Uganda

The Central African country of Uganda is known for a conservative Protestant Christianity that has a significant political influence. Indeed, there is hardly any separation between the sacred and the secular in its everyday life. Religion's intimate social role is not new; it is part of the society's tradition. Because life in premodern Uganda was often short and precarious, invocation of the supernatural played an important role in helping people cope with life's daily challenges. Since then, numerous natural and man-made disasters (e.g., disease epidemics, Arab slavery, political dictatorships, and civil war), poverty, the challenges of modern life, and the evangelizing activities of world religions have all played a part in sustaining the central place of religion in modern Ugandan society.

Uganda's religious landscape consists of three main groups: (1) the various world religions (mainly Christianity and Islam), (2) traditional/indigenous African religions, and (3) a plethora of syncretist religious groups (i.e., those that mix elements of various religions), including the Holy Spirit movement, the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, and the Lord's Resistance Army.

Specifically, the distribution of Uganda's religious groups is as follows: Christians (85.2%, i.e., Catholics 41.2%, Anglicans 35.9%, Pentecostals 4.6%, Seventh-Day Adventists 1.5%, Orthodox Christians 0.1%, other Christians 1.9%), Muslims (12.1%), Baha'i (0.1%), traditional (1%), and the nonreligious (0.9%). Although many Ugandans follow one main religion, it is fair to note that syncretism is widespread.

The country's dominant religions, Christianity and Islam, arrived in the country between 1840 and 1880. Islam came first in 1840, when the Buganda kingdom (the root of the country's name) started trading with the Indian Ocean Sultanate of Zanzibar, which is now part of Tanzania. Conversely, Christianity came to Uganda with the coming of British Protestant (mainly Anglican) and French Roman Catholic missionaries in 1877 and 1879, respectively. Besides being the fastest growing form of Christianity in Uganda, the Pentecostal/Evangelical movement that formally entered the country in the late 1950s is arguably the most socially, economically, and politically influential Christian group in the country.

Another thriving aspect of Ugandan Christianity consists of the African Independent Churches, whose syncretic theologies (i.e., the liberal mixing of Christian and traditional African religious elements) allegedly addresses the needs of their followers more effectively. Overall, there is greater religious diversity in Uganda's cities, being a reflection of the growing diversity of the country's urban population in this global era. With increased globalization in this century, Uganda's religious diversity is bound to increase.