Project description
Slavery and religion in African state formation
How did the intersections of Christian-Muslim relations, slavery and political pluralism shape the evolution of statehood and social orders in the Horn of Africa between the 18th and early 20th centuries? Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Programme, the ENTANGLEDHOA project aims to answer this question. The project seeks to bridge the gap between religious coexistence and political authority using a transregional, interdisciplinary approach based on archival research across local, European and Harvard-based collections; the data will be drawn from underexplored local, European and religious archives. The findings are expected to shed light on the historical roots of contemporary regional conflicts and governance models by challenging binary interpretations of religious encounters.
Objective
ENTANGLEDHOA aims to investigate how Christian–Muslim relations, slavery, and political pluralism shaped the formation and evolution of statehood and social orders in the Horn of Africa from the 18th to the early 20th century. The project seeks to provide a historically grounded and comparative understanding of entangled religious identities and contested sovereignties in a region marked by imperial transitions, colonial reconfigurations, and cross-cultural interaction.
While recent scholarship has explored aspects of Islam and Christianity in African contexts, ENTANGLEDHOA is the first project to connect religious coexistence and contestation to broader patterns of political authority and the legacy of slavery in the Horn of Africa. Combining historical anthropology, archival research, and comparative political analysis, the project draws on underexplored sources in local, European, and religious archives. Methodologically, it advances a transregional and interdisciplinary approach grounded in entangled history and critical political theory.
The urgency of this research lies in the need to reassess the historical roots of religious pluralism and state fragmentation in the Horn of Africa, especially as current conflicts and governance models echo unresolved legacies of domination and resistance. ENTANGLEDHOA’s findings will illuminate how historical entanglements of faith and power shaped modes of inclusion, exclusion, and political negotiation.
It also challenges binary readings of Muslim–Christian encounters by foregrounding negotiation, conversion, and shared legal frameworks that reveal deeper patterns of coexistence.
Scientifically, the project will deepen our understanding of African political thought and religious coexistence. Professionally, it will enhance the researcher’s expertise in global history, religious studies, and African political systems, while fostering long-term academic collaboration between European and non-European institutions.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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30123 Venezia
Italy
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