of bringing a newborn child outside of the house for the first time.
According to the tradition, buna qalla is not to be eaten, just chewed. The roasted coffee fruit is “not made for the throat.” Once the ritual food is prepared, it is shared with one’s friends and neighbors, and is never to be eaten alone. Sharing the buna qalla suggests the good relations between the two parties and the same good wishes and blessings for the others that one hopes for themselves. Refusing a cup of buna qalla is considered offensive as the Oromo believe it reflects ill wishes.
The practice of preparing buna qalla is rare today, but various versions of the ancient ritual can still be observed throughout the Horn of Africa.
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