Christianity in Africa

After reading this chapter about Christianity in different societies the most interesting societies was Africa.

In North Africa along the coast, Africans were being converted from Christianity to Islam. Muslims conquered Egypt around 640. In Egypt, Christian Egyptians were allowed to practice their religion in secret however they had to pay a special tax to protect themselves from the Muslim government. They were mostly tolerant, unfortunately Muslim leaders began to question the political loyalty of the Christians in the 13th century. By the 14th century Muslims used violent anti-Christian actions such as the destruction of churches and removing Christians who owned the best lands in Egypt. Due to this violence, most Egyptians converted to Islam. Now today in the 21st century, 10% of Egypt's population still practices Christianity. While the Muslims were in Egypt, Christianity made its way to Nubia. Nubia was protected by Muslim Egypt and even defeated attacking Arabs twice. Unfortunately by the 1200-1300s Muslim Egypt became more hostile to Nubia and most of the population converted to Islam. Ethiopia on the other hand became a country surrounded by Islamic countries. Due to the spread of Islam, Ethiopia was cut off from the rest of the Christian world. Ethiopia however has strong Christian roots. There is a story that tells of an Ethiopian Queen of Sheba visiting King Solomon where he seduces the queen and she gets pregnant. This child then becomes the founding monarch of Ethiopia. Solomon is a relative of Jesus making this child a descendant of Jesus. Today over 60% of Ethiopia's population is Christian.

I find this all very interesting because although Egypt&Nubia both were predominantly Christian before the Muslims invaded and took over, Christianity still survived. I am surprised that at first the Muslims allowed Christians to practice their religion and required them to pay a special tax, then later on persecuted them for being Christian because they did not believe that they supported them politically. This caused the Christians to be scared and converted to Islam out of fear. I believe that even though they converted to Islam there must have been some that still practiced Christianity in super secret. Now in Ethiopia's case, I find there whole situation very interesting. Even if the Muslims could have invaded Ethiopia over the mountains surrounding them, I believe Christianity would still have thrived as much as it does today. I believe this because of Ethiopia's deep roots in Christianity. I was actually very surprised that the founding monarch of Ethiopia is thought to actually be related to Jesus himself. The story that supports this is that an Ethiopian Queen of Sheba went to visit King Solomon who seduced her and got her pregnant. This child is a direct descendant of Solomon and Jesus. I found this very surprising because I never knew this.