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Religion
Almost 80% of South African population adheres to the Christian faith. Other major religious groups are Hindus, Muslims and Jews. A minority of South African population does not belong to any of the major religions, but regard themselves as traditionalists or of no specific religious affiliation. Freedom of worship is guaranteed by the Constitution.
Church attendance in South Africa is favourable in both rural and urban areas. Apart from the work of the churches, a number of Christian organizations operate in South Africa doing missionary work, giving aid and providing training. Various religious magazines and newspapers are produced in South Africa in addition to religious radio and television programmes.
A diverse variety of African Traditional Religions of the early Khoisan and later Bantu speakers were practiced in the region prior to contact with European seafarers and settlers. .
Islam was introduced by the Cape Malay slaves of the Dutch settlers,
Hinduism was introduced by the indentured labourers imported from the Indian subcontinent,
Buddhism was introduced by both Indian and Chinese immigrants.
Jewish settlers only began to arrive in numbers from the 1820s.
The Baháʼí Faith was introduced to South Africa in 1911The Baháʼí community decided to limit membership in its national assembly to black adherents when a mixed-race assembly was prohibited under Apartheid. As of 2010, it had the world's ninth largest population of Baháʼís, with nearly 240,000 members.
The socially marginalized African Traditional Religion adherents have become more publicly visible and organised in a democratic post-apartheid South Africa and today number over 6 million, or approximately 15 percent of the population.
The Boer Republics were predominately Calvinist Protestant due to their Dutch heritage, and this played a significant role in their culture. The ZAR national constitution did not provide separation between church and state, disallowing the franchise (citizenship) to anyone not a member of the Dutch Reformed Church , therefore no Jewish , Catholic , Anglican . Baptist or Muslim Person could own property , hold citizenship or had a right to education ( A 'taliban state ' )
Christian
The first symbols of Christianity in southern Africa were in the form of crosses planted along the coast by early Portuguese seafarers. With the establishment of a trading post at the Cape of Good Hope by the Dutch in 1652, Christianity obtained a permanent foothold and gained converts among the indigenous population. This was reinforced by the arrival of the French Huguenots shortly thereafter. After the British occupations of the Cape in 1795 and 1806, this Christian tradition prevailed.
South Africa's first church was built in 1665 when the Dutch Reformed Groote Kerk was built in Cape Town. Today there are thousands serving congregations from all the major denominations. Notable among them are those that contributed significantly to the freedom struggle.
The history of churches in South Africa stretches back to the arrival of Dutch settlers at the Cape in 1652. They brought with them the Dutch Reformed faith and in 1665 built the first South African church, the Groote Kerk (Great Church) in Cape Town.
It remains the most important Dutch Reformed church in the country, notable also for its enormous organ that, with 5 917 pipes, is the largest in South Africa.
As the Dutch established new settlements, these were always built around an imposing church, most of which remain and are the first buildings the visitor sees when approaching a town. Churches in South Africa became more diverse with the arrival of other settlers, especially the British. Grahamstown has so many churches that it is known as the City of Saints.
Among the more interesting South African churches are the Italian Prisoner of War Church in Pietermaritzburg and the Dutch Reformed Church in Cradock, Eastern Cape, designed along the lines of St Martins-in-the-Field in London. Surely the most eccentric is the Herbert Baker-designed Church of St John the Baptist outside Vaalwater, which holds only 20 people.
The first people of colour to be converted to Christianity were slaves. As missionaries moved into the interior so the following grew. Today the African Independent Church is the largest in South Africa, with the Zionist Christian Church boasting more than 5-million congregants.
During the South African (Second Anglo-Boer) War, the tallest church in a specific town was often used as a look-out tower by the occupying forces.
But perhaps the latter day's most famous South African churches are those that were at the forefront of the freedom struggle. The most notable of these are the St George's Cathedral in Cape Town; the Christ the King Anglican Church in Sophiatown; the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg; and Regina Mundi, the largest Catholic Church in Soweto, which still has bullet holes in the walls.
