Christian network links for Africa

The aim of these pages is to provide links to Web pages and other Internet resources concerned with Christianity in Africa. We have even included a few non-internet resources, like computer bulletin board services (BSSs), which can still perform a useful service in providing cheap electronic communications in some parts of Africa.

Christianity in Africa

Christianity came to Africa in the 1st century AD. Tradition records that it was St Mark who planted the church in Alexandria about AD 65. Even before that, however, the New Testament records that Jesus and his family were refugees in Egypt, and so it would have been in Africa that he learnt to walk and talk.

The first Christians in Egypt were mostly Jews and Greeks who were living there, but by the end of the second century large numbers of native Egyptians were joining the church, and the scriptures were translated into three local languages. In the 3rd century the Christians suffered several persecutions from the Roman rulers, and in Egypt some fled as refugees to the deserts. When the persecutions died down, they stayed to pray, and the first monastic communities were formed. Monasticism spread to other parts of the church as well, and so this was one of the African contributions to global Christianity.

In the 4th century there were several theological controversies in Africa, and one of the most significant was that between Arius and Athanasius. Their dispute forced Christians to define certain articles of the Christian faith more closely, and the Symbol of Faith or Nicene Creed was the result. The statement of faith that (with some variations) is accepted by most Christians around the world has its roots in African theology.

Christianity in Africa therefore goes back a long way!

There were also Christian communities in north-western Africa, in the area today called the Maghreb, which includes Tunisia and northern Algeria. The church there was part of the Western Church, centred on Rome, though it, too, produced some influential theologians, such as Cyprian and Augustine.

The African church enjoyed a respite from persecution for 300 years, from the 4th to the 6th centuries, but in the 7th century Arabs invaded Africa, and conquered most of North Africa. The Arabs were Muslim, and so Christians became second-class citizens except in Ethiopia, which managed to retain its independence. Christianity began to spread southward from Ethiopia in the 12th and 13th centuries, but only slowly, because of Arab naval supremacy in the Indian Ocean.

The Arab naval supremacy was broken by the Portuguese in the 16th century, and they established some Christian missions along parts of the east and west coasts of Africa. In the 17th century the Portuguese lost their naval supremacy to the Dutch, who established a trading outpost in Southern Africa. Other European nations became interested in Africa for purposes of trade, and much of the trade was in human beings, who were forced to emigrate to the Americas as slaves.

In the 19th century many missionaries from Europe and America came to Africa and started churches in various parts of the continent south of the Sahara. The Christian faith spread slowly at first, but then more rapidly. In the 20th century most mission was through African initiative, and done by members of African independent churches, but also by members of international denominations. Now, at the end of the 20th century, Africa is probably the most Christian continent. There are more Anglicans in Nigeria, for example, than in Britain and the USA.

There are more than 7000 Christian denominations in South Africa alone, ranging in size from a couple of dozen to several million. There are many more in other parts of the continent. Most of these are not on line, and there are many things in African Christianity that the wired world can't even begin to imagine. Nevertheless, we hope these links will give something of the varied flavours on Christianity on this continent.

Steve Hayes
Webmaster: Christian network links for Africa