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The religions practised in precolonial Congo were as far as is known animistic in nature. They believed that places, objects and creatures could possess a spiritual essence and practised ancestral worship. According to the religion practised by the Bakongo people the world is split into the world of the living and the world of the dead.
The earliest known human settlements in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been dated back to the Middle Stone Age, approximately 90,000 years ago.The first real states, such as the Kongo, the Lunda, the Luba and Kuba, appeared south of the equatorial forest on the savannah from the 14th century onwards.
By 1963 there were 143 local assemblies in Congo. [3] Even though the religion was temporarily banned, [4] and the country torn by wars, the religion grew so that in 2003 there were some 541 assemblies. [2] The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying mostly on the World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated some 290,900 Baháʼís in 2005. [5]
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a secular nation and freedom of religion is enshrined in its constitution. [2] As of 2022 [update] , the US State Department reported that more than 95% of the population is affiliated with Christian denominations (of which nearly half are Catholic, another half are Protestant, and a small number are ...
The religion suffered repression during this period. [3] The arrival of the Qadiriyya, a branch of Sufism, from Tanganyika in the 1920s was particularly repressed by the colonial government. [1] The independence of the Congo in 1960 brought greater religious tolerance and allowed the Muslim community to organise publicly for the first time. [1]
The culture of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is extremely varied, reflecting the great diversity and different customs which exist in the country. Congolese culture combines the influence of tradition to the region, but also combines influences from abroad which arrived during the era of colonization and continue to have a strong influence, without destroying the individuality of many ...
Christianity is the predominant religion in the Republic of the Congo, with Catholicism being its largest denomination. Different sources give varying population figures for various denominations. The 2012 census reported 55% of the native-born population is Catholic, 32% Protestant, and 2% Muslim. [ 2 ]
Christianity is the majority religion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is professed by a majority of the population. According to the 2020 Report on International Religious Freedom, an estimated 48.1% of the population are Protestant (including evangelical Christians and the Church of Jesus Christ on Earth) and 47.3% are Catholic ...