AHC: Wicca is popular in Africa

ASB essentially.

Religion in the modern world does'nt just spread, you have to have Missionaries or a colonial power enforcing the religion, which is why Sub-Saharan Africa is predominantly Christian (traditional and Syncretic).

Wicca developed long after that aspect of Colonialism was gone and Africa was in the middle of becoming independent and has never had the kind of support to allow it to propogate or the numbers for that matter.
 
ASB essentially.

Religion in the modern world does'nt just spread, you have to have Missionaries or a colonial power enforcing the religion, which is why Sub-Saharan Africa is predominantly Christian (traditional and Syncretic).

Wicca developed long after that aspect of Colonialism was gone and Africa was in the middle of becoming independent and has never had the kind of support to allow it to propogate or the numbers for that matter.

You can have missionaries without a colonial power behind them. Hell, there are Evangelicals all over Latin America. Mormons in Europe, Muslims in America...


So, an sect of Wiccan, that adopts the idea of Missionaries...
 
The problem is that Wiccans are essentially a post-Christian group. Their mindset is something built upon a fundamentally Christian view of the world - I can't see Wicca taking hold among real Pagans.
 
I did it for Tibet: https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=203455
But Africa is a bit harder. I could see it becoming very limitedly popular in South Africa, bu the rest of the continent is way too difficult. In the north, Islam is very well established, everywhere else they'd have to compete with various Christian and Muslim missionaries who have way more backing. Given the common beliefs about witchcraft in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa Africa, I can't see a religion that embraces the idea becoming very popular. Particularly a religion based so strongly in`Germanic-Celtic folkdom and European esotericism.
 
Hey guy, the 'Voodoo' religions, being way culturaly closer to Africa - it's syncretism with african traditional religions, after all... - have way more chance...

I see a Candomblé mission to Angola, Mozambique et Cape Verde more likely.
 
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ASB for two reasons:

1.) Wicca draws its inspiration primarily from European cosmologies and mythoses (is that a word?) which, while having some very basic similarities (animistic polytheism, ancestor worship, unique mystical practices), is coming from a lot of different assumptions and circumstances than African practice. The most important difference there is African folk religion was never completely wiped out in the same way as European folk religions so the end result is in Africa there are surviving folk practices whereas Wicca and the other Neo-Pagan faiths are all modern reconstructions.

2.) Wiccans and Neo-Pagans in general are pretty strongly opposed to proselytization with most of them citing this as a major pet peeve with the Abrahamic religions. This is part of why the Neo-Pagan faiths, while growing at a pretty solid clip over the last two decades, have largely spread slowly, organically, and mostly remained outside of the mainstream as a result. I'm willing to bet at their peak the Hare Krishnas, who do proselytize, had more people in the US than there are open practicing Pagans present day. The flip side is the Hare Kirshnas aren't as big as they used to be whereas the Pagans have kept on chugging so there are pluses and minuses to both mindsets from an AH perspective.

For Wicca to become big in Africa it would need to be invented in Africa with an explicitly African basis. I think seeing the rise of a local variant of Voudon would be much more likely than a massive rise of Wicca. Maybe if you tie a "back to your roots" approach to spirituality with the anti-colonial movement you could get the necessary circumstances to make that happen.
 
You can have missionaries without a colonial power behind them. Hell, there are Evangelicals all over Latin America. Mormons in Europe, Muslims in America...

Yes, and those religions are all huge, numbering in the millions, and have atleast a core Homaeland where they make-up the majority, where-as their is no polity on Earth that's majority or even plurality Wiccan and overall their are less than a million Wiccans in the world, and the farther you go back the number drops drastically.


So, an sect of Wiccan, that adopts the idea of Missionaries...

Wicca is not an organized religion, it does'nt have sects, it's a series of related beliefs that are practiced individually or by small like-minded groups.
 
Wicca is not an organized religion, it does'nt have sects, it's a series of related beliefs that are practiced individually or by small like-minded groups.

This. It's not an organized religion in any sense of the word, hell I don't even think there is a common doctrine of belief. You need a centralized structure with dedicated missionaries and most importantly money to spread major religions and Wiccan has neither :/
 
This. It's not an organized religion in any sense of the word, hell I don't even think there is a common doctrine of belief. You need a centralized structure with dedicated missionaries and most importantly money to spread major religions and Wiccan has neither :/

There are common practices and precepts which are observed by all Wiccans even if their observance is by their deviation from them. Like all of the Neo-Pagan faiths Wicca places its emphasis on orthopraxy, right practice, over orthodoxy, right thought. I think the bigger stumbling blocks are the small population and the fact that Wiccans, and Pagans in general, tend to inhabit the lower rungs of the economic ladder greatly limiting available resources.
 
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