Christianity in Africa

The Church of Saint George in Lalibela, Ethiopia is rock-hewn in the shape of a cross

Christianity in Africa arrived in Africa in the 1st century AD, and in the 21st century the majority of Africans are Christians. Several African Christians influenced the early development of Christianity and shaped its doctrines, including Tertullian, Perpetua, Felicity, Clement of Alexandria, Origen of Alexandria, Cyprian, Athanasius and Augustine of Hippo. In the 4th century, the Aksumite empire in modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea became one of the first regions in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion, followed by the Nubian kingdoms of Nobatia, Makuria and Alodia and several Christian Berber kingdoms.

The Islamic conquests into North Africa brought pressure on Christians to convert to Islam due to special taxation imposed on non-Muslims and other socio-economic pressures under Muslim rule, although Christians were widely allowed to continue practicing their religion. The Eastern Orthodox Church of Alexandria and Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria (which separated from each other during the Chalcedonian Schism) in Egypt and the Orthodox Tewahedo Church survived Muslim invasion. Islamization of Muslim-ruled territory occurred progressively over the next few centuries, though this process is not fully understood by historians. Restrictions on church building and demolition of churches in Egypt, along with occasional persecutions such as during the reign of al-Hakim (996–1021), put additional pressure on Copts in Egypt. In the Middle Ages, the Ethiopian Empire was the only region of Africa to survive as a Christian state after the expansion of Islam. The Ethiopian church held its own distinct religious customs and a unique canon of the Bible. Therefore, the Ethiopian church community is globally unique in that it wasn't Christianised through European missionaries, but was highly independent and itself spread missionaries throughout the rest of Africa prior to the contact of European Christians with the continent.

In the late 15th century, Portuguese traders and missionaries began arriving in West Africa, first in Guinea, Mauritania, the Gambia, Ghana, and Sierra Leone, then Nigeria and later in the Kingdom of Kongo, where they would find success in converting prominent local leaders to Catholicism. During and after the Scramble for Africa in the late 19th century, these Christian communities and others began to flourish up and down the coast, as well as in Central and Southern Africa as new missionary activities from Europe started, (Christian evangelists were intimately involved in the colonial process in southern Africa). In the 21st century, they constitute the bulk of the booming Christian community on the continent.

As of 2024, there are an estimated 734 million Christians from all denominations in Africa, up from about 10 million in 1900. In a relatively short time, Africa has gone from having a majority of followers of indigenous, traditional religions, to being predominantly a continent of Christians and Muslims, even though there is a significant and sustained syncretism with traditional beliefs and practices. Christianity is embraced by the majority of the population in most Southern African, Southeast African, and Central African states and in large parts of the Horn of Africa and West Africa, while the Coptic Christians make up a significant minority in Egypt. According to a 2018 study by the Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary, more Christians live in Africa than any other continent, with Latin America second and Europe third.

History

Antiquity: Early Church

See also: Christianity in the Roman Africa province

Christianity reached Africa first in Egypt around the year 50 AD. Mark the Evangelist became the first bishop of the Alexandrian Patriarchate in about the year 43. At first the church in Alexandria was mainly Greek-speaking. By the end of the 2nd century the scriptures and liturgy had been translated into three local languages. Christianity in Sudan also spread in the early 1st century, and the Nubian churches, which were established in the sixth century within the kingdoms of Nobatia, Makuria and Alodia were linked to those of Egypt.

Christianity also grew in northwestern Africa (today known as the Maghreb), reaching the region around Carthage by the end of the 2nd century. The churches there were linked to the Church of Rome and provided Pope Gelasius I, Pope Miltiades and Pope Victor I, all of them Christian Berbers like Saint Augustine and his mother Saint Monica.

  Spread of Christianity to AD 325

  Spread of Christianity to AD 600

At the beginning of the 3rd century the church in Alexandria expanded rapidly, with five new suffragan bishoprics. At this time, the Bishop of Alexandria began to be called Pope, as the senior bishop in Egypt. In the middle of the 3rd century the church in Egypt suffered severely in the persecution under the Emperor Decius. Many Christians fled from the towns into the desert. When the persecution died down, however, some remained in the desert as hermits to pray. This was the beginning of Christian monasticism, which over the following years spread from Africa to other parts of the Gohar, and Europe through France and Ireland.

The early 4th century in Egypt began with renewed persecution under the Emperor Diocletian. In the Ethiopian/Eritrean Kingdom of Aksum, King Ezana declared Christianity the official religion after having been converted by Frumentius, resulting in the promotion of Christianity in Ethiopia (eventually leading to the foundation of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church). At the beginning of the fifth century, no other region of the Roman Empire had as many bishoprics as Northern Africa; when the Vandal king summoned a synod in Carthage, 460 Catholic bishops attended.

