Christian West Africa

That's not very fun. I assume the author would have preferred a earlier conversion rather than just some sort of massive ethnic demographic change( which can be applied anywhere, example: if we just said that half of the population of France moved to Saudi Arabia, Islam would no longer be the dominant religion, even though it is extremely implausible)there is very little reason for Europeans to move to the Sahel.

I'm not talking about genocide or population transfer! It's just simple missionary work. Take a look at two countries in areas that used to be muslim, Sierra Leone and Liberia, they were colonized by African-Americans in the beginning of the 19th century and today the Americans are a really small minority in these countries (less than 5%), however, Christians are probably a majority or a really important minority in these countries. It's not very fun, I admit, because it's the latest POD in history that I can see.
 
I'm not talking about genocide or population transfer! It's just simple missionary work. Take a look at two countries in areas that used to be muslim, Sierra Leone and Liberia, they were colonized by African-Americans in the beginning of the 19th century and today the Americans are a really small minority in these countries (less than 5%), however, Christians are probably a majority or a really important minority in these countries. It's not very fun, I admit, because it's the latest POD in history that I can see.


Sorry that I misunderstood you, I understand what you meant now. However I doubt places like Siera Leone and Liberia were solidly Muslim, however I do not have 100% knowledge on religious demographics of those areas and might put some study into it. That being said it is just as possible to say stuff like, make modern day evangelists more successful (who are still running around Africa till this day).
 
Sorry that I misunderstood you, I understand what you meant now. However I doubt places like Siera Leone and Liberia were solidly Muslim, however I do not have 100% knowledge on religious demographics of those areas and might put some study into it. That being said it is just as possible to say stuff like, make modern day evangelists more successful (who are still running around Africa till this day).

Indeed, but even a traditional Muslim country, such as Mali, has 5% of Christians and 5% traditional religions. In Indonesia you can also find substantial pockets of Christians even in Java or Sumatra. Missionary work in the 19th century wasn't as oppressive and omnipresent as the Catholic missions were in 16th-17th century Latin America, but they were pretty important in an Imperialist context.
 
I am not sure what the "syncretic beliefs" patch in Zimbabwe and Zambia is supposed to represent. I am also pretty sure that Madagascar is not majority Hindu, although I did not bother to check.

Zambia's actually fully coloured in, while Zimbabwe is striped, anyways they're shown as such because the largest religions in Zimbabwe and some of the largest in Zambia, while originating from Christianity, hold sufficient differences to no longer really be Christian, but rather Christian-based religions.


Your map also woefully simplifies the African religious context. I'm pretty sure that Zambia and Zimbabwe are at least 70% Christian.

The first map shows both religion and, when applicable denomination, the second one shows just religions overall; while the majority of Zimbabwe does follow Christianity, the majority of Zambians follow churches that preach a syncretic religion that mixes forms of Protestantism with indigenous beliefs to the point that they're really no longer Christian anymore than Christianity is Jewish.


Also, syncretism =/= indigenous belief =/= syncretic religion. Madagascar's religion, for instance, is a type of veneration of ancestors which is also practiced by the local Christians. It doesn't necessarily means that they have an organized syncretic religion per se, like Santería. It's pretty hard to truly define the strength of each practice in this type of society, however, for sure, Chrstianity is the "religion of prestige". It's pretty much the same reality that we find in Shinto/Buddhist Japan or in the Americas with Christians who practice Santería, Voodoo, Candomblé, etc.

While their is no organized religion, their still is a major social difference between the indigenous beliefs and Christianity as even now there's still lingering feelings of Christianity being foreign (originally it would've been seen even more negative, as the religion of the conquering French).


I'd say that it's only around in the gulf area we can still find "true" native religions, but it's just a wild guess.

Assuming you're meaning the Gulf of Guinea, while yes, indigenous religions can still be found in the region (majority in Togo, second largest in Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau and minorities in several other countries), however the region has been influenced by Islam and Christianity for centuries, so many of the less organized groups and those in religious border zones will have been influenced by one or both.


Most of the African countries don't have reliable demographic sources anyway...

