The spread of Islam in North Africa came with the expansion of Arab empire under Caliph Umar, through the Sinai Peninsula. Hindus came to South Africa as indentured laborers in the 19th century. Other religions found in Africa have their origins in other parts of the world. [20], Christianity is now one of the most widely practiced religions in Africa along with Islam and is the largest religion in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the first few centuries of Christianity, Africa produced many figures who had a major influence outside the continent, including St Augustine of Hippo, St Maurice, Origen, Tertullian, and three Roman Catholic popes (Victor I, Miltiades and Gelasius I), as well as the Biblical characters Simon of Cyrene and the Ethiopian eunuch baptised by Philip the Evangelist. [46], A Gallup poll shows that the irreligious comprise 20% in South Africa, 16% in Botswana, 13% in Mozambique, 13% in Togo, 12% in Côte d'Ivoire, 10% in Ethiopia and Angola, 9% in Sudan, Zimbabwe and Algeria, 8% in Namibia and 7% in Madagascar. Ranger, T. O. A religion is defined as a system of faith or worship. [23] Some experts predict the shift of Christianity's center from the European industrialized nations to Africa and Asia in modern times. Key Facts For the period 2000-2013, Christianity grew fastest in Africa, with a rate of 2.68% p.a. Other traditions have the convert as a Jew who was a steward in the Queen's court. All three individual heads of the religion, Bahá'u'lláh, `Abdu'l-Bahá, and Shoghi Effendi, were in Africa at various times. Attributes: Province ID, Province Name, Country, Major Religion, Percentage of Christianity, Percentage of Major Religion, Data Quality Statement: The polygons are mainly from Natural Earth (ne_10m_admin_1_states_provinces.shp dated 8 August 2011) which had 3,560 polygons. Traditional African religion is still popular throughout Africa and stems from the beliefs of Central and West African ancestors. [clarification needed] All accounts do agree on the fact that the traveler was a member of the royal court who successfully succeeded in converting the Queen, which in turn caused a church to be built. Although the Bible refers to them as Ethiopians, scholars have argued that Ethiopia was a common term encompassing the area South-Southeast of Egypt. 9 August 2012. Christianity is divided into Eastern and Western theology, and within those divisions, six branches; Catholicism, Protestantism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, Oriental Orthodoxy, and Assyrians. Christianity is one the first rank in the list of most popular religions around the globe with more than 2.22 billion followers which is more than 31.5% of world’s entire population. People that practice Islam are known as Muslims. It was also estimated in 2002 that Christians form 45% of Africa's population, with Muslims forming 40.6%. More recently the roughly 2000[35] Baháʼís of Egypt have been embroiled in the Egyptian identification card controversy from 2006[36] through 2009. It originated on the Indian subcontinent and is widely practiced throughout Southeast Asia. Retrieved 29 October 2013. Beliefs vary based on religion. Buddhists have unique traditions, values, and beliefs, such as reincarnation. Basically, Islam dominates the North and East of the continent, while Christianity dominates the South and West, whith other native and folk religions … African Statistics Day marked across continent. Hinduism is the third-largest religion globally. [33] The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia) lists many large and smaller populations of Baháʼís in Africa[34] with Kenya (#3: 512,900), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (#5: 282,900), South Africa (#8: 238,500) and Zambia (#10: 190,400) among the top ten numerical populations of Baháʼís in the world in 2010, and Mauritius (#4: 1.8% of population) joining Zambia (#3: 1.8%) and Kenya (#10: 1.0%) in the top ten in terms of percentage of the national population. More than six-in-ten people in the region are Christians (63%), and three-in-ten are Muslims (30%). It was founded about 2000 years ago in Israel. Cambodia has the highest percentage of Buddhists at 96.9%, followed by Thailand at 93.2% and Myanmar with 87.90%. Currently, the majority of the population of most Central African, Southeast African, and Southern African nations embrace Christianity. [citation needed] Others state that the term syncretism is a vague one,[53] since it can be applied to refer to substitution or modification of the central elements of Christianity or Islam with beliefs or practices from somewhere else. The vast majority of Muslims in Africa are followers of Sunni Islam , belonging to either Maliki or Shafi schools of jurisprudence. In the commonwealth of Africa syncretism with indigenous beliefs is practiced throughout the region. In these nations, at least 95% of inhabitants identify as either Sunni or Shi'a Muslim: There are 50 Muslim-majority countries worldwide, or countries where over 50% of the population is Muslim. Then the map above is a good place to start. 119 of these we modified and then added a further 274 to make 3,834 polygons. What was the percentage share of intra-African export? "[14], The majority of Africans are adherents of Christianity or Islam. [citation needed] 45-64. About 507 million people practice Buddhism worldwide. Buddhism is a tiny religion in Africa with around 250,000 practicing adherents,[42] and up to nearly 400,000 [43] if combined with Taoism and Chinese Folk Religion as a common traditional religion of mostly new Chinese migrants (significant minority in Mauritius, Réunion, and South Africa).