Ethiopia is a very religious country. Every thing is attributed to the intervention of God a god or at the very least to angels – both kinds of them.

Looking up for solace

Our country is so religious that it is almost arcane if it wasn’t also so delightfully cool in a retro sort of way. For example, it is considered to be crude to not praise the Lord when answering to a simple greeting. By the way, Amharic does not say “good morning”, as that inoucous wish would presume that everything went well last night! So in Amharic we say: ‘Endemen Aderk’ – literally ‘how did you spend the night? ‘The polite reply is ‘Dehna –Egzehabher Yemesgen (Fine, praise the Lord) If this were conducted in English, the baffled foreigner would have had to ask, “I’m sorry, was there an accident?”
We thank God for each minute, each morsel of food, each drop of reluctant rain and when with the day drawing to a close and a friend suggests we meet for lunch tomorrow, we accept but add a qualifier – ‘Ye nege sew yebelgn’ . (May he see us well (alive) to see tomorrow!
Having established (exhaustively) that Ethiopians are categorically religious, questioning whether mass prayer fasts dedicated to a common desire work or not is almost redundant. Any self respecting Ethiopian will tell you that conducting “Egizo”- a proscribed period of nationwide prayers and fasting, decreed in time of floods, droughts, conflicts and other national emergencies does work. The peaceful entrance into Addis Ababa by the EPRDF and the virtually destruction free transition, especially during the scary couple of days when the capital functioned peacefully without a city or national government – those were miracles attributed to the earnest prayers for peace conducted in Ethiopia’s mosques, churches and synagogs.

Do specially dedicated mass
prayer fasts work?

I’m glad you asked me this question because I will give you the proof – a mini-miracle that occurred after all Ethiopian Muslims held a prayer fast for several days, evoking Allah to bring our thirsty country some rain. And guess what? It rained! Of course prayer fasts work!

Suleman K, 36
Café owner

I can’t say whether or not the fasting part has much to do with it. However, I am very sure that when a multitude of people focus their minds on a common desire, the collective positive vibrations will reach the heavens.

Aschalew S. 29
Security guard

I say it’s all a matter of the random convergence of place, time and prevailing conditions that lead many to assume that mass prayer fasts work. You could also say it’s like wondering whether dreams can come true. We humans tend to remember the few times our nocturnal dreams have come true and conveniently forget the thousands that don’t.

Yisrael, 19
Student

I really don’t want to declare prayer fasts as valid or not. I am an atheist and believe only in facts that can be proven.

Sisay, 41
Chemist

Our country has overcome and survived huge national emergencies. This was not just because we mortals died for our land but because each of our great victories was accompanied with mass prayer and fasting.

Befihkadu S. 58
Retired teacher