During the twentieth century the majority of people from European descent were Christian Protestants
1665 -- Groote Kerk , Cape Town
1743 -- Roodezandkerk , Land van Waveren ( Now a Museum )
1792 -- Lutheran , Strand Street , Cape Town
1851 --St Mary's Cathedral , Cape Town --- The oldest cathedral in South Africa and is therefore considered the mother church to all Catholics in Southern Africa, the Cathedral was consecrated on the eve of the Feast of Our Lady of the Flight into Egypt on April 28, 1851. It is located in Cape Town city, directly opposite the Parliament Houses.
Wesleyan church - The Wesleyan Church of Southern Africa was started circa 1820 with the first settlers in the Cape then Wesleyan Mission Premises, Graham's Town, South Africa (August 1846 ) ; as mission fields of the Pilgrim Holiness Church (PNC) (1900), the Reformed Baptist Church (RBC) (1901) and the Africa Evangelistic Mission (AEM) (1902).
Hinduism
The majority of Hindus in South Africa are Indian South Africans, largely descendants of indentured laborers who migrated under the British colonial government, from 1860 to 1919, to work in plantations and the mining operations owned by European settlers.Many came from Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other states of India. Because of their Indian descent, Hindu settlers in South Africa suffered discrimination, abuse and persecution during the colonial and Apartheid eras.
The first Hindu temples were in operation in the 1870s. Some South African local governments banned temple building and property ownership by Hindus in 1910s.Modern South Africa has many Hindu temples, and its Hindu community observes major festivals of Hinduism such as Deepavali.
The first South African Hindu temple was built in 1869
Islam
1652 Arrival of Malays
J S Mayson, describing the Islamic life in the 19th century Cape Town, in The Malays of Cape Town, writes: "In 1652 a few Malays of Batavia were brought by the Dutch into the Residency, and subsequent Settlement of the Cape of Good Hope... " It is possible that these "Malays of Batavia" were the first Muslims to come to this country.
1658 Advent of the Mardyckers
The first recorded arrival of free Muslims known as Mardyckers is in 1658. Mardycka or Maredhika implies freedom. The Mardyckers were people from Amboyna [an Indonesian island] in the southern Moluccas and were brought to the Cape in order to defend the newly established settlement against the indigenous people, and also to provide labour in the same way that they had been employed at home, first by the Portuguese and later by the Dutch, in Amboyna. Jan Van Riebeeck had requested that the Mardyckers be sent to the Cape as a labour force. The Mardyckers were prohibited from openly practising their religion: Islam. This was in accordance with the Statute of India [drafted by Van Dieman in 1642] which stated in one of its placaats [statutes]: "No one shall trouble the Amboinese about their religion or annoy them; so long as they do not practise in public or venture to propagate it amongst Christians and heathens. Offenders to be punished with death, but should there be amongst them those who had been drawn to God to become Christians, they were not to be prevented from joining Christian churches. " The same Placaat was re-issued on August 23, 1657 by Governor John Maetsuycker probably in anticipation of the advent of the Mardyckers to the Cape of Good Hope. The Placaat governed the Cape as part of the Dutch Colonial Empire.
1667 Arrival of political exiles [Orang Cayen]
This year saw the arrival of more Muslim political exiles banished by the Dutch to the Cape. These political exiles or Orang Cayen were Muslim men of wealth and influence who were banished to the Cape from their homeland in the East because the Dutch feared them as a threat to their political and economic hegemony. The first political exiles were the rulers of Sumatra.
hey were Sheikh Abdurahman Matahe Sha and Sheikh Mahmood. Both were buried in Constantia
1697 First hand-written Qur'an at the Cape
The Rajah of Tambora , while living in isolation with his family at Vergelegen, wrote from memory the holy Qur'an which was given as a gift to the Governor, Simon van der Stel. This Qur'an, the first written in the Cape Colony, probably never passed out of Vergelegen.
