Christianity came to Africa during the first century in Alexandria by Mark The Evangelist. To elaborate, at the year 46 C.E Mark, who is one of the four apostles, arrived to Alexandria in his advent to Africa. Subsequently, the seeds for Christianity was planted. Although it was first stagnant, it eventually formed into one of Africa’s most prolific religion. On the account of that, Christianity had a grand influence on African politics, economy,trade, and conflict. Consequently, Christianity altered African society. In other words, Christianity through clouting African politics, economy, trade, and conflict, impacted the African society.
Christianity reconstructed African politics and governments through conversion of kings to Christianity,
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Even if you consider the impact the Kings had, you would still have to understand why these societies didn’t bring out a mutiny against their kings. The reason is because of the similarity Christianity had with their indigenous religions. The two Kingdoms already possessed a monotheistic religion. However, the deity they worshiped was vague and ambiguous. They simply believed that Christianity was an extension of their religions, yet in more detail and specification. For the purpose of comprehending their religion, society integrated and annexed Christianity into their lives. In brief, whole societies were baptized to Christianity due to their superiors believing in Christianity. Furthermore, there weren’t much intransigence due to already corresponding similarities in Christianity and their indigenous …show more content…
Beginning from Mark’s first church in Alexandria, persecutions towards Christians were ubiquitous. Conversely, the residents of Alexandria, differing from the residents of Axum and Kongo, were resistant towards Christian beliefs. Furthermore, Emperor Decius and the succeeding emperors prohibited individuals from baptizing to Christianity. Consequently, many departed towards the Saharan desert and East to Ethiopia. To combat the persecutions, that spanned from 64 to 311 C.E, the final action taken was the establishment of the Catechetical Schools of Alexandria. Subsequently, Christianity was spreading to rest of Africa, mainly due to those who have left Alexandra and its persecutions. On the account of that, Christianity was opposed by other indigenous religious. However, the final result was a syncretism between Animism and Christianity. From time to time, persecutions were performed and conflict heightened. Eventually, Christianity had inundated to other fragments of Africa. However, Christianity had another major religion that opposed it. Without delay, Islam commenced its spread to Africa. Adjacent to Christianity, Christianity’s first major contender was the Umayyad Caliphate. Converse to Christianity, Islam spread by the Umayyad Caliphate through conquest and warfare. During the 7th century, the conventional belief was that
As the world of trade developed over time, goods were not the only things that were traded throughout these routes. With the merchants that traveled the world, were the ideals and religions that had learned from foreign lands, and the major religions of Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, spread like wildfire throughout the regions of Eurasia and Africa because of this. The spread of Islam throughout the continent of Africa acted as a major influence both politically and socially. After 1600, Islam began to make its mark on the newly centralized states in Africa and was spread through western land trade, and through merchants on the Swahili coast. The major gold trading center of the Kingdom of Ghana, attracted merchants, and was a center for the Muslim community . By the 10th century, the kings of Ghana had converted to Islam in order to improve the relation between the kings and merchants. The early converts of Central and West Africa did not e...
Some common themes of 17th-19th century African social and political history span these three stories despite their distinct historical contexts and characteristics. In each society, warlords vied for control without being able to unify small disintegrating states, and political strife led to social mobility and fed the slave trade with war captives (Lovejoy, 68-70). The struggle between competing definitions of orthodoxy and orthopraxy became crucially important when religious causes were allied with political causes, especially seen in the cases of Beatriz and Uthman. Another common feature, best illustrated in Guimba’s story, is the tradition African belief that spiritual power, whatever its source, is good when used in the interests of the community, but bad when used for personal gain (Thornton, 43-44).
...l and perceptive way for rulers to unite empires and spread their society to other regions. The religion of Christianity, in itself, holds a number of assimilations with local pagan rituals that allowed for a much smoother transition. People tended to take the religion of the successful or more advanced civilizations because of logical areas as promoting trade and unifying their own neighbors, turning enemies into allies or possibly vassals. A further dissection of Christianity reveals that the ideas and precepts of this organization have striking similarities to that of other religions of the time. Although it should be noted that there is obviously no definitive answer on religion and it is the choice of the individual to follow their beliefs to their hearts content, but a bit of abstract observation and scrutiny is hardly a crime, at least in modern society.
Religion was and remains a vital part of the lives of most Africans. For some it encompassed their entire existence. It substantiated and explained their place in the universe, their culture, and their relationship to nature and humankind. It also dictated their roles in the community and society at large. Religion among most African ethnic groups was not simply a faith or worship system, it was a way of life, a system of social control, a provider of medicine, and an organizing mechanism.
Although, the Civil war brought about change for Africans, along with this change it brought heart ache, despair and restriction of worship to the African...
