Africa

The Continent

 Africa is a continent of 58 separate countries with a population of over 900 million people. There are 3,500 different groups: 78% of the population is Negroid African, and 17.3% Arab. There are 2,110 local languages in Africa, or 30% of the world’s total. However, the following are widely spoken and used: Arabic in 7 countries, French in 22 countries, English in 21 countries, Portuguese in 4 countries, and Spanish in 1 country.

Economy

Most African economies have stagnated over the last 50 years due to:

§        Population growth with deforestation, making a decline in agricultural output

§        Low investment in agriculture

§        Corrupt rulers who have enriched themselves at their country’s expense

§        Natural disasters such as famines

§        War has deeply affected economic growth in the 1990s and 2000s

§        Disease – the terrible effects of AIDs, malaria, TB, etc. have caused many economies in central and southern Africa to disintegrate.

Religion

Only 15% of Africa is evangelical Christian, although the total Christian population is 48%. Sub-Saharan Africa is 60% Christian. Some countries in Africa are over 90% Muslim: Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, the Gambia, Guinea, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Somalia, and Tunisia. Islam is the greatest challenge for Christian missions today – both the 160 million Muslims north of the Sahara and the 157 million in sub-Saharan Africa. There is a greater vision for saturation church-planting among Africa’s churches, and a number of African countries (notably, Nigeria and South Africa) are actively evangelizing cross-culturally.