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Christianity is the majority religion in Cameroon, with significant minorities of the adherents of Islam and traditional faiths.
Cameroon is officially a secular country. Christian churches and Muslim centers of various denominations operate freely throughout Cameroon, while the traditionalists operate in their shrines and temples, which are also becoming popular today. [2] The northern region of Cameroon has been the site of Islamist insurgency leading to the displacement of tens of thousands of civilians. [3]
The predominant faith is Christianity, practised by 60% of the population, while Islam is a significant minority faith, adhered to by about one-fifth. [4] [2] Turkish NGO IHH estimates Muslims account for 25-30% of the Cameroonian population. [5] The Christian population is divided between Roman Catholics (26.5% of the total population), Protestants (22.5%), and other Christian denominations (including Jehovah's Witnesses) 6%. [4] [2]
The vast majority of Muslims in the country are Sunni belonging to Maliki school of jurisprudence, with approximately 2% Ahmadiyya and 3% Shia. [6] Christians and Muslims are found in every region, although Christians are chiefly in the southern and western provinces and Muslims are the majority in the northern provinces.
The two Anglophone provinces of the western region are largely Protestant, and the Francophone provinces of the southern and western regions are largely Catholic and Evangelicals. [7] [2] In the northern provinces, the locally dominant Fulani (Fula : Fulɓe; French : Peul or Peuhl) ethnic group is virtually Muslim, but the overall population is fairly evenly mixed between Muslims, Christians, each often living in its own community. [7] [2] The Bamoun ethnic group of the West Province is largely Muslim. [7] [2] Apart from the Fulani who are the most dominant in numbers and politics, there are many more Islam-based ethnicities in the northern region. The Islamization of the northern regions by the Fulani extended to several ethnic groups, the majority of which are adherents of Islam such as the Musgum and Mafa. Other ethnic groups such as Kanuri were introduced to Islam through the Borno Empire. Several Islamic-based ethnic groups in the Far North Region most notably the Fulani and Kanuri who live in rural settlements do not have birth certifications or identity cards and are not included in the religion census statistics. Christianity is a minority in the northern regions with ethnic groups such as Tupuri whose population are majority followers of Christianity. Traditional indigenous religious beliefs are practiced in rural areas throughout the country but rarely are practiced publicly in cities, in part because many indigenous religious groups are intrinsically local in character. [7] [2] There are also 200,000 Orthodox Christians (or 0.75%), [8] with a constant and significant growth, especially in the north of the country. [8] [9]
By 2001, the Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly was registered with the Government of Cameroon as one of the few non-Christian foreign religions. [10] As of 2020, there were almost 70,000 adherents of the Baháʼí Faith in the country. [4]
There is a tiny population of Jews in Cameroon who have established ties with the wider global Jewish community. In 2010, a community of approximately 50 people practiced some form of Judaism in the country. [11] Hinduism is the faith practiced by some South Asian migrants.
The Constitution provides for a secular state with freedom of religion in Cameroon. [12] [2] In 2023, the country was scored 2 out of 4 for religious freedom. [13]
The Kirdi are the many cultures and ethnic groups who inhabit northwestern Cameroon and northeastern Nigeria.
Cameroon has a rich and diverse culture made up of a mix of about 250 indigenous populations and just as many languages and customs. The country is nicknamed "Little Africa" as geographically, Cameroon consists of coastline, mountains, grass plains, forest, rainforest and desert, all of the geographical regions in Africa in one country. This also contributes to its cultural diversity as ways of life and traditional food dishes and traditions vary from geographical region to geographical region.
Cameroon is a Christian majority nation, with Islam being a minority faith practiced by around 20.2% of the total population as of 2020. Among Cameroonian Muslims, approximately 27% identify themselves as Sunni, 2% Ahmadi and 3% Shia, while the majority of the rest do not associate themselves with a particular group and sect.
Religion in Nigeria is diverse. The country is home to some of the world's largest Christian and Muslim populations, simultaneously. Reliable recent statistics do not exist; however, Nigeria is divided roughly in half between Muslims, who live mostly in the north, and Christians, who live mostly in the south. Indigenous religions, such as those native to the Igbo and Yoruba ethnicities, have been declining for decades and been replaced by Christianity or Islam. The Christian share of Nigeria's population is also now on the decline, due to a lower fertility rate relative to the Muslim population in the country.
Eastern Orthodox Christianity is largest religion in Montenegro, but there are also sizeable numbers of adherents of both Catholic Christianity and Islam.
