Buddhism in Africa

Nan Hua Temple in Bronkhorstspruit, South Africa is the largest Buddhist pagoda in Africa.

Buddhism, as a major world religion, is practiced in Africa. Though there have been some conversion amongst Africans, most of the Buddhists in Africa, are of Asian, mostly Chinese, Vietnamese or Japanese descent.

South Africa is holding the largest Buddhist population in the continent. According to the 2010s estimates, the Buddhist adherents (included Taoism and Chinese Folk Religion) is increasing to between 0.2%^[1] 0.3%^[2] of the South African population, or between 100 to 150 thousand people while the number of practicing Buddhists maybe low.

The African countries and territories in the Indian Ocean are also having significant Buddhist minorities. Mauritius has the highest Buddhist percentage (between 1.5^[3] to 2%^[4] of the total population) among African countries due to high number of Chinese people (nearly 40 thousands or 3% of the Mauritian population^[5]). But the number of practicing Buddhists is only about 0.4%.^[6] And Madagascar is also home of about 20 thousand Buddhists^[7] (or about 0.1%^[8] of the total population). In the Seychelles and Réunion, Buddhists represented about 0.1%^[9][10] to 0.2%^[1][11] of the island populations.

In North Africa, about 0.3%^[1][12] (or about 20 thousand people) of the Libya's population are also Buddhists (mostly foreign workers from Asia). There are also two Buddhist centers in Casablanca, Morocco.^[13]

There are some Buddhist centers or temples can be found in Sub-Saharan African countries like: Botswana,^[14] Cameroon,^[15] Cote d'Ivoire,^[16] Ghana,^[17] Guinea,^[18] Kenya,^[19] Lesotho,^[20] Liberia,^[21] Malawi,^[22] Mali,^[23] Namibia,^[24] Nigeria,^[25] Senegal, Sierra Leone,^[26] Swaziland,^[27] Tanzania,^[28] Togo,^[29] Uganda,^[30] Zambia,^[31] and Zimbabwe.^[32]

There have also been cases of some high profile celebrities converting to Buddhism such as Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, a famous British actor of Nigerian descent.^[33]

One of the very few monastics of African descent is Ven. Bhante Buddharakkhita from Uganda, founder of the Uganda Buddhist Centre.

Buddhist population by country

Countries/Territories	Practicing Buddhism (2010's estimates)[34]	Chinese Folk Religions (2010's estimates)[35]	Combined numbers
Eastern Africa
Burundi	-	-	-
Comoros	-	-	-
Djibouti	-	-	-
Eritrea	-	-	-
Ethiopia	1,327	-	1,327
Kenya	1,276	1,945	3,221
Madagascar	5,178	10,357	15,535
Malawi	available[22][36]	-	-
Mauritius	3,222	17,292	20,514
Mayotte (France)	-	-	-
Mozambique	2,035	4,341	6,376
Réunion (France)	1,570	-	1,570
Rwanda	-	-	-
Seychelles	available[9]	available[10]	-
Somalia	-	-	-
South Sudan	-	-	-
Tanzania	10,157	23,699	33,856
Uganda	2,005	4,278	6,283
Zambia	3,927	8,377	12,304
Zimbabwe	189	402	591
Central Africa
Angola	1,632	162	1,794
Cameroon	353	753	1,106
Central African Republic	-	-	-
Chad	1,684	3,593	5,277
Republic of the Congo	-	283	283
Democratic Republic of the Congo	3,734	-	-
Equatorial Guinea	-	-	-
Gabon	-	-	-
São Tomé and Príncipe	-	-	-
Northern Africa
Algeria	5,320	11,350	16,670
Egypt	1,687	-	-
Libya	20,209	1,773	21,982
Morocco	available[13]	-	-
Sudan	982	2,094	3,076
Tunisia	79	168	247
Western Sahara	-	-	-
Southern Africa
Botswana	1,120	111	1,231
Lesotho	available[20]	-	-
Namibia	available[24]	-	-
South Africa	159,220	35,589	194,809
Swaziland	available[27]	-	-
Western Africa
Benin	-	-	-
Burkina Faso	available[37]	-	-
Cape Verde	-	-	-
Côte d'Ivoire	9,869	-	-
Gambia	-	-	-
Ghana	488	707	1,195
Guinea	8,983	-	-
Guinea-Bissau	-	-	-
Liberia	available[21]	-	-
Mali	available[23]
Mauritania	-	-	-
Niger	-	-	-
Nigeria	8,458	4,675	13,133
Senegal	1,679	398	2,057
Sierra Leone	available[26][38]
Togo	available[29][39]	-	-
Africa	256,383	132,348	388,731

See also

• Buddhism in Libya
• Buddhism in Senegal
• Buddhism in Réunion
• Buddhism in South Africa

Further reading

• Clasquin, Michel / Krüger, Jacobus S. (eds.) (1999): Buddhism and Africa. Pretoria: University of South Africa

References