South Africa's Diverse Religious Landscape: Pre- and Post-European Settlement - Essay Sample

Introduction

South Africa is a worldly state with diverse religious groups in it. It has a constitution that permits freedom of religion. Religions exist in ethnic and regional diversity within South African's population (Cooper, & Ratele, 2018). However, Christianity in the protestant form has dominated a larger proportion of the population with over 50% individuals subscribing to it.

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Before the region came into contact with the European settlers, there was a diverse variety of African traditional religions, especially during the early time of the Khoisan and the Bantu speakers. Portuguese are believed to have been the first people to show the symbols of Christianity in the region (Mayer, & Walach, 2018). The symbols included crosses that were planted by the early Portuguese along the South African coast. In 1652, a trading post was established at Cape of Good Hope. It remarked a turning point for Christianity in South Africa as it gained momentum and the majority of individuals from the indigenous population got converted to Christianity. After the inversion of the cape by the British, Christianity prevailed in the region.

Islamic was later introduced in the region by Cape Malay slaves who were mainly from the Dutch settlers. Hinduism followed next after being introduced by the indentured laborers that were believed to have been imported from the Indian subcontinent. After that, the Indian and Chinese immigrants came with the Buddhism religion. Other big religions in the in South Africa include Judaism and the Baha'i religion that came in the year 1488 and 1497 respectively.

Religions in South Africa

Christianity

The most prominent religion in South Africa is Christianity with about 80 percent of the population subscribing to it. However, there are different denominations within Christianity, and it is not just predominated by one denomination. Denominations under the umbrella of Christianity include; Protestants, Pentecostals, churches started by Africans and Catholic all having a good number of subscribers.

Islam

Islam is not a renowned religion in South Africa, and it is considered to be a minority religion practiced on the land with less than 1.5 percent of the population being its subscribers. The Muslim religion is believed to have grown in three faces. The first phase is from 1652 to mid-1800s and is associated with the slaves who migrated to the land, political detainees, and political refugees from Asia and Africa. The second phase existed around 1860 to 1868 and is closely associated with the Indian laborers who came to work in sugar cane plantations. The third phase emerged at the end of the Apartheid and is associated with Africans Muslims that arrived on the shores and borders of South Africa.

Christianity had a greater influence on the Islamic religion, especially its growth. Majority of the missionaries were determined to lure many Muslims to abandon their religion and embrace Christianity. The Anglican Diocese was at the forefront to ensure that many Muslims got attracted to Christianity. Anglican continued to preach Christianity to the Muslims and even published and circulated Christian books that they believed some individual Muslims or group would read the books and respond positively to the call of Christianity. The main target of the Christians had in the Muslim religion been the Quran, circumcision, and the Sabbath. They were determined to ensure that Muslims abandon their practices and follow the doctrines of Christianity. Young Muslims were not pleased with the movement of Christianity and their struggle to convert Muslims to Christianity. They counteracted the Missionary activities by releasing several publications against Christianity and established a Muslim propagation center with the sole objective to criticize the Christian influence on the Muslim religion.

Hinduism

South Africa is known to be having the largest number of Hindus in Africa after Mauritius. The religion is found in various provinces of South Africa, with about 1.2 percent of the population being Hindus. Information about the first Hindus to have settled in South Africa is not very clear. However, it is believed that the current Hindus in the provinces of South Africa are descendants of laborers brought in by the British colony to work in the plantation and the mining operations owned by the European settlers. The early Hindus in South Africa did not find a soft landing; they witnessed persecution, segregation, and discrimination that made the religion not to be recognized by many people in the region.

The early missionaries were tirelessly working round the clock to ensure that a good number of Hindus get converted to Christianity. They rolled down programs and publications to influence and convince Hindus to join Christianity. The missionaries mainly targeted the uneducated individual Hindus and succeeded to win many souls to Christianity. The Hindus officials were never pleased with the move and termed the conversion of Hindus to Christianity as digging a grave for the Hindus. They, therefore, dishonored Christianity teachings and published more documents to counteract the influence of Christianity in Hindus culture.

Baha'i Faith

Traces of Baha'i faith began in South Africa as a result of holding Baha'i meeting in the greater part of the country at around 1911. The religion was strengthened more by the formation of the Baha'i National Spiritual Assembly, and a significant number of individuals in South Africa subscribed to the faith, and by 2005 up to 240,100 individuals had joined the religion.

