Religion in Ethiopia
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A large number of religions are traditionally practiced in Ethiopia, the most numerous today being Christianity, and Islam. Traditional beliefs, usually categorized as Animism, attract a decreasing number of followers.
According to the 2009 national census, over 37 million people or 43.5% were reported to be Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, over 29 million or 33.9% were reported to be Muslim, just under 15,7 million, or 18.6%, were Protestant, and just under two million or 2.6% adhered to traditional beliefs.[1]
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[edit] Christianity
Ethiopia is the second-oldest Christian state in the world, after Armenia. Saint Frumentius of Tyre is said to have converted the King of Axum, King Ezana during the fourth century AD. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, an Oriental Orthodox Church which is the largest Christian denomination in Ethiopia (it claims that 50% of the Ethiopian population are church members) and was part of the Coptic Orthodox Church until 1959, is the only pre-colonial Orthodox church in Sub-Saharan Africa.
According to the government's 1994 census (which the CIA World Factbook follows), 61.6% of the Ethiopian population was Christian: 50.6% of the total were Ethiopian Orthodox, 10.1% were various Protestant denominations (such as the Ethiopian Orthodox Tehadeso Church, and the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus), and Ethiopian Catholics constituted 0.9% of the population).[2] The U.S. State Department estimates that just over 50% of the country is Christian (40 to 45% of the population belongs to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, about 10% are members of Christian evangelical and Pentecostal groups)[3][4] Orthodox Ethiopian Christians are predominant in the Tigray (95.6%) and Amhara (82.5%), while the majority of Protestants live in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region or SNNPR (55.5% of the inhabitants) and the Oromia Region (4.8 million or 17.7%).[1] The government's most recent 2007 census, Christians constitute 62.8% of the total population, with the largest group being Ethiopian Orthodox Christians at 43.5%, followed by Protestant 18.6% (which include Ethiopian Orthodox Tehadeso Church and the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus) and Catholics at 0.7%. Muslim is the second most followed religion, with 33.9% of the population being adherents. 2.6% of the population (mainly in the far south and southwest) follow traditional religions; other religions (Bahá'í, Judaism, etc.) make up the remaining 0.6%.[5]
[edit] Islam
According to the most recent 2007 CSA governmental data, Muslims are 33.9% of the population [5], up from 32.8% in 1994 (according to the census data of that year).[2][6] The U.S. State Department, however, estimates that Muslims constitute about 40-45% of the population [7][3] Most Ethiopian Muslims are Sunni, and some belong to various Sufi orders. Islam first arrived in Ethiopia in 614 with the First Migration to Abyssinia. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital city, is home to about 1 million Muslims.[8] While believers can be found in almost every community, Islam is most prevalent in the Somali (98.4%), Afar (95.3%) and Oromia (47.5%) Regions.[1]
[edit] Judaism
The Beta Israel, also known as the Falashas (though this term is considered pejorative), are a long-isolated group of African Jews who have lived in Ethiopia since antiquity. Their existence was not widely known to the outside world for many years, and they likewise were not aware of other Jewish groups outside of their own community.[9] They became known to the West during the 19th and 20th centuries, and were accepted as Jews by the Israeli government in 1975. After this, Operation Moses and Operation Solomon, conducted in 1984 and 1991, respectively, airlifted the vast majority of the Ethiopian Jewish population to Israel, where there is currently a population of 105,000 Beta Israel. A small Jewish community still exists in Ethiopia, although it is mostly composed of Falash Mura, Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity in the past, and as such have not been recognized as Jews by the State of Israel, but have returned to Judaism (the Falash Mura now number some 22,000).
[edit] Animism
An estimated 2.6% of the Ethiopian population holds traditional Animist beliefs, according to the 2007 census (down from 4.6% in the 1994 census data). The largest numbers of practitioners of traditional beliefs are in the SNNPR (about 993,000 people) and Oromia (895,000).[1][5][5]
[edit] Religious politics
Freedom of religion is provided by the Ethiopian constitution, although in certain localities, this practice is not always respected. There is no state religion, it is forbidden to form political parties based upon religion, and all religious groups are required to register with the government (and renew their registration once every three years). It is a crime in Ethiopia to incite one religion against another. There is some tension between members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Protestant Christians, as well as between the Ethiopian Orthodox and Muslims.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d 2007 Ethiopian census, first draft, Ethiopian Central Statistical Agency (accessed 6 May 2009)
- ^ a b "Population and Housing Census of 1994: Religion" (accessed 6 May 2009)
- ^ a b Ethiopia: International Religious Freedom Report, 2007 U.S. State Department (accessed 6 May 2009)
- ^ Ethiopia: International Religious Freedom Report 2006 U.S. State Department (accessed 6 May 2009)
- ^ a b c d 2007 Ethiopian census, first draft, Ethiopian Central Statistical Agency (accessed 6 May 2009)
- ^ CIA Factbook - Ethiopia
- ^ Ethiopia (03/08)
- ^ Ethiopia: International Religious Freedom Report, 2005 U.S. State Department (accessed 6 May 2009)
- ^ Mark Shapiro, "Return of a Lost Tribe"
This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook document "2006 edition".
[edit] External links
- Berhanu Abegaz, "Ethiopia: A Model Nation of Minorities"
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