Scacciare demoni e occupare case. Etnografia dei pentecostali eritrei a Roma

– The article explores the trajectories and the ideas of the members of an Eritrean Pentecostal Church in Rome, with particular focus on the Pentecostal elaboration of living conditions in the migratory context. The intention is to explore the ways in which Pentecostal religious language elaborates these conditions and places them into a spiritual horizon capable of conferring meaning to the experience and actions of individuals. In this sense, the ability of Pentecostalism to deal with the matters of the past – the political history of the Eritrean revolutionary movements of the second half of the twentieth century and their legacies in the present – and those of the present is shown. The conditions of life are elaborated within a complex exorcistic ritual that has a demon at its center forcing people to obsessively think about their material conditions in order to drive people crazy and therefore hinder them on their path to spiritual perfection. However, this issue is addressed in its complexity, evaluating the choice of many faithful of the congregation to resort to housing occupation in large abandoned buildings that are «converted» into living quarters by the Roman movements for the right to housing. In this way, we intend to analyze the relationship between religious thought and action in the world, primarily starting from how Pentecostals declinate the choice to occupy houses