Your challenge is to have the Ghana Empire go Christian and the Kingdom of Kongo go Muslim, rather than the other way around as OTL.
AHC: Muslim Kongo, Christian Ghana
- Thread starter Mort the Reaper
- Start date
I think this is kinda hard to do as long as the Maghreb converts to Islam since the Amazigh are naturally going to have trade links with West Africa like the Ghana Empire/Wagadou. Therefore, Morocco remains Catholic in this scenario which would allow Christian proselytizing to occur.
Meanwhile, the Arab Trade Route would have to be far more extensive past the Cape in order for the Muslims to trade with the Kongo tribes or the unified Kongo Kingdom and I don't know if they are willing to move past Kilwa if there weren't stories about riches past the Cape, so an earlier unification of Kongo might be needed to encourage trade from the East Coast w/ Arab and Swahili traders.
Meanwhile, the Arab Trade Route would have to be far more extensive past the Cape in order for the Muslims to trade with the Kongo tribes or the unified Kongo Kingdom and I don't know if they are willing to move past Kilwa if there weren't stories about riches past the Cape, so an earlier unification of Kongo might be needed to encourage trade from the East Coast w/ Arab and Swahili traders.
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There was contact (limited but still) between Kongo and the Swahili coast, though it was cross-continental by land rather than by sea.
If the Roman Empire had greater trans-saharan contact we could see parts of West Africa adopting a kind of christianity, and when the early caliphate conquers north africa this may lead to an ethiopia-like situation with an isolated christian kingdom, which could be Ghana, surrounded by muslims.
Osman Aga
Banned
You are giving us a real challenge... Ghana was isolated and only in contact with the Muslims of North Africa, rather than Iberian Christians...
The Kingdom of Kongo lay on a route the Portuguese followed and converted to Christianity due to Portuguese influence. Unless Morocco has a good reason to follow that route and is faster than Portugal, this too is unlikely...
I see a way for Ghana to become Christian... The Muslims never move beyond Cyrenaica and the Maghreb remains Christian and thus converts the Ghanese Empire. But a Christian Morocco would also kill any success of converting the Kingdom of Kongo to Islam.
The Kingdom of Kongo converts to Islam after Merinid Morocco also explores the Sea by the end of the 14th century (effectively blocking Portugal beyond the Canary Islands).
Both states changing their religion to the other is in my honest view: impossible.
I try this:
The first clashes between the Believers and the Christian Makurians and Alodians are a success for the Muslim side around 650. This redirects their expansion route down the Nile. Ifriqiya eventually gets conquered but the Far West does not and falls instead under Visigothic hegemony. The longer lasting Amazigh states of the Atlas however still pick up camel husbandry in a major way (it was present before the Arabs anyway) and operate trans-saharan routes. Some of them introduce Christianity to Ghana. Maybe the Arabs finally reach the Atlantic, but this takes longer and Ghana, isolated, clings to Christianity. Meanwhile Islam keeps spreading down the Nile, in the Great lakes and along the Congo. Central Africa integrates in a Islamicate trade system between the Lakes and the Swahili Coast and connecting North to Nubia and Egypt, South to Zimbabwe and West along the river ultimately to Congo, which converts under the influence of Mangbetu Muslim traders coming downstream sometime around 1250.
The first clashes between the Believers and the Christian Makurians and Alodians are a success for the Muslim side around 650. This redirects their expansion route down the Nile. Ifriqiya eventually gets conquered but the Far West does not and falls instead under Visigothic hegemony. The longer lasting Amazigh states of the Atlas however still pick up camel husbandry in a major way (it was present before the Arabs anyway) and operate trans-saharan routes. Some of them introduce Christianity to Ghana. Maybe the Arabs finally reach the Atlantic, but this takes longer and Ghana, isolated, clings to Christianity. Meanwhile Islam keeps spreading down the Nile, in the Great lakes and along the Congo. Central Africa integrates in a Islamicate trade system between the Lakes and the Swahili Coast and connecting North to Nubia and Egypt, South to Zimbabwe and West along the river ultimately to Congo, which converts under the influence of Mangbetu Muslim traders coming downstream sometime around 1250.