1794 --- The Auwal Mosque is the first and oldest mosque built in South Africa. This is evident according to very strong oral tradition which also confirms that Imam Abdullah Kadi Abdus Salaam also known as Tuan Guru, who was the first Imam at this Mosque. The Auwal mosque came into existence in 1798 during the first British occupation of the Cape of Good Hope and was the main religious instituting during the years 1804 until 1850. This mosque is also the first to have practiced most of the Cape Muslim traditions. The Auwal mosque was a Shafee mosque and was in conformance with the doctrines of Muslims of Indonesian origin. Hence the teachings of Shafee were taught so that up to this day more than 90% of Muslims in the Bo-Kaap are Shafee. The Auwal Mosque which is situated in Dorp Street has ever since its inception been a symbol of the struggle of Cape Muslims for the recognition of Islam and their freedom to worship.
1820 -- The Palm Tree Mosque is the second oldest Mosque in BoKaap and was established in 1820. The Mosque’s location is in Long Street and appears to be a house that was converted into a Mosque. The Mosque is also refered to in some books as the Jan Van Boughies Mosque. The first Imaam appointed was Abdoolgamiet van Bengalen.
1844 -- Nurul Islam Mosque is the first mosque in South Africa founded by a congregation of students who studied under the guidance of Imam Achmat van Bengalen. It is the third oldest mosque and is situated in a small lane off Buitengracht Street about one hundred metres from the Auwal mosque. It was founded in 1844 by the younger of Tuan Guru’s sons, Imam Abdol Rauf. The Mohamedan Shafee Congregation was established round about the 1830’s by Abdol Rakiep together with his brother Abdol Rauf, the three sons of Achmat van Bengalen and Baderoen. It was only 27 February 1844 that the Mohamedan Shafee Congregation received a transference of property to build the mosque with Abdol Rauf as Imam
Jewish
In 1652, the Dutch East India Company began the first permanent European settlement of South Africa under Jan van Riebeeck. It has been theorised[weasel words] that "a number of non-professing Jews" were among the first settlers of Cape Town. Non-Christian migration to the Dutch Cape Colony was generally discouraged until 1803. There were Jews among the directors of the Dutch East India Company, which for 150 years administered the colony at the Cape of Good Hope. During the seventeenth and the greater part of the 18th century the state religion alone was allowed to be publicly observed; but on 25 July 1804, the Dutch commissioner-general Jacob Abraham de Mist, by a proclamation whose provisions were annulled at the English occupation of 1806 and were not reestablished till 1820, instituted in the colony religious equality for all persons, irrespective of creed
The 1820s -- 1880s
Jews did not arrive in any significant numbers at Cape Town before the 1820s. The first congregation in South Africa, known as the Gardens Shul, was founded in Cape Town in September 1841, and the initial service was held on the eve of Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) in the house of 1820 Settler and businessman Benjamin Norden, located at the corner of Weltevreden and Hof streets. Benjamin Norden, Simeon Markus, together with a score of others arriving in the early 1820s and '30s, were commercial pioneers, especially the Mosenthal brothers—Julius, Adolph (see Aliwal North), and James Mosenthal—who started a major wool industry. By their enterprise in going to Asia and returning with thirty Angora goats in 1856 they became the originators of the mohair industry. Aaron and Daniel de Pass were the first to open up Namaqualand, and from 1849 to 1886 they were the largest shipowners in Cape Town, and leaders of the sealing, whaling, and fishing industries. Jews were among the first to take to ostrich-farming and played a role in the early diamond industry. Jews also played some part in early South African politics. Captain Joshua Norden was shot at the head of his Mounted Burghers in the Xhosa War of 1846; Lieutenant Elias de Pass fought in the Xhosa War of 1849. Julius Mosenthal (1818–1880), brother of the poet S. Mosenthal of Vienna, was a member of the Cape Parliament in the 1850s. Simeon Jacobs, C.M.G. (1832–1883), who was a judge in the Supreme Court of the Cape of Good Hope, as the acting attorney-general of Cape Colony he introduced and carried in 1872 the Cape Colony Responsible Government Bill and the Voluntary Bill (abolishing state aid to the Anglican Church), for both of which bills Saul Solomon, the member for Cape Town, had fought for decades. Saul Solomon (b. St. Helena 25 May 1817; d. 16 October 1892), the leader of the Cape Colony Liberal Party, has been called the "Cape Disraeli." He was invited into the first Responsible government, formed by Sir John Molteno, and declined the premiership itself several times. Like Disraeli, too, he early left the ranks of Judaism. At the same time, the Jews faced substantial antisemitism. Though freedom of worship was granted to all residents in 1870, the revised Grondwet of 1894 still debarred Jews and Catholics from military posts, from the positions of president, state secretary, or magistrate, from membership in the First and Second Volksraad ("parliament"), and from superintendencies of natives and mines. These positions were restricted to persons above 30 years of age with permanent property and a longer history of settlement. As a consequence of the fact that Boer republics were only in existence from 1857 to 1902, unfortunately many residents of the Boer republics had limited access to positions in the upper echelons of government. All instruction was to be given in a Christian and Protestant spirit, and Jewish and Catholic teachers and children were to be excluded from state-subsidized schools.[citation needed] Before the Boer War (1899–1902), Jews were often considered uitlanders ("foreigners") and excluded from the mainstream of South African life.