In these first few centuries, African Christian leaders such as Origen, Lactantius, Augustine, Tertullian, Marius Victorinus, Pachomius, Didymus the Blind, Ticonius, Cyprian, Athanasius and Cyril (along with rivals Valentinus, Plotinus, Arius and Donatus Magnus) influenced the Christian world outside Africa with responses to Gnosticism, Arianism, Montanism, Marcionism, Pelagianism and Manichaeism, and the idea of the university (after the Library of Alexandria), understanding of the Trinity, Vetus Latina translations, methods of exegesis and biblical interpretation, ecumenical councils, monasticism, Neoplatonism and African literary, dialectical and rhetorical traditions.

Early Middle Ages: After the Muslim conquest of North Africa

Reconstruction of a church from Old Dongola, the capital of the Makurian kingdom

The basilica of Our Lady of Africa in Algiers

After the Muslim conquests, most of the early Muslim caliphs showed little interest in converting the local people to Islam. Christianity continued to exist after the Muslim conquests. Initially, Muslims remained a ruling minority within the conquered territories in the Middle East and North Africa. Overall, the non-Muslim population became a minority in these regions by the 8th century. The factors and processes that led to the Islamization of these regions, as well as the speed at which conversions happened, is a complex subject. Among other rules, the Muslim rulers imposed a special poll tax, the jizya, on non-Muslims, which acted as an economic pressure to convert alongside other social advantages converts could gain in Muslim society. The Catholic church gradually declined along with local Latin dialect.

Historians have considered many theories to explain the decline of Christianity in North Africa, proposing diverse factors such as the recurring internal wars and external invasions in the region during late antiquity, Christian fears of persecution by the invaders, schisms and a lack of leadership within the Christian church in Africa, political pragmatism among the inhabitants under the new regime, and a possible lack of differentiation between early Islamic and local Christian theologies that may have made it easier for laymen to accept the new religion. Some Christians, especially those with financial means, also left for Europe. In the lands west of Egypt, the Church at that time lacked the backbone of a monastic tradition and was still suffering from the aftermath of heresies including the so-called Donatist heresy, and one theory proposes this as a factor that contributed to the early obliteration of the Church in the present day Maghreb. Proponents of this theory compare this situation with the strong monastic tradition in Egypt and Syria, where Christianity remained more vigorous. In addition, the Romans and the Byzantines were unable to completely assimilate the indigenous people like the Berbers.

Some historians remark how the Umayyad Caliphate persecuted many Berber Christians in the 7th and 8th centuries CE, who slowly converted to Islam. Other modern historians further recognize that the Christian populations living in the lands invaded by the Arab Muslim armies between the 7th and 10th centuries CE suffered religious persecution, religious violence, and martyrdom multiple times at the hands of Arab Muslim officials and rulers. Many were executed under the Islamic death penalty for defending their Christian faith through dramatic acts of resistance such as refusing to convert to Islam, repudiation of the Islamic religion and subsequent reconversion to Christianity, and blasphemy towards Muslim beliefs.

From the Muslim conquest of Egypt onwards, the Coptic Christians were persecuted by different Muslim regimes. Islamization was likely slower in Egypt than in other Muslim-controlled regions. Up until the Fatimid period (10th to 12th centuries), Christians likely still constituted a majority of the population, although scholarly estimates on this issue are tentative and vary between authors. Under the reign of the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim (r. 96–1021), an exceptional persecution of Christians occurred, This included closing and demolishing churches and forced conversion to Islam, which brought about a wave of conversions.

Patriarch Mark III with a black African attendant

There are reports that the Roman Catholic faith persisted in the region from Tripolitania (present-day western Libya) to present-day Morocco for several centuries after the completion of the Arab conquest by 700. A Christian community is recorded in 1114 in Qal'a in central Algeria. There is also evidence of religious pilgrimages after 850 to tombs of Catholic saints outside the city of Carthage, and evidence of religious contacts with Christians of Muslim Spain. In addition, calendar reforms adopted in Europe at this time were disseminated amongst the indigenous Christians of Tunis, which would have not been possible had there been an absence of contact with Rome.

