Suppose for whatever reason that Christian missionaries successfully evangelize in the Senegal-Niger watershed in the time period stated in the thread title. The empire of Ghana coalesced during this time period and commanded great wealth from trading in gold, copper, and salt. Does Christianity in West Africa increase trade with the Mediterranean beyond what already existed, and what would a great influx of gold from Ghana do to the economies of the Mediterranean basin? Does Christianity accelerate state formation in West Africa or simply exist as neutral aspect with little impact on political events? How well would Latin literacy spread ITTL compared to the spread of Arabic literacy IOTL?
WI: West Africa becomes Christian, 300-600 CE
- Thread starter cincpac overboard
- Start date
Which Christian denomination has evangelised West Africa in TTL, though? Catholics? Arians? Something else?
What benefit do they get considering the poor state of communications between the Western Roman Empire and West Africa in Late Antiquity? I think this scenario is very hard without the Romans conquering more of Mauretania or Christianity first spreading among the Berbers outside Roman borders. The Canaries being incorporated into the Roman sphere and converting to Christianity would help too assuming they can do for Africa what the Irish did for Northern Europe.
If you meet those requirements it's definitely feasible and you'd likely have a similar phenomena to what we saw later in the Middle Ages. One interesting feature though is going to be the role of monks. I suppose the closest equivalent would be the Sufis and marabouts.
If you meet those requirements it's definitely feasible and you'd likely have a similar phenomena to what we saw later in the Middle Ages. One interesting feature though is going to be the role of monks. I suppose the closest equivalent would be the Sufis and marabouts.
I was assuming Catholicism would be the dominant strain, with most of the missionaries coming from Roman Africa and Egypt.
Apparently the camel had been introduced in the century before the time frame for missionary activity, greatly improving the scope for trade and communication between West Africa and points north and east. For all I know there was already significant informal communication between Ghana and the Mediterranean that was severed when the Vandals established their kingdom in North Africa. If anyone on this forum knows just who Ghana was trading with circa 300-600 CE I would greatly appreciate their input.
Donatism was popular in North Africa so my guess is that missionaries and traders from the Maghreb would spread that variant to the local west African polities like Ghana.
IIRC it was not significant during most of the Roman Empire and camels weren't used in North Africa to the degree they would after the Arabs arrived.
Depends when, since by the fall of Rome it seems Donatism was mostly extinct. It is likely that West African Christianity would take on a lot of traits of North African/Berber Christianity just like Islam there has had much influence from Berber Islam.
However, they're so isolated from the Western Christian world that it would be pretty easy to bring back into the orthodox fold by sending them legitimate bishops and not schismatics.
not sure about the last one the late 6th century letters to pope gregory mentions them
"Maximian of accepting bribes from the Donatists to allow them to establish their own Donatist bishop in his town: … as is asserted by the deacons of the church of Pudentia (in the province of Numidia), that Maximian, bishop of the same church, in the place where he lives, has been corrupted by a bribe from the Donatists, and has allowed a bishop to be elected with a new licence, although the Catholic faith prohibited this from continuing and persisting, even if an earlier use might have permitted it. (…) Moreover we have learnt from the report of the letter bearers that the Donatist heresy is spreading each day, because of their sins, and large crowds, given license through venality, are being baptized again by the Donatists, after having had a Catholic baptism.
There is debate that its a misunderstanding but the the rebaptising was a thing of the Donatist if this is true donatisim was fine (even though declined and got a surge in the 590s)
State formation would depend on the pressure or migration from northern groups. But I think the religion would take on a more different tone in the Sahel than with Islam.
Basically much more incidental to trade than demographics, imo.
One area to look at is that any strain of Christianity entering West Africa would probably be more prone to syncretism and penetrate West Africa much more lightly than Islam.
Population leverage that Bedouin and Muslim or Rashid allies Christian groups can provide on the push for North Africa isn't present in the Roman world.
Couple that with the disruption from Germanic and Gothic and eastern European migrating groups means disruption and fracturing in trade. Not going to be much interest in long distance trade when dealing with the chaos from invading North men has you occupied.
If things straighten out in the long-term in a few hundred years, I see more secular motives for state formation or stronger trade. An analogue to Terror would form not over religious concerns over orthodoxy or paganism, but more naked control of trade routes, gold or salt mines, or population migration/ expansion.
Latin script adoption would probably inform or encourage more usage of sparse Amizgh, Punic characters or local pictograms, ideograms that filtered down south. You'll find that secret societies or proto secret societies playing around these scripts with a thin veneer of Latin or adapted Latin usage.
Basically much more incidental to trade than demographics, imo.
One area to look at is that any strain of Christianity entering West Africa would probably be more prone to syncretism and penetrate West Africa much more lightly than Islam.
Population leverage that Bedouin and Muslim or Rashid allies Christian groups can provide on the push for North Africa isn't present in the Roman world.
Couple that with the disruption from Germanic and Gothic and eastern European migrating groups means disruption and fracturing in trade. Not going to be much interest in long distance trade when dealing with the chaos from invading North men has you occupied.
If things straighten out in the long-term in a few hundred years, I see more secular motives for state formation or stronger trade. An analogue to Terror would form not over religious concerns over orthodoxy or paganism, but more naked control of trade routes, gold or salt mines, or population migration/ expansion.
Latin script adoption would probably inform or encourage more usage of sparse Amizgh, Punic characters or local pictograms, ideograms that filtered down south. You'll find that secret societies or proto secret societies playing around these scripts with a thin veneer of Latin or adapted Latin usage.
There was still a thin veneer of Islam according to the rigorist practicioners and muslim traders in OTL in the Wagadu/Ghana empire. And it was accused by its rivals for stubbornly clinging to it even when islmazing was occuring. Even populations in Tekrur had ATR when Mali ascended. The region saw a good number lean towards more mixing or capturing bits of Islam and combining it in a way to negotiate it's existence with local religious authority and practices.
Now that's with a 8-9 century world, Arab-Berber leverage of trade routes and extensive reach across Europe, Africa, Western, Central and South Asia.
It's different from the in 300-600 ad.
I don't think you'll get much more than a nod, or maybe a tolerance for it from Sahelian traders within the time frame due that and possible competition between the different denominations. They'll probably undermine each other to the benefit of local leaders (pagan and secular).
Now, whether you consider it successful if some local leaders acknowledge your religion, make space for it, or baptize themselves could be arguable, but that might be just enough.
The local proselytizing and documenting might inadvertently influence the local ATR in a similar fashion the way Scandanavia paganism was altered. (Make it more conducive as a vehicle for later conversion to not be as wide of a bridge to cross.)
But thats how I think success will be considered.