Le iene di Harär (Etiopia): ecologia spirituale di una relazione inter-specie

The city of Harär, in central-eastern Ethiopia, is known as a bulwark of Islām in the Horn of Africa since its foundation. The city boasts a record in the region, which is the relationship between the human population and hyenas. The coexistence between the two groups and the sharing of spaces is based on mutual benefits based on the ecological as well as cultural and religious realms. The hyenas are considered spiritual animals and this assumption overcomes the more negative consideration rooted in the Islamic tradition. Hyenas are messengers of the local saints, they eat ǧinns, and are sources for divination. Moreover, the peaceful relationships with the human are based on mythical pacts which are repeatedly renovated through people who can communicate with them. Over the centuries, local traditions and uses have been absorbed and reinterpreted in the light of the new religion, taking on new meanings, with outcomes of typically Islamic syncretism, and resulting in an inter-species relationship based on a spiritual ecology.