High Middle Ages: Decline and first missions

Local Christians came under pressure when the Muslim regimes of the Almohads and Almoravids came into power, and the record shows demands made that the local Christians of Tunis convert to Islam. There are reports of Christian inhabitants and a bishop in the city of Kairouan around 1150 AD - a significant event, since this city was founded by Arab Muslims around 680 AD as their administrative center after their conquest. A letter in Catholic Church archives from the 14th century shows that there were still four bishoprics left in North Africa, admittedly a sharp decline from the over four hundred bishoprics in existence at the time of the Arab conquest. The Almohad Abd al-Mu'min forced the Christians and Jews of Tunis to convert in 1159. Ibn Khaldun hinted at a native Christian community in 14th century in the villages of Nefzaoua, south-west of Tozeur. These paid the jizyah and had some people of Frankish descent among them. Berber Christians continued to live in Tunis and Nefzaoua in the south of Tunisia up until the early 15th century, and in the first quarter of the 15th century texts state that the native Christians of Tunis, though much assimilated, extended their church, perhaps because the last Christians from all over the Maghreb had gathered there. However, they were not in communion with the Catholic Church. The community of Tunisian Christians existed in the town of Tozeur up to the 18th century.

Another group of Christians who came to North Africa after being deported from Islamic Spain were called the Mozarabs. They were recognised as forming the Moroccan Church by Pope Innocent IV.

Priests of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church

First missions to Northern Africa

In June 1225, Honorius III issued the bull Vineae Domini custodes that permitted two friars of the Dominican Order named Dominic and Martin to establish a mission in Morocco and look after the affairs of Christians there. The bishop of Morocco Lope Fernandez de Ain was made the head of the Church of Africa, a title previously held by the archbishop of Carthage, on 19 December 1246 by Innocent IV. The bishopric of Marrakesh continued to exist until the late 16th century.

The medieval Moroccan historian Ibn Abi Zar stated that the Almohad caliph Abu al-Ala Idris al-Ma'mun had built a church in Marrakech for the Christians to freely practice their faith at Fernando III's insistence. Innocent IV asked emirs of Tunis, Ceuta and Bugia to permit Lope and Franciscian friars to look after the Christians in those regions. He thanked the Caliph al-Sa'id for granting protection to the Christians and requested to allow them to create fortresses along the shores, but the Caliph rejected this request.

Early Modern Age: Jesuit missions in Africa

Another phase of Christianity in Africa began with the arrival of Portuguese in the 15th century. After the end of Reconquista, the Christian Portuguese and Spanish captured many ports in North Africa.

Missionary expeditions undertaken by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) began as early as 1548 in various regions of Africa. In 1561, Gonçalo da Silveira, a Portuguese missionary, managed to baptize Monomotapa, king of the Shona people in the territory of Zimbabwe. A modest sized group of Jesuits began to establish their presence in the area of Abyssinia, or Ethiopia Superior, around the same time of Silveira's presence in Southern Africa. Although Jesuits regularly confronted persecution and harassment, their mission withstood the test of time for nearly a century. Despite this confrontation, they found success in instituting Catholic doctrine in a region that, prior to the existence of their vocation, maintained strictly established orthodoxies. During the sixteenth century, Jesuits extended their mission into the old Kongo Kingdom, developing upon a preexisting Catholic mission which had culminated in the construction of a local church. Jesuit missions functioned similarly in Mozambique and Angola until in 1759 the Society was overcome by Portuguese authority.

The Jesuits went largely unchallenged by rival denominational missions in Africa. Other religious congregations did exist who sought to evangelize regions of the continent under Portuguese dominion, however, their influence was far less significant than that of the Christians. The Jesuit's ascendency to prominence began with the padroado in the fifteenth century and continued until other European countries initiated missions of their own, threatening Portugal's status as sole patron of the continent. The favor of the Jesuits took a negative turn in the mid eighteenth century when Portugal no longer held the same dominion in Africa as it had in the fifteenth century. The Jesuits found themselves expelled from Mozambique and Angola, as a result, the existence of Catholic missions diminished significantly in these regions.

Christian Berber family from Kabylia.

The bishopric of Marrakesh continued to exist until the late 16th century and was borne by the suffragans of Seville. Juan de Prado who had attempted to re-establish the mission was killed in 1631. A Franciscan monastery built in 1637 was destroyed in 1659 after the downfall of the Saadi dynasty. A small Franciscan chapel and monastery in the mellah of the city existed until the 18th century.

20th century

The horn of Africa

The Orthodox Tewahedo split into the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church) in 1993. The P'ent'ay churches are works of a Protestant reformation within Ethiopian Christianity.