As of 2011, most Armenians in Armenia are Christians (97%) and are members of the Armenian Apostolic Church, which is one of the oldest Christian churches. It was founded in the 1st century AD, and in 301 AD became the first branch of Christianity to become a state religion.
Religion in Ethiopia consists of a number of faiths. Among these mainly Abrahamic religions, the most numerous is Christianity totaling at 67.3%, followed by Islam at 31.3%. There is also a longstanding but small Ethiopian Jewish community. Some adherents of the Baháʼí Faith likewise exist in a number of urban and rural areas. Additionally, there is also a substantial population of the adherents of traditional faiths.
Christianity is the predominant religion in Uganda. According to the 2014 census, over 84 percent of the population was Christian, while about 14 percent of the population adhered to Islam, making it the largest minority religion. Anglicanism and Catholicism are the main Christian denominations in the country.
Christianity is the predominant religion in Georgia. The wide variety of peoples inhabiting Georgia has meant a correspondingly rich array of active religions in the country.
According to various polls, the majority of Kazakhstan's citizens, primarily ethnic Kazakhs, identify as Sunni Muslims. In 2020, Shia Muslims made up 0.55% of the population.
The Turkmen of Turkmenistan, are predominantly Muslims. According the U.S. Department of State's International Religious Freedom Report for 2022,
According to U.S. government estimates, the country is 89 percent Muslim, 9 percent Eastern Orthodox, and 2 percent other. There are small communities of Jehovah's Witnesses, Shia Muslims, Baha’is, Roman Catholics, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and evangelical Christians, including Baptists and Pentecostals. Most ethnic Russians and Armenians identify as Orthodox Christian and generally are members of the Russian Orthodox Church or Armenian Apostolic Church. Some ethnic Russians and Armenians are also members of smaller Protestant groups. There are small pockets of Shia Muslims, consisting largely of ethnic Iranians, Azeris, and Kurds, some located in Ashgabat, with others along the border with Iran and in the western city of Turkmenbashy.
The most widely professed religion in Bosnia and Herzegovina is Islam and the second biggest religion is Christianity. Nearly all the Muslims of Bosnia are followers of the Sunni denomination of Islam; the majority of Sunnis follow the Hanafi legal school of thought (fiqh) and Maturidi theological school of thought (kalām). Bosniaks are generally associated with Islam, Bosnian Croats with the Roman Catholic Church, and Bosnian Serbs with the Serbian Orthodox Church. The State Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and the entity Constitutions of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska provide for freedom of religion, and the Government generally respects this right in ethnically integrated areas or in areas where government officials are of the majority religion; the state-level Law on Religious Freedom also provides comprehensive rights to religious communities. However, local authorities sometimes restricted the right to worship of adherents of religious groups in areas where such persons are in the minority.
Christianity is the largest religion in Benin, with substantial populations of Muslims and adherents of traditional faiths. According to the most recent 2020 estimate, the population of Benin is 52.2% Catholic, 24.6% Muslim, 17.9 Animist and 5.3% follows other faiths or has no religion.
Christianity is the largest religion in Tanzania, with a substantial Muslim minority. Smaller populations of Animists, practitioners of other faiths, and religiously unaffiliated people are also present.
Religion in Guinea-Bissau is diverse, with no particular religion comprising an absolute majority of the population. Islam is the most widely professed faith, and significant populations of Christians and adherents of Traditional Faiths are also present in the country.
Christianity is the predominant religion in Liberia, with Protestantism being its largest denomination. Liberia is a secular state and its constitution guarantees freedom of religion.
According to the 2012 census, Islam is the most followed religion in Niger and is practiced by 99% of the population. According to Pew, roughly 80% of Muslims are Sunni of Maliki school of jurisprudence, whilst 20% are non-denominational Muslims Other religions practiced in Niger include Animism and Christianity.
The main religion in Morocco is Sunni Islam, which is also the state religion of the country. Officially, 99% of the population are Muslim, and virtually all of those are Sunni. The second-largest religion in the country is Christianity, but most Christians in Morocco are foreigners. There is a community of the Baháʼí Faith. Only a fraction of the former number of Maghrebi Jews have remained in the country, many having moved to Israel.
Christianity is the most widely professed religion in Malawi, with significant populations of the adherents of Islam and traditional faiths. Religious pluralism is both a prominent social value and enshrined in the country's constitution.
Mauritius is a religiously diverse nation, with Hinduism being the most widely professed faith. According to the 2011 census made by Statistics Mauritius, Hinduism is the major religion at 48.54%, followed by Christianity at 32.71%, followed by Islam 17.30% and Buddhism 0.18% in terms of number of adherents.
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