However, a small number of Jews also settled among and identified with the rural white Afrikaans-speaking population; these persons became known as Boerejode (Boer Jews). A measure of intermarriage also occurred and was generally accepted.[8]
The South African gold rush began after 1886, attracting many Jews. In 1880, the Jewish population of South Africa numbered approximately 4,000; by 1914 it had grown to more than 40,000.[9] So many of them came from Lithuania that some referred to the population as a colony of Lithuania; Johannesburg was also occasionally called "Jewburg"
Second Anglo-Boer War: 1899–1902
Jews fought on both sides during the Second Boer War (1899–1902). Some of the most notable fights during the three years' Boer War – such as the Gun Hill incident before the Siege of Ladysmith — involved Jewish soldiers like Major Karri Davies. Nearly 2,800 Jews fought on the British side and the London Spectator counted that 125 were killed. (Jewish Encyclopedia)
Around 300 Jews served among the Boers during the Second Boer War and were known as Boerjode: those who had citizenship rights were conscripted along with other burghers ("citizens"), but there were also a number of volunteers.[11] Jews fought under the Boers' Vierkleur ("four coloured") flag in many of the major battles and engagements and during the guerilla phase of the war, and a dozen are known to have died. Around 80 were captured and held in British concentration camps in South Africa. Some were sent as far afield as St. Helena, Bermuda, and Ceylon to where they had been exiled by the British. Some Jews were among the Bittereinders ("Bitter Enders") who fought on long after the Boer cause was clearly lost.
(YET : The Boer Republics were predominately Calvinist Protestant due to their Dutch heritage . The ZAR national constitution did not provide separation between church and state, disallowing the franchise (citizenship) to anyone not a member of the Dutch Reformed Church including Jewish individuals !)
Religion in South Africa (2016 Community Survey)
- African Independent Church (25.4%)
- Pentecostal (15.2%)
- Roman Catholic (6.8%)
- Methodist (5.0%)
- Reformed (4.2%)
- Anglican (3.2%)
- Other Protestant Churches (5.3%)
- Other Christian denominations (8.4%)
- Non-denominational Christian (4.5%)
- No religion (10.9%)
- Traditional African religion (4.4%)
- Muslim (1.6%)
- Hindu (1.0%)
- Jewish (0.1%)
- Other religion (2.7%)
- Undetermined (1.4%)
South Africa: the arduous task of facing our religious past
The term 'rainbow nation' tends to soften both the intensity and divergence of the complex mixture of origins, languages, ideologies, cultures, lifestyles and skills of the South African society. With Christians totalling more than 80% of the population and the Church recognised as the strongest non-government organization, one apparent exception to these differences is religion. However, incapacitated by their past, Afrikaners were unable to respond positively during the critical stages of transformation and find themselves marginalized, at the edge of the 'rainbow nation'.
Evading confrontation with the past or constantly postponing it while waiting for the current crises to subside is no longer an option. This article attempts to identify unresolved issues from the history, culture and theology of Afrikaners that form obstacles in the way of positive development and progress. Facing these issues is the prerequisite to identifying and implementing remedial actions in order to find new direction and life.
http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1015-87...
References :
https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/history-muslims-south-africa-1...
http://www.bokaap.co.za/mosques/
https://www.southafrica.net/gl/en/travel/article/famous-houses-of-w...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_South_Africa