The Maghreb

The growth of Catholicism in the region after the French conquest was built on European colonizers and settlers, and these immigrants and their descendants mostly left when the countries of the region became independent. As of the last census in Algeria, taken on 1 June 1960, there were 1,050,000 non-Muslim civilians (mostly Catholic) in Algeria (10 percent of the total population including 140,000 Algerian Jews). Under French rule, the Catholic population of Algeria peaked at over one million. Due to the exodus of the pieds-noirs in the 1960s, more North African Christians of Berber or Arab descent now live in France than in Greater Maghreb.

Roman Catholic Cathedral of Rabat

In 2009, the UNO counted 45,000 Roman Catholics and 50,000 to 100,000 Protestants in Algeria. Conversions to Christianity have been most common in Kabylie, especially in the wilaya of Tizi Ouzou. In that wilaya, the proportion of Christians has been estimated to be between 1% and 5%. A 2015 study estimates 380,000 Muslims converted to Christianity in Algeria.

Before the independence in 1956; Morocco was home to half a million Europeans, mostly Christians. The numbers of the Catholics in French Morocco reached about 360,000 or about 4.1% of the population. In 1950, Catholics in Spanish protectorate in Morocco and Tangier constitute 14.5% of the population, and the Spanish Morocco was home to 113,000 Catholic settlers. Catholics in Spanish protectorate in Morocco and Tangier were mostly of Spanish descent, and to a lesser extent of Portuguese, French and Italian ancestry. The U.S. State Department estimates the number of Moroccan Christians as more than 40,000. Pew-Templeton estimates the number of Moroccan Christians at 20,000. Most Christians reside in the Casablanca, Tangier and Rabat urban areas. The majority of Christians in Morocco are foreigners, although some reports states that there is a growing number of native Moroccans (45,000) converting to Christianity, especially in the rural areas. Many of the converts are baptized secretly in Morocco's churches. Since 1960 a growing number of Moroccan Muslims are converting to Christianity.

Before the independence in 1956; Tunisia was home to 255,000 Europeans, mostly Christians. The Christian community in Tunisia, composed of indigenous residents, Tunisians of Italian and French descent, and a large group of native-born citizens of Berber and Arab descent, numbers 50,000 and is dispersed throughout the country. The Office for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor in the United States also noted the presence of thousands of Tunisians who converted to Christianity.

Some scholars and media reports indicate that there been increasing numbers of conversions to Christianity among the Berbers.

Africanizing Christianity

See also: African-initiated church

Moses and his Ethiopian wife Zipporah (Mozes en zijn Ethiopische vrouw Sippora). Jacob Jordaens, c. 1650

According to Thomas C. Oden, "Christians of northern Africa—of Coptic, Berber, Ethiopian, Arabic, and Moorish descent—are treasured as part of the whole multicultural matrix of African Christianity". Within different geographical areas, Africans searched for aspects of Christianity that could more closely resemble their religious and personal practices. Adaptations of Protestantism, such as the Kimbanguist church emerged. Within the Kimbanguist church, Simon Kimbangu questioned the order of religious deliverance- would God send a white man to preach? The Kimbanguist church believed Jesus was black and regarded symbols with different weight than the Catholic and Protestant Europeans. The common practice of placing crosses and crucifixes in churches was viewed as a graven image in their eyes or a form of idolatry. Also, according to Mazrui, Kimbanguists respected the roles of women in church more than orthodox churches; they gave women the roles of priests and preachers. Members within these churches looked for practices in the Bible that were not overtly condemned, such as polygamy. They also incorporated in their own practices relationships with objects and actions like dancing and chanting. When Africans were able to read in the vernacular, they were able to interpret the Bible in their own light. Polygamy was a topic of debate- many literate Africans interpreted it as acceptable because of information contained in the Old Testament- while it was condemned by European Christianity. Dona Beatriz was a woman from Central Africa known for her controversial views on the acceptance of polygamy – she argued that Jesus never condemned it – and she was burnt at the stake. European missionaries were faced with what they considered an issue in maintaining Victorian values, while still promoting the vernacular and literacy. Missionaries largely condemned the controversial African views and worked against leaders branching out. Simon Kimbangu became a martyr, put in a cage because of Western missionaries concern, and died there.

Within African communities, there were clashes brought on by Christianization. As a religion meant to "colonize the conscience and consciousness of the colonized" Christianity caused disputes even amongst hereditary leaders, such as between Khama III and his father Sekgoma in nineteenth-century Botswana. Young leaders formed ideas based on Christianity and challenged elders. Dona Beatriz, an African prophet, made Christianity political and eventually went on to become an African Nationalist, planning to overthrow the Ugandan state with the help of other prophets. According to Paul Kollman, teaching from missionaries was up to the interpretation of each person and took different forms when acted upon.