That depends on the country, on the one hand you have places like Tanzania, where apart from knowing that Christianity and Islam each make-up close to half (though I've never seen and legitimate studies saying either was a majority) of the population, we don't know much more of the mainland's (we do know Zanzibar's, since it does its own thing) since the Tanzanian government has refused to include it in any census or studies since the mid-60's, however other countries have ok to good studies on it, both via their own censuses and also through studies by outside sources, like the United States, NGOs, private institutions and others.
 
Madagascar is coloured orange, labelled under indigenous beliefs'. Mauritius is the one highlighted red for Hinduism.

That's a bit misleading. Madagascar is about evenly divided between Christians and animists, with a small Muslim minority. Animists may form a plurality but not by much. It should be striped on the map.

Togo and South Sudan should likewise be depicted as split between Christians and animists, and not solidly orange. There really aren't any overwhelmingly animist countries in Africa anymore. Christianity and Islam (and various syncretic forms of the two) have penetrated pretty deeply into what had been animist strongholds. Many people still incorporate some degree of traditionalist practice in their worship, but "pure" animism is declining just about everywhere in the face of the two monotheistic faiths.

As for Mauritius, it is very diverse religiously - according to the most recent census, it's 48.5% Hindu, 32.7% Christian and 17.3% Muslim. It shouldn't just be depicted as a Hindu country.
 
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That's a bit misleading. Madagascar is about evenly divided between Christians and animists, with a small Muslim minority. Animists may form a plurality but not by much. It should be striped on the map.

All sources I've found indicate the majority (not a huge majority, probably around 52%) follow some for of indigenous belief in Madagascar.


Togo and South Sudan should likewise be depicted as split between Christians and animists, and not solidly orange. There really aren't any overwhelmingly animist countries in Africa anymore. Christianity and Islam (and various syncretic forms of the two) have penetrated pretty deeply into what had been animist strongholds. Many people still incorporate some degree of traditionalist practice in their worship, but "pure" animism is declining just about everywhere in the face of the two monotheistic faiths.

Except it still is practiced predominantly in some places; Christianity and Islam are not some monolithic Borg like force; in the cases of Togo and South Sudan, Togo is roughly 51% Indigenous beliefs (most of which practice Vodun), 29% Christian and 20% Muslim (the exacts I don't know, so it could go 1-3% either way for Christianity and Islam); South Sudan has not had a reliable census on the issue, however given that there was concensus that in the 90's Christians made-up at most 10% of the population, I sincerely doubt the numbers would have increased that much in such a short time; the present notions of Christians being the majority come from the fact that there have been many very influential South Sudanese Christians and several churches (which I might add don't agree with each other and claim to be the biggest) making unsubstantiated claims about numbers.



As for Mauritius, it is very diverse religiously - according to the most recent census, it's 48.5% Hindu, 32.7% Christian and 17.3% Muslim. It shouldn't just be depicted as a Hindu country.

I did the map in 2010, using the census and studies results available at the time, and at the time it was majority Hindu; when I do a second map in a few years (note that the two maps I posted were parts of a world map) it will show the changes up to that point.
 
Zambia's actually fully coloured in, while Zimbabwe is striped, anyways they're shown as such because the largest religions in Zimbabwe and some of the largest in Zambia, while originating from Christianity, hold sufficient differences to no longer really be Christian, but rather Christian-based religions.

Which churches are these? Just out of curiosity.
 
Which churches are these? Just out of curiosity.

In Zambia it's basically what you might call traditional churches (RCC, Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, Pentacostalism etc.) that have evolved into the syncretic ones, but still call themselves by the original name and generally still consider themselves Christian; in Zimbabwe it's a mixture of the above as well as many New Churches that have sprung from them, like Seven Apostles (there are waaay to many native churches in Sub-Saharan Africa to actually name or comb through for specific examples).

Incidentally, while not present in the above, there are also things like Kimbanguism, which accounts for 10% of the DRC's population and, while Christian in most ways, departs from it in that it believes its founder was the Holy Spirit and that two people after him were reincarnations of him, that Jesus was re-incarnated as one of its key people, and, well reincarnation in general is a thing.
 
All sources I've found indicate the majority (not a huge majority, probably around 52%) follow some for of indigenous belief in Madagascar.

