Conversion to Protestantism and the Impediment of Social Integration among the Dime People, Southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

This article examines conversion to Protestantism and its implication for social integration. It is based on an ethnographic fieldwork conducted among the Dime people in southwest Ethiopia. Information was gathered through participant observation, interviews and secondary sources. The findings confirmed that conversion hardly resulted in the crossing of social boundaries. Although some interactions loosened, cultural norms such as marital restrictions persisted. The social stratification at place, which is tied to livelihood implication made integration challenging. And the evangelisers who are themselves from similar socio-cultural background to the preached struggled to enforce social integration. Instead, they tend to legitimise stratification. Moreover, non-converts and converts asserted competing claims of wellbeing to exert rhetorical dominance. Non-converts mentioned concerns over the breaching of social boundary, destruction of ritual places, the veneration of a new superpower, the disregard to the customs and the overall livelihood deterioration. Converts, on their part, refuted these allegations and claimed their faith brought abundance to the land. Such contentious coexistence impeded full integration of converts.