The Public Health Significance of Religious Imposition: The Experience of Oromo People in Ethiopia

AbstractKnowledge and power are intertwined. To validate their illegitimate colonial occupation, the colonizers have imposed their knowledge —as expressed in such things as religion—upon the colonized people. Religions are instrumental in setting values, moralities and influencing the types of sciences, laws and arts developed. They govern human behavior, inform researchers on the questions they ask and foster certain types of knowle dge. Religion also guides policymakers where and on what they need to focus. In this paper using a logic model I investigate (a) the theoretical reasons for imposing religion; (b) whether imposing religion widens people choices in life and produces a healthy body and community or limits people’s c hoices and impacts the development of public health in Oromia. Religious impositions are driven by epistemic racism; they twist the paradigm of the thinking of a society. This constitutes a kind of epistemic violence. Epistemic violence discredits the experience and interests of the Oromo people. It denounces Oromo accumulated wisdom, its institutions, and it constitutes the textbook definition of disempowerment. In many ways, it hinders development of critical thinking and limits people’s choices in life. Christianity and Islamic religions have been forcefully and methodically imposed upon the Oromo people. Religious impositions are the seeds that colonizers plant to make the colonized people intellectually dependent on the imposers. The imposi...
Source: Journal of Religion and Health - Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research