Essere cristiani nel Corno d’Africa

Christians interacted with Muslims in the Horn of Africa across the centuries, and the legacies of this historical interactions still affect their current relations. This paper introduces the local and historical backgrounds of this interaction and provides a detailed and comprehensive overview of how the Christian religious minorities in the Horn of Africa suffer gross human rights abuses today facing increasing persecution, restriction, harassment and marginalization. As the role religion plays in public life is different in all the countries in the Horn, the paper reflects on the political revival of religiosity and the impact on freedom to entertain and manifest the Christian faiths, thus addressing the state of religious freedom in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Somaliland, providing a select annotated bibliography of scholarly works and a listing of useful data sets. The aim of the paper is not to analyse religious beliefs and practices in the Horn but rather to examine Church-State relationship and especially the relationship between religious identity and religious discrimination, drawing insights on religious freedom in practice and questioning how far religion is a constitutive element of citizenship.