POPULATION
48,810,427 (July 2012 est.)
GDP PER CAPITA
$11,100 (2011 est.)
RELIGIONS
Protestant 36.6% (Zionist Christian 11.1%, Pentecostal/Charismatic 8.2%, Methodist 6.8%, Dutch Reformed 6.7%, Anglican 3.8%), Catholic 7.1%, Muslim 1.5%, other Christian 36%, other 2.3%, unspecified 1.4%, none 15.1% (2001 census)
> source
ALSO IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
Nigeria
Sudan
South Africa
Religion has significantly contributed to the development of diverse communities in modern South Africa. Before the arrival of Christianity, indigenous inhabitants developed spiritual traditions that remain influential today. Starting in the 17th century, the Dutch Reformed Church provided crucial support for the emergence of a distinct Afrikaner identity among the descendants of early Dutch settlers. New forms of Protestantism, particularly Anglicanism, arrived with the British in the 19th century, and by the turn of the 20th century, most of the indigenous population had adopted forms of Christianity that blended local religious traditions. After the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, many Afrikaners resisted racial integration, establishing a policy of apartheid, or “separateness”, through which the government segregated communities based on race and severely restricted the rights of the black population. Several religious leaders played important roles in the struggle against apartheid, leading to its gradual repeal in the early 1990s. The 1996 Constitution provides strong guarantees for religious freedom and strict bans on religious discrimination.
ESSAYS ON SOUTH AFRICA
Early Civilizations and Colonization
Connections between religion and politics in southern Africa stretch to early periods of human habitation in the region, first by speakers of Khoisan languages, and later by Bantu speakers who arrived in the early centuries of the common era. Ancestral spirits figured prominently in the religions of these peoples, with elites serving both as religious and political leaders. These traditional religions remain influential in South Africa, often in combination with the country’s majority religion, Christianity. Christianity arrived first with Portuguese explorers in the fifteenth century, and later with permanent white settlement in 1652, when the Dutch East India Company established a settlement that would become Cape Town. Most of the Company's employees were members of the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC), which became an important force in colonial politics. In subsequent decades, French Huguenot refugees assimilated into the Cape region, and Germans established an independent Lutheran Church. Collectively, these groups form the Afrikaner (Boer) segment of today's population. When Cape Town became a British colony in 1806, the first Anglican clergy to minister regularly in the region accompanied the British troops and settlers. Tensions emerged between the Boers and the British Anglicized elites, and many Boers undertook a northern migration (the "Great Trek") to escape British control. Within the new Boer republics, the Cape Dutch Reformed Church was seen as an agent of the Cape government, prompting the founding of a new branch of the church, Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk, in 1856.
British Empire and Apartheid
Relations between the Calvinist Boer republics and the British Government remained strained, eventually prompting the Anglo-Boer Wars of 1880-81 and 1899-1902. Following British victory, the Boer republics and the British colonies were officially consolidated into the Union of South Africa in May 1910. The Union's constitution kept political power in the hands of whites, culminating in 1948 in the system of white domination known as apartheid (“separateness”). Afrikaner churches were crucial supporters of apartheid, and concerns over racial mingling led to the founding of separate churches for blacks and Indians. Afrikaner religious leaders promoted the idea of the Afrikaners as a chosen people, set apart from other races by divine will. In the early 1960s, following the Sharpeville protest, anti-apartheid activities rose to new levels. In June of 1964, Nelson Mandela – the leader of the militant wing of the anti-apartheid African National Congress (ANC) – was convicted and imprisoned on charges of treason. From the late 1960s, a broad coalition of anti-apartheid churches – the South African Council of Churches (SACC) and the South African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) – promoted religious reconciliation amongst the peoples of South Africa. The SACC’s vocal critiques of apartheid drew the attention of pro-apartheid security forces, who bombed its headquarters in 1988. International religious groups also played an important role in successful campaigns to pressure multinational corporations to divest from South Africa until it abandoned apartheid in favor of multiparty democracy.
Recent Developments
In February 1990, President F.W. de Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC, the Pan-African Congress (PAC), and other anti-apartheid political groups. Two weeks later, Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 27 years of incarceration. Apartheid policies were repealed throughout the early 1990s, and the country's first nonracial elections were held on April 26-28, 1994, resulting in the installation of Nelson Mandela as President on May 10, 1994. Despite Mandela’s victory, the work of reconciliation had barely begun. In order to heal the wounds created by apartheid, the government created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) under the leadership of Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a former head of the South African Council of Churches. Archbishop Tutu’s vocal chairmanship played a crucial role in the TRC process, and in ongoing reconciliation efforts. Religion’s role in contemporary South Africa remains closely tied to politics. Archbishop Tutu has emerged as a vocal critic of the ANC-led government in recent years, arguing that it has become corrupt and failed to alleviate poverty. South Africa’s religious leaders played an important part in efforts to halt anti-immigrant violence in 2008. Conversions to Islam have increased in South Africa since the end of apartheid. Muslims from India are an established minority in South Africa, and recent Muslim population growth has also taken place within the poor black townships such as Soweto, though Muslims remain less than 2 percent of the national population.
