Traditional African religions have fewer practitioners today than before the arrival of Europeans, but they remain important in some countries, for example in Benin and Togo. African religious practices are syncretic; this is, moreover, openly acknowledged, to the point that sub-Saharan Africa coined the aphorism “50% Christian, 50% Muslim, 100% animist” to characterize the distribution of religions in the region.

In the Maghreb countries, Islam, which is the overwhelming majority, is the official religion. Tunisia and most West African countries have a secular constitution that guarantees freedom of religion.

Map of religions in Africa.

A Jewish minority is present mainly in South Africa, where there are more than 70,000 Jews, most of them Ashkenazim of European origin. In the northern part of the continent, the presence of the Sephardic “Tosafists” dates back to the Phoenician era. The Sephardic “Megorachim”, forced into exile following the Alhambra Decree, arrived after 1492. Ethiopian Jews, whose presence dates back, it is said, to the era of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, are present in Ethiopia. Some peoples, such as the Lemba and the Abayudaya, also claim to be Jewish.

There is one African country where Hinduism is the majority religion, which is Mauritius.

For more information :

• https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portail:Afrique
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa
• https://africacenter.org/
• https://journals.openedition.org/etudesafricaines/
• https://etudes-africaines.cnrs.fr/
• https://journals.openedition.org/etudesafricaines/
• https://www.afdb.org/fr/documents-publications/economic-perspectives-en-afrique-2024