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Christianity is the largest 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 ...
The Kingdom of Congo. The Catholic Church arrived in the Kingdom of Kongo shortly after the first Portuguese explorers reached its shores in 1483. The Portuguese left several of their own number and kidnapped a group of Kongo including at least one nobleman, Kala ka Mfusu, taking them to Portugal where they stayed a year, learned Portuguese and were converted to Christianity.
For earlier history see Catholic Church in Kongo.. The church's penetration of the country at large is a product of the colonial era. [4] The Belgian colonial state authorized and subsidized the predominantly Belgian Catholic missions to establish schools and hospitals throughout the colony; the church's function from the perspective of the state was to accomplish Belgium's "civilizing mission ...
A specific characteristic of the Kongo religion is the so-called cosmogram. It is believed the highest god, next to other high gods, resides at the top of the world, the spirits and other deities living below, followed by the physical realm populated by humans and animals, with water existing in the middle where the two worlds meet. [7]
Kongo religion (Kikongo: Bukongo or Bakongo) encompasses the traditional beliefs of the Bakongo people.Due to the highly centralized position of the Kingdom of Kongo, its leaders were able to influence much of the traditional religious practices across the Congo Basin. [1]
The fragmented Kongo people in the 19th century were annexed by three European colonial empires, during the Scramble for Africa and Berlin Conference, the northernmost parts went to France (now the Republic of Congo and Gabon), the middle part along river Congo along with the large inland region of Africa went to Belgium (now the Democratic ...
However many people in the country many of whom are Muslim are not native-born and not included in government statistics. [2] According to the CIA World Factbook, in 2007 the people of the Republic of the Congo were largely a mix of Catholics (33.1%), Awakening/Revival churches (22.3%), Protestants (19.9%), and none (11.3%).
The Baháʼí Faith in Democratic Republic of the Congo began after `Abdu'l-Bahá wrote letters encouraging taking the religion to Africa in 1916. [20] The first Baháʼí to settle in the country came in 1953 from Uganda. [21] The first Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly of the country was elected in 1957. By 1963 there were 143 local ...