Judaism

Judaism is mainly associated with the Jews that began in South Africa under the British Empire. The Jews community had grown from 4000 in 1880 to 40000 in 1914. During the Apartheid, several individuals from the Jews community advocated against the Apartheid rule, while others were active in promoting diplomacy and military relationship between Israel and the white government of the country.

God, Divinities, and Spirits in African traditional Religion

The concept of God, Divinities, and Spirits in African traditional religious ontology has had controversy among Africans, and for that matter, it has been misunderstood by many people. Variety of factors led to the controversy and misunderstanding of the concept, such as the western scholars that measured the African religion with Christianity. Other factors include the rash into conclusions without studying the African religion in details. Most of the scholars depended on scanty information to conclude the ontology of God, divinities, and spirit6s in Africa.

God in the African Religious Ontology refers to an eternal living being that supports all life on earth. The great being has always revealed Himself to human beings, and human beings have always felt His presence in prayers.

Different scholars have tried to explain the origin of God, and many of them had diverse views. Since there are divergent views about the origin of God, there are also varied views concerning the belief in God. Through the reflection of the universe, human beings have come to believe that God exists. Others also came to believe in God due to their limitations, and others believed in God by just observing the forces of the universe.

Africans had varied attributes of God as follows:

• Africans believed that God is a real and not abstract entity that is just that exists in mind.
• Africans view God as a unique being that is not equal to any other creature on earth.
• Africans believed that God is not limited to a given place but rather lives outside the natural world where human beings live. The view Him to be beyond the understanding of Human beings.
• Africans see God as a being who will continue to be there forever.

Divinities in African Religion

The African religion, apart from believing in God, also believe and recognize divinities that are given different names such as gods, demigods, and so on. Africans have their way of relating divinities and the Supreme Being:

• They believe that they are created beings, and therefore, they are subordinate to the Supreme Being.
• They believed that divinities did not exist on their own and that they derived their existence from the Supreme Being.
• They have functions to perform but not against the will of the Supreme Being.
• Africans also believed that divinities acted as intermediaries between human beings and God.

Spirits in the African religion

The concept of spirit well defined among the African religion since they believed in their existence. Africans believed that spirits are found in the bushes, forests, and rivers. Others also believed that spirits live in mountains, hills, and valleys and some believed that spirits are found in road junctions.

Spirits were believed to be having a unique relationship with human beings. At some point, they would pass human beings and bring some prophecy; they could also cause destruction, especially the spirit of witches.

The Supreme Being holds a strong place in the African ontology and is regarded as uncreated being, self-existence, and a powerful being whose power cannot be compared to that of any other being. However, there also exist some divinities and spirits that perform various roles in the African ontology.

Religion and Apartheid

South African Religion has played a great role in the fight against Apartheid rule. Apartheid was a policy that was used some time back in South Africa to segregate and discriminate people on the grounds of race. Stephen Biko and Desmond Tutu are remembered to have used religion to battle Apartheid rule in South Africa.

Steve Biko started the fight against the Apartheid policy when he was still in College. In many occasion, he used the college politics to ensure that Black theology has a place in South Africa. Biko was never pleased with the fact that African was the majority in various organizations, including churches, yet they were hardly found on the leadership position. Leadership in churches and other organizations was in the hands of the whites.

The fight against Apartheid began right from the church, where Biko wanted leadership in churches not to be left in the hands of the whites alone. Therefore, Biko made a quote; "the white God has been doing the talking all along and that the time had come that the black God will have to raise his voice and make himself heard from over and above his counterparts." In the quote, Biko wanted Africans also to have voices in the churches; he wanted to see Africans taking leadership positions in churches.

There was a belief by Africans that one day, God would come down and intervene on their behalf so that they can come out of the oppression they were subjected to by the whites. Biko was against the belief and even sensitized his fellow Africans that God is in Heaven and there is no single day he would come down to fight for them, he also added that the God Africans are waiting for does not do theology. Therefore he wanted Africans to fight for themselves and come out of the captivity.

It was, however, not right for Biko to argue that God will not come down to help Africans. God is a supreme being, and different religion has their way of believing in Him. Therefore from Biko's statement, it seems like he disregarded the presence of God. Biko also wanted that the Blacks who were converted to Christianity to consider the Blacks theology. Biko was also against the preaching of missionaries against the existence of hell and argued that they were scaring people with the stories of burning in eternal fire. He, therefore, viewed Missionaries teachings as cold, cruel, and wanted Africans to distinguish themselves from their teachings. Biko advised black Christians to make Christianity relevant to p...