Christianity was predominantly in Europe and that is where the churches were built and flourished, “Christianity was established in Africa well before it reached Europe. Although Christianity was first confined to the early churches in Egypt and Ethiopia, historians record that it was the Portuguese who converted the Kongo people in the area around the mouth of the Congo River, for soon after the colonizers came the missionaries” (Heale, 82). Therefor the missionaries like Nathaniel Price were aiming to keep the history of this religion in the Congo alive and not just to simply vacate their newfounded beliefs and customs. The local traditions were also a part of christianity in Africa, “However, African Christianity ultimately developed its own special character in which local traditions played a role. This religion has had a profound effect on the social and political development of modern Africa. Today, membership in Christian churches is growing faster in Africa than anywhere else in the world” (Haley). Perhaps Nathaniel was simply trying to achieve this ideal community with a diverse culture and religion, yet it was not successful by any
Imagine a group of foreign people invading your home, disavowing all your beliefs, and attempting to convert you to a religion you have never heard of. This was the reality for thousands and thousands of African people when many Europeans commenced the Scramble for Africa during the period of New Imperialism. A great fiction novel written by Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, highlights the responses to missionaries by African people. The African natives responded to the presence of white missionaries with submission to their desires, strategic responses to counteract them, and with the most disruptive response of violence.
Despite the white’s forcing, the natives hanged on to their religion because they believed in their religion greatly and the Great Spirit. They also despised Christianity because the whites practiced it upon them; thus they defined Christianity by the white’s actions and attitude. The natives are hurt from the whites and treasure their religion
In conclusion, it is important to realize that it was not one single factor which was responsible for the spread of Christianity, all these figures came together to give the perfect platform for a new religion to develop, " Never before in the history of the race had conditions been so ready for the adoption of a new faith by the majority of the peoples of so large an area" (K.S Latourette).
In conclusion, it is clear that the coming of Christianity to Africa was not greeted with open arms. While it granted Africans the chance to acquire new teachings, it also insinuated itself within politics, family, and traditions, utterly destroying them from the inside out. Having been detailed within novels by Achebe, Oyono, and Thiong’o, it is easy to see how these “pacifying” roles eventually led to a total conquest for all of Africa.
Christianity in Africa is not a recent happening nor is it a product of colonialism if we go back to the very time of the apostle. Christianity in most area was confronted during the centuries after the struggle by Islam, the Christian religion suffered in some measure, but did not disappear. Christianity has been flourishing on the northern part of this continent for years before Islam was born. Christianity in North African seemed to have been well founded deeply entrenched and firmly led.
The spread of Islam in Africa had taken course from a number of factors, including external and internal forces. After my analyzing of the spread of Islam in Africa, I have gather three main themes that stuck out during the expansion of Islam: Islam and trade, the conversion conditions of Islam, and the economics/political development involving Islam. These three themes provide great insight on how Islam started to spread through out Africa. Through trade the culture and religion of Islam was spread to many different areas. This correlates to the conversion of different people, which helped spread Islam. By these conversions Islam was able to establish Islamic states, which played a factor in the development of strong economic and political
The conversion to Christianity took place when Christian supporters visited Africa during trading deals and Christianity was the source of commercial development in the African nation” (Bentley et al, 2008 p 297). Along with the arrival of Christianity, (Bentley et al, 2008 ) states that “Islam, also a religion of salvation, reached Africa via trade routes as well and that some merchants were fascinated by Islam’s cultural establishment, which enable them to conduct business relationships with other Muslim merchants” (p 297). While Christianity established a foothold in the African kingdom, (AllAboutReligion, 2010) points out that “The spread of Christianity throughout Egypt and Northern Africa… was rapid and intense… “(para 3).
The spread of Islam throughout the African continent was predominantly influenced by the trading routes in North and East Africa. While Islam was very influential in the political and economic sphere of these areas, many of the original practices and traditions of Africa remained. The dominant people who facilitated the spread of Islam throughout the continent were the elite of Africa, such as the kings, and the traders themselves. While the spread of religion is typically looked at as a spreading of faith or a way to exclude yourself from warring nations, Africa’s conversion to Islam was incredibly economical and political. Primary sources from the time period, like Meadows of Gold, serve to further highlight how the effects of trade and commerce were able to have so much impact on the spread of Islam throughout the continent.
To conclude, power was too fragmented in the Roman empire and the different emperors each had their own unique ways of dealing with Christians. Also, they had many problems to deal with including dynastic threats and foreign incursions. As a result, the Roman Empire simply did not have the resources to successfully stop the proliferation of Christianity. Instead, the persecutions inspired Christians to defend their faith and became a testament to the strength of the Christian faith. As a result, the persecutions helped spread and form a foundation for Christianity to grow.