Contemporary Affairs
The 2009 presidential elections in South Africa were characterized by a sharp increase in the use of religious appeals in the context of partisan politics. The incumbent ANC’s presidential candidate, Jacob Zuma, who went on to win the election, became particularly controversial in this regard. During the campaign, he made several remarks in which he claimed that the ANC enjoyed a religious mandate to govern South Africa, and made explicit political appeals from a church pulpit. Combined with his polygamy, which is legal in South Africa, and his appeals to tribal affiliation, he quickly became a polarizing figure and earned rebukes from some prominent religious leaders. Yet he was far from alone in linking religion and politics. His main contender for the presidency, fielded by the Congress of the People party, was clergyman and former general secretary of the All Africa Conference of Churches, Mvule Dandala. Religious leaders have occasionally been vocal in their criticism of specific government policies beyond the electoral arena. Several churches resisted the extension of marriage rights to same-sex couples, but failed to block their legalization in 2007. Some have also been vocal in their condemnation of South Africa’s policies towards neighboring Zimbabwe, with Archbishop Desmond Tutu publicly critiquing the South African government’s tolerant attitude towards President Mugabe and his regime.
Religious Freedom in South Africa
The Constitution of South Africa guarantees religious freedom and the equal treatment of religions, and government policy actively seeks to sustain and promote religious and cultural diversity. Although over 80 percent of the population is Christian, this apparent homogeneity masks the great variety among members of this group. This is in part a consequence of the fact that there are no registration requirements for religious communities, facilitating the emergence of local churches. Thus, in addition to several mainline Protestant denominations and the Catholic Church, there are over four thousand Independent African Churches, with a total membership of over ten million people. There are also sizeable Hindu and Muslim communities, and smaller Jewish and Buddhist ones. Social discrimination is rare, and typically limited to isolated incidents that are quickly condemned by both political and religious leaders. There are, however, some areas of contention. The Constitution’s distinct clauses protecting religion and culture create ambiguity about the status of practices associated with traditional religions. Legal controversies over traditional religious practices, including a prominent case regarding animal sacrifice in 2007, have often been framed in terms of cultural rights, rather than religious rights, raising questions about whether this affords them sufficient, or perhaps excessive, protection from government interferences.
Religion in the South African Constitution
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa was approved by the Constitutional Court on December 4, 1996, and took effect on February 4, 1997. Reflecting the country’s recent transition from apartheid, it contains robust protections for a broad range of individual rights and strong clauses prohibiting discrimination. Thus, Article 15 specifically grants the right to freedom of religion, and Article 9 forbids direct or indirect discrimination based on religious affiliation, among other factors. Cultural rights are also explicitly protected, which has resulted in some ambiguity about the status of traditional religious practices, which are sometimes defended in judicial contexts under the Constitution’s protections of cultural rights, and sometimes under the banner of religious freedom.
Article 9: Equality
1. Everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law.
2. Equality includes the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms. To promote the achievement of equality, legislative and other measures designed to protect or advance persons, or categories of persons, disadvantaged by unfair discrimination may be taken.
3. The state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth ...
Article 15: Freedom of Religion, Belief and Opinion
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief and opinion.
2. Religious observances may be conducted at state or state-aided institutions, provided that
(1) those observances follow rules made by the appropriate public authorities;
(2) they are conducted on an equitable basis; and
(3) attendance at them is free and voluntary.
3. (1) This section does not prevent legislation recognising
1. marriages concluded under any tradition, or a system of religious, personal or family law; or
2. systems of personal and family law under any tradition, or adhered to by persons professing a particular religion.
(2) Recognition in terms of paragraph (a) must be consistent with this section and the other provisions of the Constitution.
Article 31: Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities
1. Persons belonging to a cultural, religious or linguistic community may not be denied the right, with other members of that community
(1) to enjoy their culture, practise their religion and use their language; and
(2) to form, join and maintain cultural, religious and linguistic associations and other organs of civil society.
2. The rights in subsection (1) may not be exercised in a manner inconsistent with any provision of the Bill of Rights.
Article 6: Languages
(5) A Pan South African Language Board established by national legislation must-
(a) promote, and create conditions for, the development and use of ... Arabic, Hebrew, Sanskrit and other languages used for religious purposes
German, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Portuguese, Tamil, Telegu and Urdu; and in South Africa.
Article 16: Freedom of Expression
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of expression ...
(2) The right in subsection (1) does not extend to-
(a) propaganda for war;
(6) incitement of imminent violence; or
(c) advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion, and that constitutes incitement to cause harm.
