The Dynamics of Urban Religious Landscapes amid Intensifying Confessional Competition

This article examines competition among Christian denominations in Ethiopian towns, based on the dynamics of intra-religious diversity calculated from national census data using the Gorokhov Index. It is shown that the ongoing intensification of competition between Christian churches is primarily driven by the increased activity of Protestant missionaries, which has become evident not only in large cities but also in medium and especially small urban settlements. According to the spatial logic of religious competition, Ethiopian regions are classified into two types: “region-led areas”—where the rise of religious competition begins in rural areas and only later affects towns, and “city-led areas”—where intensification begins in the urban centres. Due to the “lagging” nature of Ethiopia’s urbanisation and the historically strong state support for the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC) in towns, most regions fall into the first type. Based on fieldwork conducted in the small towns of Turmi and Dimeka (South Omo Zone, Southern Ethiopia) in 2024, the article identifies spatial mechanisms underlying the transformation of the religious landscape. This transformation unfolded in three waves of Christian expansion: (1) entry of the EOTC and Catholic Church, (2) early Protestants, and (3) late Protestants. It is argued that interwave competition manifests not only in shifts of adherent’s number proportion but also in the spatial restructuring of the religious landscape—including redistribution of land, competition for symbolic dominance through the construction of worship sites, and the expansion of social missions. Heightened competition among religious organisations in urban areas has provoked better-resourced churches from the first two waves to extend their missionary outreach into rural areas. This process emerges as a key mechanism for the territorial expansion of Christianity in the region and serves as an important factor of urban growth in South Omo, as new converts—often marginalised in their home communities—relocate to towns in search of religious and social support.

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