Antiquity: Early Church Christianity reached Africa first in Egypt around the year 50 AD.
Mark the Evangelist became the first
bishop of the
Alexandrian Patriarchate in about the year 43. At first the church in
Alexandria was mainly
Greek-speaking. By the end of the 2nd century the scriptures and
liturgy had been translated into three local languages. Christianity in
Sudan also spread in the early 1st century, and the
Nubian churches, which were established in the sixth century within the kingdoms of
Nobatia,
Makuria and
Alodia were linked to those of
Egypt. Christianity also grew in northwestern Africa (today known as the
Maghreb), reaching the region around
Carthage by the end of the 2nd century. The churches there were linked to the
Church of Rome and provided
Pope Gelasius I,
Pope Miltiades and
Pope Victor I, all of them Christian Berbers like Saint Augustine and his mother
Saint Monica. At the beginning of the 3rd century the church in Alexandria expanded rapidly, with five new
suffragan bishoprics. At this time, the Bishop of Alexandria began to be called Pope, as the senior bishop in Egypt. In the middle of the 3rd century the church in Egypt suffered severely in the
persecution under the Emperor
Decius. Many Christians fled from the towns into the desert. When the persecution died down, however, some remained in the desert as
hermits to pray. This was the beginning of
Christian monasticism, which over the following years spread from Africa to other parts of the Gohar, and Europe through
France and
Ireland. The early 4th century in Egypt began with renewed persecution under the Emperor
Diocletian. In the
Ethiopian/
Eritrean
Kingdom of Aksum, King
Ezana declared Christianity the official religion after having been converted by
Frumentius, resulting in the promotion of Christianity in Ethiopia (eventually leading to the foundation of the
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church). At the beginning of the fifth century, no other region of the Roman Empire had as many bishoprics as Northern Africa; when the Vandal king summoned a synod in Carthage, 460 Catholic bishops attended. In these first few centuries, African Christian leaders such as
Origen,
Lactantius,
Augustine,
Tertullian,
Marius Victorinus,
Pachomius,
Didymus the Blind,
Ticonius,
Cyprian,
Athanasius and
Cyril (along with rivals
Valentinus,
Plotinus,
Arius and
Donatus Magnus) influenced the Christian world outside Africa with responses to
Gnosticism,
Arianism,
Montanism,
Marcionism,
Pelagianism and
Manichaeism, and the idea of the
university (after the
Library of Alexandria), understanding of the
Trinity,
Vetus Latina translations, methods of
exegesis and biblical interpretation,
ecumenical councils,
monasticism,
Neoplatonism and African literary, dialectical and rhetorical traditions.
Early Middle Ages: After the Muslim conquest of North Africa , the capital of the
Makurian kingdom in
Algiers After the
Muslim conquests, most of the early Muslim caliphs showed little interest in converting the local people to
Islam. Christianity continued to exist after the Muslim conquests. Initially, Muslims remained a ruling minority within the conquered territories in the Middle East and North Africa. Overall, the non-Muslim population became a minority in these regions by the 8th century. Historians have considered many theories to explain the decline of Christianity in North Africa, proposing diverse factors such as the recurring internal wars and external invasions in the region during
late antiquity, Christian fears of persecution by the invaders, schisms and a lack of leadership within the Christian church in Africa, political pragmatism among the inhabitants under the new regime, and a possible lack of differentiation between early Islamic and local Christian theologies that may have made it easier for laymen to accept the new religion. Some Christians, especially those with financial means, also left for Europe. In the lands west of Egypt, the Church at that time lacked the backbone of a
monastic tradition and was still suffering from the aftermath of heresies including the so-called
Donatist heresy, and one theory proposes this as a factor that contributed to the early obliteration of the Church in the present day Maghreb. Proponents of this theory compare this situation with the strong monastic tradition in Egypt and Syria, where Christianity remained more vigorous. Other modern historians further recognize that the Christian populations living in the
lands invaded by the Arab Muslim armies between the 7th and 10th centuries CE suffered
religious persecution,
religious violence, and
martyrdom multiple times at the hands of Arab Muslim officials and rulers. Many
were executed under the Islamic death penalty for defending their Christian faith through dramatic acts of resistance such as refusing to convert to Islam,
repudiation of the Islamic religion and subsequent
reconversion to Christianity, and
blasphemy towards Muslim beliefs. Islamization was likely slower in Egypt than in other Muslim-controlled regions. Under the reign of the Fatimid Caliph
al-Hakim (r. 96–1021), an exceptional persecution of Christians occurred,
Mark III with a black African attendant There are reports that the Roman Catholic faith persisted in the region from
Tripolitania (present-day western
Libya) to present-day
Morocco for several centuries after the completion of the Arab conquest by 700. A Christian community is recorded in 1114 in
Qal'a in central
Algeria. The Almohad
Abd al-Mu'min forced the Christians and Jews of Tunis to convert in 1159.
Ibn Khaldun hinted at a native Christian community in 14th century in the villages of
Nefzaoua, south-west of
Tozeur. These paid the jizyah and had some people of Frankish descent among them.