"Spiritual headwashing" in Cotonou, Benin. Celestial Church of Christ is a religion which started in Benin in the middle of the 20th century by Samuel Joseph Biléou Oschoffa

Christianity by country

David Adamo, a Nigerian within the Aladura church chose portions of the Bible that closely resembled what his church found important. They read portions of Psalms because of the idea that missionaries were not sharing the power of their faith. They found power in reading these verses and put them into the context of their lives.

In addition to Africanizing Christianity, there were movements to Africanize Islam. In Nigeria, movements were created to arouse Muslims to de-Arabize Islam. There were clashes between people who accepted the de-Arabization and those who did not. These movements took place around 1980, resulting in violent behavior and clashes with police. Mirza Ghulam Ahmed, the founder of the Ahmadiyya sect, believed that Muhammed was the most important prophet, but not the last- departing from typical Muslim views. Sunni Africans were largely against the Ahmadiyyas; the Ahmadiyyas were the first to translate the Quran into Swahili, and the Sunnis opposed that as well. There was a militarism developed in different groups and movements like the Ahmadiyyas and the Mahdist movement and clashes between groups with opposing views.

The influenza pandemic of 1918 accelerated the Africanization of Christianity and hence its growth in twentieth century Africa. As many as five million Africans are estimated to have died. European governments, churches and medicine were powerless against the plague, boosting anti-imperial sentiment. This contributed to growth of independent and prophetic Christian mass movements with prophecy, healings, and nationalist church restructuring. For example, the inception of the Aladura movement in Nigeria coincided with the pandemic. Evolving into the Christ Apostolic Church, it gave rise to many offshoots, which continued to emerge into the 1950s spreading with migrants around the world. For example, the Redeemed Christian Church of God, founded in 1952, has congregations in a dozen African states, Western Europe and North America.

Christian education in Africa

Christian missionaries were compelled to spread an understanding of their gospel in the native language of the indigenous people they sought to convert. The Bible was then translated and communicated in these native languages. Christian schools did teach English, as well as mathematics, philosophy, and values inherent to Western culture and civilization. The conflicting branches of secularism and religiosity within the Christian schools represents a divergence between the various goals of educational institutions within Africa.

Current status

Archdioceses and Dioceses of the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa

There has been tremendous growth in the number of Christians in Africa - coupled by a relative decline in adherence to traditional African religions. In 1900, there were only nine million Christians in Africa, but by the year 2000, there were an estimated 380 million Christians. In 2020, there were nearly 658 million Christians in Africa, with 760 million expected by 2025, surpassing earlier estimates of 630 to 700 million for 2025. In 2020, Christians formed 49% of the continent's population, with Muslims forming 42%. As of 2023, there are an estimated 718 million Christians from all denominations in Africa, and the majority of Africans are Christian.

According to a 2006 Pew Forum on Religion and Public life study, 147 million African Christians were "renewalists" (Pentecostals and Charismatics). According to David Barrett, most of the 552,000 congregations in 11,500 denominations throughout Africa in 1995 are completely unknown in the West. Much of the recent Christian growth in Africa is now due to indigenous African missionary work and evangelism and high birth rates, rather than European missionaries. Christianity in Africa shows tremendous variety, from the ancient forms of Oriental Orthodox Christianity in Egypt, Ethiopia, and Eritrea to the newest African-Christian denominations of Nigeria, a country that has experienced large conversion to Christianity in recent times. Several syncretistic and messianic sections have formed throughout much of the continent, including the Nazareth Baptist Church in South Africa and the Aladura churches in Nigeria. Some evangelical missions founded in Africa such as the UD-OLGC, founded by Evangelist Dag Heward-Mills, are also quickly spreading in influence all around the world. There are also fairly widespread populations of Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses. A 2015 study estimated 2.1 million Christians in Africa to be from a Muslim background, most of which belonged to some form of Protestantism.

Some experts predict the shift of Christianity's center from the European industrialized nations to Africa and Asia in modern times. Yale University historian Lamin Sanneh stated that "African Christianity was not just an exotic, curious phenomenon in an obscure part of the world, but that African Christianity might be the shape of things to come." The statistics from the World Christian Encyclopedia (David Barrett) illustrate the emerging trend of dramatic Christian growth on the continent and supposes, that in 2025 there will be 633 million Christians in Africa.

The rise of the megachurch

Megachurches (defined as churches with weekend attendances of at least 2,000) are found in many countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, including Tanzania, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda. They are mostly of Pentecostal denominations. The largest church auditorium, Glory Dome, was inaugurated in 2018 with 100,000 seats, in Abuja, Nigeria.