Except it still is practiced predominantly in some places; Christianity and Islam are not some monolithic Borg like force; in the cases of Togo and South Sudan, Togo is roughly 51% Indigenous beliefs (most of which practice Vodun), 29% Christian and 20% Muslim (the exacts I don't know, so it could go 1-3% either way for Christianity and Islam); South Sudan has not had a reliable census on the issue, however given that there was concensus that in the 90's Christians made-up at most 10% of the population, I sincerely doubt the numbers would have increased that much in such a short time; the present notions of Christians being the majority come from the fact that there have been many very influential South Sudanese Christians and several churches (which I might add don't agree with each other and claim to be the biggest) making unsubstantiated claims about numbers.


I did the map in 2010, using the census and studies results available at the time, and at the time it was majority Hindu; when I do a second map in a few years (note that the two maps I posted were parts of a world map) it will show the changes up to that point.

Are you using the CIA World Factbook for this information? If so, you should know that they're pretty out of date with regard to this stuff. They've been using the same religion percentages since last century for a lot of countries. (And then a lot of other sources just copy whatever the Factbook prints.)

For example, the CIA Factbook maintained for years that Benin was about 70% Vodun/animist. Then a census was taken and it turned out that the population actually described itself as 43% Christian, 24% Muslim and 23% Vodun/animist. Given that Togo is immediately to the west and that it contains largely the same ethnic groups, I'd be pretty surprised if it were actually 51% animist today. It may have been whenever the CIA recorded that information, but that may have been 20-30 years ago. There has been a broad trend away from animism - at least in terms of self-identification - across Africa over the past few decades.

At any rate, making a country solidly one color when just barely 50% of the population is of one faith (if that is even the case) seems deceptive. The fact that the percentage of Hindus in Mauritius dropped a couple of percentage points doesn't mean that it became drastically more diverse.
 
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Are you using the CIA World Factbook for this information? If so, you should know that they're pretty out of date with regard to this stuff. They've been using the same religion percentages since last century for a lot of countries. (And then a lot of other sources just copy whatever the Factbook prints.)

For example, the CIA Factbook maintained for years that Benin was about 70% Vodun/animist. Then a census was taken and it turned out that the population actually described itself as 43% Christian, 24% Muslim and 23% Vodun/animist. Given that Togo is immediately to the west and that it contains largely the same ethnic groups, I'd be pretty surprised if it were actually 51% animist today. It may have been whenever the CIA recorded that information, but that may have been 20-30 years ago. There has been a broad trend away from animism - at least in terms of self-identification - across Africa over the past few decades.

I use a multitude of sources; the CIA Factbook is in a handful of cases however the only places that actually has any numbers, though even then I still try and find others; in terms of the exact numbers in Togo, yes I used its, however based on the country and society I don't think it's that far off; if I were to guess I'd say it's in a continuum of;
40-55% - Indigenous Beliefs
25-35% - Christian
20-25% - Muslim
1-6% - Other things (Irreligious and other religions)


At any rate, making a country solidly one color when just barely 50% of the population is of one faith (if that is even the case) seems deceptive. The fact that the percentage of Hindus in Mauritius dropped a couple of percentage points doesn't mean that it became drastically more diverse.

The map is of the Majority Religion, 51% is a Majority; I do have world maps that show percentages in each country of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Irreligious people as well that form part of a larger Religious Demographics Series that the source map I cropped is from.
 
For West Africa to be Christian, then Christians have to retain control over Northwest Africa. That means once the Niger River cultures develop and expand trade to the north, they'll bring back the Christian religion and cultures instead of Muslim ones.

That might be the result of Muslims never conquering that area at all. It might be because Norman Sicily held onto the province of Africa and even expanded its control into Tripolitania and parts of Algeria. It might mean an Iberian reconquista after 1492. The later the departure the harder it'll be as Islam will have made firmer roots, and it will be more difficult from Christianity to dominate.

The other scenario where Christianity comes from the south as part of the European slave, gold, and ivory trade forts is much more difficult unless you handwave an imaginary great African conqueror who destroys the existing Muslim states and converts to Christianity either before or after the conquests.
 
For example, the CIA Factbook maintained for years that Benin was about 70% Vodun/animist. Then a census was taken and it turned out that the population actually described itself as 43% Christian, 24% Muslim and 23% Vodun/animist.

I'm surprised the numbers don't add up to MORE than 100%, not less.
 
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