Buddhism in East Africa?

Mongol and Kalmyk had buddhism and monastery, some monastery even nomadic.

Kushan in Afghan also worship buddhism

Celtic Ireland managed develop christian monasticism while lacking cities.

Monasticism can develop even in odd place, there are no need of cities for monastery.

These are good points to bring up, but it's important to note how they are different from this situation.

Buddhism was already a major religion when the Mongols, Kalmyks, and Kushans converted. There were already huge communities in India and China for them to encounter and convert. There won't be any in Africa. Those wandering monks are by themselves.

Similarly for Celtic Christianity in Ireland. Europe and Britain were already Christian. Indeed, the reason monasticism succeeded there was because it was a better alternative to the city/diocese base of the bishopric model for the Irish. But it was in constant contact with the much larger Christian communities across the sea. So it does give an example of monasticism as not a reaction to worldly urbanism, but I don't think it's strongly applicable to this discussion.

Furthermore, all these areas were far more rich than East Africa. East Africa has an extremely high incidence of disease since man evolved there and the local pathogens involved with it. The people there are cut off from most trade and technological and cultural exchange. There won't be repeated interactions with Buddhist culture. People are going to be much more concerned about survival than listening to monks talk about the 4 Noble Truths and give up all these distractions so you can find nirvana.

This is why I said that if Buddhism is to succeed, you need to greatly increase the actual amount of trade and interaction than what the original poster suggested (some Buddhist monks arrive in Zanzibar and somehow a successful monastery which converts the Bantus).

The Swahilis and Arabs Muslims develop many cities in East Africa. Mombassa, Kilwa, Malindi, etc. Some cities even exist pre-muslim era. Earlier and developed trade with India will create the same cities.

I am not an expert on African history, but I don't think the coastal settlements really count as cities before the arrival of Muslim trade. If I'm wrong, I'd love to know where I could read about this. The Periplus of the Erathyean Sea gives lot of Africa ports in the Red Sea, but very few south of the Horn of Africa. Are these actually "cities" or simply small towns with good natural harbors? There's a big difference. A small town doesn't have the same "dehumanzing" or "wordly" impact that living in cities do.

I think it's more accurate to say that the increase in Muslim trade in the region propelled city formation. Mombassa was founded around AD 900. Wikipedia states that Persians settled in Zanzibar early enough to found a Zoroastrian temple, but doesn't give any indication to size or importance.

Plus, if we are talking about the original post, Buddhism must arrive before the Bantu migration which is substantial. Bantu moved there around 500 BC to AD 100. That is just around the creation and spread of Buddhism in India. There won't be many settlements there at all during that time.

For Buddhism to convert East Africa, we need to boost interaction between Africa and India A LOT.
 
I am maybe an ignorant, but east Africa to see seems better than west africa, well, from Congo and around - no huge and 'unclean' jungles full of diseases and all..
 
I'm not so sure. Perhaps the East African coast might be more developed, but there's no guarantee that the Buddhist presence will really push past the barriers of sleeping sickness and malaria into the hinterland.

Depends. This issue wouldn't matter as much in say, Southern Africa, as it would in Central. I could see an Indian power getting to Namibia without malaria becoming a huge issue, though they probably wouldn't bother trying.

Even if it does, there's no guarantee that the people there will be at all interested in Buddhism.

This largely depends on who does the proselytising. Christianity wasn't particularly popular, but it still took hold among the Southern Africans.

For that matter, there's no guarantee that a Buddhist power would treat Africa any better than the Christian and Islamic powers did IOTL.

True. But that's not what we're discussing. We're saying: if the Indians managed to become an expansionary maritime power, and got stronger trade relations with Africa, would the Africans convert to Buddhism?

My answer: probably not. Firstly, expansionary Indians are going to focus more on China and South East Asia than they are on Africa. Africa-India relations are going to be pretty friendly. What would end up happening is African religions would end up adopting Buddhist elements. There might be some monks that set up, might have Africans adopting Asian martial arts, but its going to be primarily cursory.
 
might have Africans adopting Asian martial arts, but its going to be primarily cursory.

Who the what now? I can't say I find this very likely. Africans were doing well at warfare by themselves without Asian martial arts, I don't think this would be the one cultural element they would adopt. With increased contact with Asia, they would probably by Asian versions of what they got from Arab and European merchants, such as guns and items for personal decoration.
 
Because Ethiopia was one of the countries that historically resisted colonialism, more of the area could have?

Ethiopia had links with Yemen.... easy way to get Buddhism in Africa there perhaps - if Yemen is converted, Ethiopia may be.

OR, if it enters by the Mediteranea, and Egypt is converted, down to modern Sudan - it's how Christianism entered Ethiopia if I am right - Coptic links.

Monastism can exist in Africa - christian monastism was created in *Egypt*, and there is monasteries in Ethiopian church, if I am right.
 
Monastism can exist in Africa - christian monastism was created in *Egypt*, and there is monasteries in Ethiopian church, if I am right.

In Ethiopia and Egypt, which are out of the worst disease zones due to latitude and altitude and have unique environments which allow the growth of a lot of excess food (supporting a large population) even with pre-modern technology.
 
The earliest possible POD would be in 304-232 with Asoka sending out Missionaries. I've done a ton of Religious TLs so its within a reasonable stretch.

Especially considering the Ethiopian Civilization was focused on Axum which was out of the hillands and disease zone of Modern Ethiopia and more focused in Eritrea along the coastland.
 
I was considering having a Buddhist settlement being founded near Rhapta, IIRC is a trading hub, I believe. If they intergrate properly, the Indian Buddhist would merge with the local Africans. If they were smart, the Buddhists would bring along seeds and begin farming the land.
 
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