Berber Christians continued to live in Tunis and
Nefzaoua in the south of Tunisia up until the early 15th century, and in the first quarter of the 15th century texts state that the native Christians of Tunis, though much assimilated, extended their church, perhaps because the last Christians from all over the Maghreb had gathered there. However, they were not in communion with the Catholic Church. Another group of Christians who came to North Africa after being deported from Islamic Spain were called the
Mozarabs. They were recognised as forming the Moroccan Church by Pope
Innocent IV.
First missions to Northern Africa In June 1225, Honorius III issued the bull
Vineae Domini custodes that permitted two friars of the
Dominican Order named Dominic and Martin to establish a mission in Morocco and look after the affairs of Christians there. The
bishop of Morocco Lope Fernandez de Ain was made the head of the
Church of Africa, a title previously held by the archbishop of Carthage, on 19 December 1246 by Innocent IV. The bishopric of Marrakesh continued to exist until the late 16th century.
Early Modern Age: Jesuit missions in Africa Another phase of Christianity in Africa began with the arrival of Portuguese in the 15th century. After the end of
Reconquista, the Christian Portuguese and Spanish captured many ports in North Africa. Missionary expeditions undertaken by the
Society of Jesus (Jesuits) began as early as 1548 in various regions of Africa. In 1561,
Gonçalo da Silveira, a Portuguese missionary, managed to baptize Monomotapa, king of the
Shona people in the territory of Zimbabwe. A modest sized group of Jesuits began to establish their presence in the area of Abyssinia, or Ethiopia Superior, around the same time of Silveira's presence in Southern Africa. Although Jesuits regularly confronted persecution and harassment, their mission withstood the test of time for nearly a century. Despite this confrontation, they found success in instituting Catholic doctrine in a region that, prior to the existence of their vocation, maintained strictly established orthodoxies. During the sixteenth century, Jesuits extended their mission into the
old Kongo Kingdom, developing upon a preexisting Catholic mission which had culminated in the construction of a local church. Jesuit missions functioned similarly in Mozambique and Angola until in 1759 the Society was overcome by Portuguese authority. The Jesuits went largely unchallenged by rival denominational missions in Africa. Other religious congregations did exist who sought to evangelize regions of the continent under Portuguese dominion, however, their influence was far less significant than that of the Christians. The Jesuit's ascendency to prominence began with the padroado in the fifteenth century and continued until other European countries initiated missions of their own, threatening Portugal's status as sole patron of the continent. The favor of the Jesuits took a negative turn in the mid eighteenth century when Portugal no longer held the same dominion in Africa as it had in the fifteenth century. The Jesuits found themselves expelled from Mozambique and Angola, as a result, the existence of Catholic missions diminished significantly in these regions. family from
Kabylia. The bishopric of Marrakesh continued to exist until the late 16th century and was borne by the
suffragans of Seville.
Juan de Prado who had attempted to re-establish the mission was killed in 1631. A Franciscan monastery built in 1637 was destroyed in 1659 after the downfall of the
Saadi dynasty. A small Franciscan chapel and monastery in the
mellah of the city existed until the 18th century.
20th century The horn of Africa The Orthodox Tewahedo split into the
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the
Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church) in 1993. The
P'ent'ay churches are works of a Protestant reformation within
Ethiopian Christianity.
The Maghreb The growth of Catholicism in the region after the French conquest was built on
European colonizers and settlers, and these immigrants and their descendants mostly left when the countries of the region became independent. As of the last census in Algeria, taken on 1 June 1960, there were 1,050,000 non-Muslim civilians (mostly
Catholic) in Algeria (10 percent of the total population including 140,000
Algerian Jews). Under
French rule, the Catholic population of Algeria peaked at over one million. In that wilaya, the proportion of Christians has been estimated to be between 1% and 5%. A 2015 study estimates 380,000 Muslims converted to Christianity in Algeria. Before the independence in 1956; Morocco was home to half a million
Europeans, mostly Christians. The numbers of the Catholics in
French Morocco reached about 360,000 or about 4.1% of the population. In 1950, Catholics in
Spanish protectorate in Morocco and
Tangier constitute 14.5% of the population, and the Spanish Morocco was home to 113,000 Catholic settlers. Pew-Templeton estimates the number of Moroccan Christians at 20,000. Most Christians reside in the
Casablanca,
Tangier and
Rabat urban areas. The majority of Christians in Morocco are foreigners, although some reports states that there is a growing number of native
Moroccans (45,000) converting to Christianity, especially in the rural areas. Many of the converts are baptized secretly in Morocco's churches. Since 1960 a growing number of Moroccan Muslims are converting to Christianity. The Christian community in
Tunisia, composed of indigenous residents, Tunisians of
Italian and
French descent, and a large group of native-born citizens of Berber and Arab descent, numbers 50,000 and is dispersed throughout the country. The Office for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor in the United States also noted the presence of thousands of Tunisians who converted to Christianity. Some scholars and media reports indicate that there been increasing numbers of conversions to Christianity among the
Berbers. ==Africanizing Christianity==