Statistics by country

Main article: Christianity by country

Christianity by country

Country	Christians	% Christian	% Catholic	% Others	GDP/Capita PPP World Bank 2012
Algeria (details)	380,000	2%	1%	1%	8,515
Angola (details)	17,094,000	75%	50%	25%	6,105
Benin (details)	3,943,000	42.8%	27%	15%	1,583
Botswana (details)	1,416,000	71.6%	5%	66%	16,986
Burkina Faso (details)	3,746,000	22.0%	18%	4%	1,513
Burundi (details)	7,662,000	75.0%	60%	15%	560
Cameroon (details)	13,390,000	65.0%	38.4%	26.3%	2,324
Cape Verde (details)	487,000	89.1%	78.7%	10.4%	4,430
Central African Republic (details)	2,302,000	80%	29%	51%	857
Chad (details)	4,150,000	35.0%	20%	15%	1,493
Comoros (details)	15,000	2.1%			1,230
Congo, Republic of (details)	3,409,000	90.7%	50%	40%	4,426
Congo, Democratic Republic of (details)	63,150,000	92%	50%	42%	422
Djibouti (details)	53,000	6.0%	1%	5%	2,784
Egypt (details)	10,000,000	10%			6,723
Equatorial Guinea (details)	683,000	88.7%	80.7%	8.0%	30,233
Eritrea (details)	2,871,000	63%	4%	54%	566
Ethiopia (details)	52,580,000	64%	0.7%	63.4%	1,139
Gabon (details)	1,081,000	88.0%	41.9%	46.1%	16,086
Gambia (details)	79,000	4.2%			1,948
Ghana (details)	19,300,000	71.2%	13.1%	58.1%	2,048
Guinea (details)	1,032,000	8.9%	5%	5%	1,069
Guinea-Bissau (details)	165,000	10.0%	10.0%		1,192
Ivory Coast (details)	7,075,000	32.8%	28.9%	3.9%	2,039
Kenya (details)	34,774,000	85.1%	23.4%	61.7%	1,761
Lesotho (details)	1,876,000	90.0%	45%	45%	1,963
Liberia (details)	1,391,000	85.5%		85.5%	655
Libya (details)	170,000	2.7%	0.5%	1.5%	17,665
Madagascar (details)	8,260,000	41.0%			978
Malawi (details)	12,538,000	79.9%			902
Mali (details)	348,000	2.4%			1,214
Mauritania (details)	10,000	0.14%			2,603
Mauritius (details)	418,000	32.2%			15,649
Morocco (details)	336,000	1%			5,193
Mozambique (details)	13,121,000	56.1%	28.4%	27.7%	1,024
Namibia (details)	1,991,000	90.0%	13.7%	76.3%	7,488
Niger (details)	85,000	0.5%		5%	665
Nigeria (details)	74,400,000-107,000,000	40%- 58%	10–14,5%	30–43,5%	6,204
Rwanda (details)	9,619,000	93.6%	56.9%	26%	1,354
Senegal (details)	570,000	4.2%			1,944
Seychelles (details)	80,000	94.7%	82%	15.2%	27,008
Sierra Leone (details)	619,000-1,294,000	10%-20.9%			1,359
Somalia (details)	1,000	0.01%	0.0002%	0.01%
South Africa (details)	43,090,000	79.8%	5%	75%	11,440
South Sudan (details)	6,010,000	60.5%	30%	30%
Sudan (details)	525,000	1.5%
Tanzania (details)	31,342,000	61.4%			1,601
Togo (details)	1,966,000	29.0%			1,051
Tunisia (details)	30,000
Uganda (details)	29,943,000	88.6%	41.9%	46.7%	1,352
Western Sahara (details)	200	0.04%	0.04%
Zambia (details)	12,939,000	95.5%	20.2%	72.3%	1712
Zimbabwe (details)	12,500,000	87.0%	17%	63%	559
Africa	526,016,926	62.7%	21.0%	41.7%	-

Denominations

Main article: List of Christian denominations by number of members

Christianity largest groups in Africa

Pew projected that 53% of Africa's population would be Christian in 2020. Estimates of Christians on the continent range up to eight hundred million.

Catholicism

Roman Catholic

Main article: Catholic Church in Africa

Catholic Church membership rose from 2 million in 1900 to 140 million in 2000. In 2005, the Catholic Church in Africa, including Eastern Catholic Churches, was followed by approximately 135 million of the 809 million people in Africa. In 2009, when Pope Benedict XVI visited Africa, it was estimated at 158 million. Most belong to the Latin Church, but there are also millions of members of the Eastern Catholic Churches.

