Challenge: Substantial minority of Catholic African Americans?

Yes, I knew some Africans(like Ethiopians) were Christian. And I don't discuss you about the early conversion of the rulers of Kongo. Rulers who converted to a religion different to the people's one was not uncommon back then. The Norse kings did so, the Saxons, the Lithuanians, and some others I don't remember now.

But what I am intending to say is that most of the common people, were not Catholics. Today, just like 55% of the population is Catholic, and a big share of it is mainly because of Portuguese missionaries in the XIX and XX Centuries. So if 10 slaves were captured in Angola in lets say 1650, the most probable thing is at most that 1 or 2 of them were Catholic while the rest were not.

Unlike the Baltic pagan kingdoms however, the Congolese were an extensively centralized empire. The heart of Kongo was M'banza-Kongo, and the heart of the capitol was the emperor. A more apt comparison might have been China; where while there was one, strongly predominant, state ideology numerous, smaller, philosophies were allowed to flourish underfoot. Thus, using your example, if ten slaves were captured in Kongo in 1650, 7-8 of them would be Roman Catholic (more appropriately Congolese Catholic), while the rest would likely have some sort of polytheistic African faith (likely of the Luba-Lunda-Kuba cultural sphere, which by 1650 was heavily involved in the process of being assimilated by Kongo).

Actually you indirectly raise an important point; where are these slaves going to be taken from? If the Portuguese, Dutch and then further Europeans ITTL continue to trade with the Congolese for slaves on a standard of relative equals, using the Congolese rules, laws and traditions governing slavery, then the majority of slaves sent to the Americas will be traditional African polytheists and animist of one flavor or another. However if, as IOTL, relations break down and the European powers come to be dominant in the region than slave raids into core Kongo territory are likely (as happened OTL), which would result in numerous Catholic slaves sent to the new world (which happened quite predominately with Portuguese-captured Congolese sent to Brazil).

Roman Catholicism has actually decreased in the areas that made up the former Kongo state, as decolonialism took place, weakening Catholic (colonial) institutions and Protestant and Muslim missionaries moved in to fill the religious power vacuum. Another prominent issue though is that only the Northern edge of Angola constituted the former Congolese state, thus making it difficult to get appropriate numbers to compare and contrast for the former Kingdom's territories today with what they were in the 15th, 16th & 17th centuries. The Cabinda exclave, the southern half of the Republic of the Congo, and the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo all were formally apart of the Kingdom of Kongo.

Again, to the OP, simply have more African slaves transported to America from Angola and the Kongo Empire. This could mean a strong Songhai in West Africa reducing European presence, or a general lack of European penetration into Africa itself, or a multitude of other PODs, but if you want predominantly Catholic African Americans with a pre-1900 POD this will be the way to go.
 
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