Religion and the Relics of Colonialism in Africa

Africa is a spiritual continent. Long before foreign religions came bearing books and flags, Africans knew how to pray. They called on ancestral spirits, invoked gods of rivers and mountains, and marked life’s seasons with ritual and reverence. Yet, across the centuries, two foreign faiths swept across the continent, bringing not just theology but imperial ambition.

Today, Christianity and Islam dominate Africa’s religious landscape. Their altars stand where sacred groves once grew. Their scriptures are taught where oral wisdom once guided. And yet, not all African experiences with these religions followed the same path. Ethiopia, land of Lalibela, home of the Ark legends, tells a very different story.

Ethiopia: A Christian Kingdom Before the Colonizers Came

While most of Africa encountered Christianity through the trauma of European colonization, Ethiopia’s Christian story began nearly 2,000 years ago, on African soil, by African believers.

Christianity was adopted as the state religion in Aksum (modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea) as early as the 4th century CE, under King Ezana, a full three centuries before Europe’s colonial expansions. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church developed its own theology, liturgy, and monastic traditions, using Ge’ez, a sacred language, Latin, or Greek.

Ethiopians painted their saints Black, built rock-hewn churches that rival Europe’s cathedrals, and kept sacred texts in scrolls that predate many Western Bibles. They celebrated a Judaic-Christian fusion rich with references to the Ark of the Covenant, Sabbath observance, and ritual purity, long before such themes would ever be associated with colonial missions.

Christianity was not forced on Ethiopians by colonialists; Ethiopians embraced a trauma-free faith in Christ.

Islam: Carried by Caravans, Rooted by Culture

On its part, Islam’s entry into Africa predates Europe’s colonial ambition as well. By the 7th century CE, Muslim refugees from the Middle East found sanctuary in Ethiopia during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad. Fleeing persecution in Mecca, they found sanctuary in the Kingdom of Aksum, which is located in present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea. This event is known as the “First Hijra“. Soon after, Islam expanded across North, West, and East Africa, not through crusades but through commerce, scholarship, and intermarriage.

In Timbuktu, Sokoto, and Zanzibar, Islam became deeply embedded. Arabic language, Islamic jurisprudence, and architectural styles reshaped entire societies. Sufi brotherhoods adapted Islam to African cosmologies, emphasizing mysticism, music, and the honoring of saints.

However, Islam’s spread was not without power dynamics. In places, Islamic empires imposed their rule. The trans-Saharan slave trade flourished under some Muslim leaders. And as Arabic replaced indigenous scripts, many African languages and spiritual systems were suppressed.

Still, like Christianity, Islam in Africa became Africanized, braided with local customs, rhythm, and resistance.

Ethiopia’s Uncolonized Church: A Beacon of Spiritual Independence

Unlike much of Africa, Ethiopia was never colonized in the classical sense (aside from a brief Italian occupation in the 1930s). The Ethiopian Church remained independent of Rome and Constantinople, and its clerics were not emissaries of imperialists.

This unbroken lineage gave Ethiopia an uncommon place in Africa’s history: a Christianity untouched by European conquest. For many Pan-Africanists, the Ethiopian Church became a symbol of spiritual sovereignty. The word Ethiopia itself, referenced in the Bible, became shorthand for Black liberation across the diaspora.

Marcus Garvey’s rallying cry, “Look to Ethiopia, where a Black King shall be crowned”, spoke to this enduring image of African dignity rooted in a faith.

To this day, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church asserts its apostolic authority, tracing its origins to the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch by Philip in the Book of Acts. This continuity challenges the assumption that Christianity in Africa was purely a colonial export.

Western Christianity: The Gospel in the Shadow of Empire

The most aggressive religious transformation came with the rise of European colonialism. In the 15th century, Christian missionaries arrived with crosses in one hand and contracts in the other. From the Congo to the Cape, from the Gold Coast to Kenya, missionary churches sprouted where colonial flags were planted.

Missionaries often claimed to bring “light” to a “dark continent.” But what they brought with them were Western cultural norms disguised as Christian virtues. Converts were expected to renounce not just ancestral beliefs, but their names, clothes, and languages.

Education, medicine, and literacy came, but only to the baptized. Christianity became the passport to modernity, and the price was cultural erasure.

Yet, as always, Africans adapted. They turned churches into spaces of community, birthing African Independent Churches like the Aladura and Zionist movements, and reinterpreted the Bible through African eyes. Today, Africa is home to some of the world’s most dynamic Christian movements, rooted in local idioms and spiritual imagination.

Faith, Power, and the African Soul

At their worst, Islam and Christianity were used to dominate, divide, and exploit. At their best, they offered education, structure, and moral codes that communities embraced. But no matter how they arrived, these religions were reshaped by the African spirit.

• In Senegal, Islamic scholars led anti-colonial revolts.
• In Uganda, Christian martyrs defied oppressive kings and foreign powers.
• In South Africa, churches became rallying grounds for anti-apartheid fighters.
• In Nigeria, Yoruba and Igbo Christians infused worship with drums and dance, while Muslim emirs upheld centuries-old Islamic scholarship.

Reclaiming the Sacred: Toward a Spiritual Decolonization

Today, African thinkers, artists, and theologians are asking: What does it mean to believe, without being colonized?

The Ethiopian example gives us a model: a faith not imported but inherited. A sacred belief system not filtered through foreign hands, but rooted in African earth.

The movement is not about rejecting Islam or Christianity. It is about re-centering Africa’s spiritual agency—reviving indigenous wisdom, reinterpreting scripture through Black experience, and honoring the ancestors alongside the prophets.

Final Word: Between Mosque, Church, and Baobab Tree

Africa’s spiritual journey is not linear. It undulates, with its past, present, and future intertwined.

Ethiopia’s ancient Christianity reminds us that faith can flourish without conquest. The spread of Islam shows how belief systems can adapt and blend. And the legacy of colonial-era Christianity challenges us to sift through what was imposed and what was embraced.

As Africa continues to rise, so too must her spiritual sovereignty. Because long before the missionaries and imams arrived, Africa already knew how to speak to God.

 

Read about the Church at Lalibela

Read about the Queen of Sheba