Orthodoxy

Oriental Orthodoxy

See also: Oriental Orthodox Churches

• Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church – 37 million
• Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria – 10 million
• Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church – 2 million

Eastern Orthodoxy

See also: Eastern Orthodoxy

• Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria – 500 000

Protestantism

In 2010, Pew estimated that there were around 300 million Protestants in Sub Saharan Africa. Other estimates range from four to five hundred million. Protestantism is the largest Christian group in Africa, with 35.9% (more than a half) in sub-Saharan Africa. Protestant have grown to 35.9% of the whole population of the continent. Studies have suggested there are an estimated two hundred million evangelicals and charismatics in Africa. The three countries with more Protestant population are: Nigeria with 60 million (37.7% of the population), Kenya with 48 million (84% of the population), and South Africa with 24 million (47.7% of the population), these three countries add up to around 121 million Protestants. There are an estimated 60 million Anglicans and 23 million Lutherans in Africa. There are also approximately 29 million Baptists and another 25 million Methodists on the continent. Presbyterians in Africa are estimated to number more than twenty million. About 12 million Africans are Adventists.

Largest Protestant traditions in Africa

Anglicanism

See also: Anglicanism

• Church of Nigeria – 20.1 million
• Church of Uganda – 8.1 million
• Anglican Church of Kenya – 5.0 million
• Episcopal Church of South Sudan and Sudan – 4.5 million
• Anglican Church of Southern Africa – 2.3 million
• Anglican Church of Tanzania – 2.0 million
• Anglican Church of Rwanda – 1.0 million
• Church of the Province of Central Africa – 900,000
• Anglican Church of Burundi – 800,000
• Church of Christ in Congo–Anglican Community of Congo – 500,000
• Church of the Province of West Africa – 300,000
• Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church of South Africa – 90,000

Baptists

See also: Baptists

• Nigerian Baptist Convention – 5.0 million
• Baptist Union of Uganda – 2.5 million
• Baptist Community of Congo – 2.1 million
• Baptist Convention of Tanzania – 2.0 million
• Baptist Community of the Congo River – 1.1 million
• Baptist Convention of Kenya – 600,000
• Baptist Convention of Malawi – 300,000
• Ghana Baptist Convention – 300,000
• Union of Baptist Churches in Rwanda – 300,000
• Evangelical Baptist Church of the Central African Republic – 200,000

Catholic Apostolic Church (Irvingism)

See also: Catholic Apostolic Church

• New Apostolic Church – 16 million

Lutheranism

Lutheranism in Africa represent 24.13 million people.

• Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus – 8.3 million
• Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania – 6.5 million
• Malagasy Lutheran Church – 3.0 million
• The Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria – 2.2 million
• Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia – 700,000
• Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa – 600,000
• Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia – 400,000
• Evangelical Lutheran Church of Cameroon – 300,000
• Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe – 300,000

Methodism

See also: Methodism

With over 20 denominations in the continent, World Methodist Council has 17.08 million members in the whole continent.

• Methodist Church Nigeria – 2 million
• Methodist Church of Southern Africa – 1.7 million
• United Methodist Church of Ivory Coast – 1.08 million
• Methodist Church Ghana – 800,000
• Methodist Church in Kenya – 500,000
• The United Methodist Church in Liberia – 350,000
• Free Methodist church in Congo– 110,000

Reformed (Calvinism)

See also: Calvinism

• Presbyterian Church of East Africa – 4.0 million
• Presbyterian Church of Nigeria – 3.8 million
• Presbyterian Church of Africa – 3.4 million
• Church of Christ in Congo–Presbyterian Community of Congo – 2.5 million
• Presbyterian Church of Cameroon – 1.8 million
• Church of Central Africa Presbyterian – 1.3 million
• Presbyterian Church in Sudan – 1.0 million
• Presbyterian Church in Cameroon – 700,000
• Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana – 600,000
• Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa – 500,000
• Presbyterian Church in Rwanda – 300,000
• Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar – 3.5 million
• United Church in Zambia – 3.0 million
• Evangelical Church of Cameroon – 2.5 million
• Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) – 1.1 million
• Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa – 500,000
• Lesotho Evangelical Church – 300,000
• Christian Reformed Church of Nigeria – 300,000
• Reformed Church in Zambia – 300,000
• Evangelical Reformed Church in Angola – 200,000
• Church of Christ in the Sudan Among the Tiv – 200,000
• Evangelical Church of Congo – 200,000
• Evangelical Congregational Church in Angola – 900,000
• United Congregational Church of Southern Africa – 500,000

Pentecostalism

The population of Pentecostal Christians is around 202.29 million in 2015, being 35.32 percent of the continent's Christian population. A study estimated that there may be up to four hundred million Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians in Africa.

• Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church – 9 million
• Ethiopian Full Gospel Believers' Church – 4.5 million
• – 1 million
• General Council of the Assemblies of God Nigeria - 3.6 million
• Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa – 1.2 million
• Association of Pentecostal Churches of Rwanda – 1 million

Mennonites

See also: Mennonites

• Meserete Kristos Church – 470,000

Other evangelical groups

• Evangelical church of west africa – 5 million

Other Christian groups

There are approximately 97 million Christians in Africa independent from denominations.

African-initiated churches

60 million people are members of African-initiated churches.

• Zion Christian Church – 15 million
• Eternal Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim – 10 million
• Kimbanguist Church – 5.5 million
• Redeemed Christian Church of God – 5 million
• Church of the Lord (Aladura) – 3.6 million
• Council of African Instituted Churches – 3 million
• Church of Christ Light of the Holy Spirit – 1.4 million
• African Church of the Holy Spirit – 700,000
• African Israel Church Nineveh – 500,000

Restorationism

See also: Restorationism

• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – 600,000

See also

• African theology
• Afrikaner Calvinism
• Christianity and colonialism
• Christian mysticism in ancient Africa
• Roman Catholicism in Africa
• Traditional African religion

Further reading

• Cinnamon, John M. "Missionary expertise, social science, and the uses of ethnographic knowledge in colonial Gabon." History in Africa 33 (2006): 413-432. online
• Froise, Marjorie. Southern Africa : a factual portrait of the Christian Church in South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (1989) online
• Froise, Marjorie. World Christianity : South Central Africa : a factual portrait of the Christian church (1991) online
• Hastings, Adrian. A history of African Christianity, 1950-1975 (Cambridge University Press, 1979).
• Hastings Adrian. Church and mission in modern Africa (1967) online
• Hastings Adrian. The Church in Africa, 1450–1950 (Clarendon, 1995). online
• Isichei, Elizabeth (22 February 1995). A History of Christianity in Africa: From Antiquity to the Present. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4674-2081-5.
• Lamport, Mark A. ed. Encyclopedia of Christianity in the global south (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018)
• Latourette, Kenneth Scott. The Great Century: North Africa and Asia 1800 A.D. to 1914 A.D. (A History of The Expansion of Christianity, Volume 5) (1943), Comprehensive scholarly coverage. full text online also online review;
• Latourette, Kenneth Scott (1944). The Great Century In Northern Africa And Asia AD 1800 AD 1914 Volume VI in A history of the expansion of Christianity. Retrieved 8 May 2024. online review
• Latourette, Kenneth Scott. The twentieth century outside Europe : the Americas, the Pacific, Asia, and Africa : the emerging world Christian community (1962) online
• Meyer, Birgit. "Christianity in Africa: From African independent to Pentecostal-charismatic churches." Annual Review of Anthropology 33 (2004): 447-474. online
• Neill, Stephen. A History of Christian Missions (1986), Global coverage over 19 centuries in 624 pages; online book also see. online review
• Ranger, T.O. and John Weller, eds. Themes in the Christian history of Central Africa (1975) online

Historiography and memory

• Bongmba, Elias Kifon. "Writing African Christianity: Perspectives from the History of the Historiography of African Christianity." Religion and Theology 23.3-4 (2016): 275-312. online
• Etherington. Norman. "Recent Trends in the Historiography of Christianity in Southern Africa" in Critical Readings in The History of Christian Mission: volume 3" ed by Martha Frederiks and Dorottya Nagy. (Brill, 2021) pp 39–66.
• Hastings, Adrian. "African Christian studies, 1967-1999: Reflections of an editor." Journal of religion in Africa 30#1 (2000): 30-44. online
• Maluleke, Tinyiko Sam. "The Quest for Muted Black Voices in History: Some Pertinent Issues in (South) African Mission Historiography" in Critical Readings in The History of Christian Mission: volume 3" ed by Martha Frederiks and Dorottya Nagy. (Brill, 2021) pp 95–115.
• Maxwell, David. "Writing the history of African Christianity: Reflections of an editor." Journal of religion in Africa 36.3-4 (2006): 379-399.

External links

• BBC - The Story of Africa and Christianity
• African Christian
• African Christianity Faq
• Modern Evangelical African Theologians: A Primer