The phenomenal rise of Christians in Africa
By Christophe Le Bec
3/1/2012
Christians in sub-Saharan Africa represent nearly a quarter of the world’s Christians, according to a study by the Pew Forum.
In 1910, only 1.4 percent of the world’s Christian population was African. A century down the line, Africans now make up 23.6 of Christendom.
Published on December 20 by Pew Forum, an American institute, the results of the new study seek to analyse the weight and influence of religion in society.
Its panel of experts alongside an impressive 2400 different sources saw the Pew Forum counting 516.5 million Christians in sub-Saharan Africa alone in 2010, up from 9 million a century earlier.
Nigeria (80.5 million Christians), DRC (63.1 million) and Ethiopia (52.6 million), which occupy sixth, eighth and tenth positions, respectively, worldwide, are among the ten countries with most Christian populations.
The first two places are held by the United States (247 million) and Brazil (176 million). The world total stands at around 2.2 billion.
Protestants in sub-Saharan African countries represent 35.9 percent of the continent’s Christians, 21.4 percent for Catholics and 4.9 percent for Orthodox Christians.
In traditionally Catholic countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Côte d’Ivoire and Madagascar, Protestant Christians are now the largest group.
Meanwhile in Ethiopia, the Orthodox Church’s stronghold since the fourth century, the Protestant population has risen sharply since the 1980s, reaching 19.2 percent of the population (43.5 percent for the Orthodox).
Christianity is now stronger outside the confines of its historical birthplace.
While the first churches were born in the Middle East and North Africa, these regions now only account for 0.6 percent of Christendom.
Protestants are twice as many in Nigeria (59.7 million) than in Germany, where Martin Luther began the Protestant Christian movement.
And Catholics in Central Africa (51.4 million) outnumber those in Italy (50.2 million).
In a previous report, the Pew Forum had reported a surge in sub-Saharan African Muslims. According to the institute, Islam had increased from 15 percent in 1910 to 29 percent in 2010.
Whilst monotheism is seemly growing at the expense of traditional religions, these studies do not take the widespread syncretic practices in Africa into account.
