Religion: Country Trends--Africa


Figure 1.--We are not sure when the Roman Catholic Church began installing African priests. We think this began with the decolonization process following World War II. Here we see two African priests and a church under construction. The older man may be an archbishop. There is writing on the back we think explaining where the photograph was taken. There is also a date stamp, but we ar unsure if it says 1959 or 69. Click on the image if you want to try to read the back.

Africa is split between Islam and Christianity. Interestingly despite the geographic proximity to India, Hinduism has made no inroad on the continent. African religions were largely animistic and varied folk cults. The first religion of any complexity was the Egyptian religon of the Nile Valley, but it does not seem to have had any significant influence beyond the Nile Valley of northeastern Africa. Rome conquered the Mediterranean coast of northern Africa (2nd-1st century BC) and introduced its pagan religion, but it did noy spread beyond the Mediterranean coast or was adopted by the indigenous popultion. Christian spread throughout the Roman Empire and was adopted as the state religion Empire (4th century AD). Christianity continued to domonate northern Africa after the fall of Romem but except in the East did not pentrate further south. Axum (modern Ethipopia) became a powerful Christian state. Arab warriors spread Islam throuhout northern Africa (7th century AD) and over time the region became largely Islamicized with importan Christian comminities especally in Egypt. There erre also smaller Jewish communities which had developed during the Roman era. Arab traders also spread Islam along the coast of East Africa. Arabs began the Africa slave trade, both in the Sahel and East Africa. There were as a result centuries of Arab violence against African peoples. At first the Africans were animists, but the violence coninued in many aras after Africans began converting to Christinity. Christinity did not reach Subsaharan Africa until the Portuguese began moving south along the Atlantic coast searching for a trade route to the East (15th century). Unlike the actions in the Americas, neither the Portuguesor Soanis=h and subsequently the Dutch, English, and French made an attempt to Chistinize the Africans or move inland. Like the Arabs, they began a very luctarive slave trade (16th century). It is unclar the dimension of the arab slave trade, but the European Atlantic slave trade compressed into three centuries was the largest forced movement of people in history. and many of enslaved Africans, especially in the Caribbean were consumed in what were essentially death camps. Only with the Scramble for Africa did the Europeans begin to move inland and begin a major effort to convert the African people. Along with conversion and colonization came an effort to end the slave trade, resisted by Islamic groups. Today Africa is split between and Islamic north and Christian south. There is also a sliver Islam that goes south long the coast of eastern Africa. In Christian and Islamic communities, religious beliefs are often affected by the beliefs and practices of traditional religions which continue to be important in several countries. Across the central band along the Islamic/Christian divide, Islamic militants have become increasingly violent, attacking Christians including little girls they can enslave. This is a resumption of the Islamic violence throughout large areas of africa before the Europeans supressed the slave trade. There is no comparable violence from Christians. Nor is there any observeable moral outrage from Muslim countries and Islamic clerics.

Ethiopia

Religion has played a major role in Ethiopia and continues to do so today. The Ethiopian Orthodox church is very strong in Ethiopia. It is one of the oldest Christian countries. The Coptic Church is also active. Christianity was introduced in Ethiopia during the 1st century, and expanded all over the country in the 4th century. Ethiopian Christianity in the 6th century it became monophysitistic. Ethiopis remained Christian in a region that became strongly Islamicized. There were, however, large numbers of converts to Islam. Islamic and Catholic Jesuites tries to conquer Islam in the 17th century but failed. There are a few Catholics and a growing number of Protestants as well as Muslims in Ethiopia today. There are significant regional patterns in religion.

Madagascar

Traditional beliefs were very strongly held in Madagascar. Despite Arab control of the Indian Ocean for centuries, unlike East Africa, Islam seems to have few inroads on Madagascar. Nor did Hinduism reach Madagascar from India. Christianity reached Madagascar first with the Portuguese. There was, however, little effort to convert the Malagasy until the French colonial era (19th century). This mean primarily Catholics, but Protestant missonary activitiws began in the late-19th centuries. We note a Protestant missionary family in Ambatomanga during 1901. While many Malagasy people covered to Christimity, many did so without completely abandoning their traditional beliefs. No precise statistics exist, but a reasonable estimate is that about 55 percent of the population continue to mauintain traditional beliefs. This proportion would be even higher in the countryside. About 40 percent are Christian, about evenly divided between Roman Catholics and Protestants--surprising because the country was a French colony. You would think the Catholic share would be higher. Many villages in the central highlands have two competing churches, one Protestant and one Roman Catholic. Commonly they face each other, situated at at opposite ends of the village. We have limited information on Madagascar, but there is a First Communion page. The remaining 5 percent are mostly Muslim, both Sunni and Shia. Most Muslims are Comorans or Indo-Pakistanis, only a small number are native Malagasy. Most Muslims live in live in Mahajanga Province.

Nigeria


South Africa

South Africa has a wide diversity of religions. South African culture is widely based on Christian traditions, but many other religious traditions. South Africans follow many different religions and customs. The Governmrent has promoted Ch\risdtiamity. About 80 percent of the country idebntifies as being Christian. Most South African Christians are Protestants. There are a number of denominations and an estimatedf 85 percent are members of a church. The original Dutch settlers were members of the Durch Reformed Church. French Hugenoughts and Jews expanded thee religious makeup. The British brought the Anglican Church and many other denominations. The religion in South Africa followed by the Khoisan peoples are complicated. Traditionally the Khoisan people fear one supreme god who they believe controlls the whole world. They developed rituals and made small sacrifices. They also feared an evil deity who they blamed for pain and misery. Their religious beliefs over time were influenced by the European settlers. The people of the remote areas of neigboring Botswana and Namibia still follow some of the Khoisan religious practices. Missioraries reached South Africa at an early time (late-15th century). The London Missionary Society sent Missionaries to the Cape colony (1799). They were followed by the Glasgow Missionary Society and Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society. Missionaries from United States, France, Scandavia and Germany arrived during the 29th cntury. Indian workers brought the Hindu and Muslim faith. At this point we only have some limited informstion on Sunday schools.









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Created: 5:42 AM 6/1/2012
Last updated: 4:16 PM 5/28/2017