Abstract:
This thesis studies about The Introduction and Expansion of Protestantism in Hadiya, (Ca. 1928-
1991). The year 1928 was a watershed in the birth of Protestant Christianity among the Hadiya
society while the year 1991 was a remarkable period because with the change of government
Protestant Christians got religious freedom, ethnic and cultural rights, and some degree of
economic and political freedom. Obviously, Protestantism seems to have a remarkable influence
on the socio-cultural, economic and political aspects of Hadiya people, yet its history have not
been fully investigated. This was the major concern of this study that aimed at examining the far reaching changes brought about by Protestantism on the life of the Hadiya people. The study
examines the missionary activities and the steady conversions of Hadiya people from their
traditional religion, fandanano to Protestant Christianity. Besides the fandaano, prior to the
introduction of Protestantism, Islam and Orthodox Christianity were predominant religion among
the Hadiya. Unlike Orthodox Christianity, Protestantism reached among the Hadiya people
through humble approach by providing social services like education and health centers and by
doing so that, it did not take longer time for introduction and expansion. In line with this,
researcher collected various secondary and primary sources from different areas namely Hadiya
zone culture and tourism office, Bobicho Bibile school archive and Library, Heto south central
synods Archive and Library, Addis Ababa Archival Cnters and Libraries, Haramaya University
Libraries as well as investigated and analyzed them critically. Based on the finding, although
Protestantism has narrowed social class oppression like Occupational minorities (Bete-Israel and
tanners), occupational minorities have been still undermined mainly in political and economic
way of life. It was obvious that, when Protestantism faced different challenges among the Hadiya
people, various approached were pursued to overcome these problems. Similarly, Protestantism
should work actively with other religious groups to create wellbeing society of the Ethiopian
people in general and the Hadiya people in particular.
