Christianity Is Not a White Man’s Religion

by Harun Mugambi

It is a common yet deeply flawed misconception that Christianity is a "white man’s religion." This view is often shaped by the legacy of European colonialism and missionary expansion, which introduced Christianity to many parts of Africa under the shadow of empire. However, this narrative erases a long and rich history of African presence in the Bible, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, and into the first centuries of the Church. Africa was not a late recipient of the gospel; it was a vital part of its unfolding story from the beginning.

Africa first emerges in Scripture in the earliest chapters of biblical history. Egypt, one of Africa’s most ancient civilizations, was a recurring setting in the life of God’s people. Abraham, the father of faith, journeyed to Egypt during a time of famine. Later, Joseph, sold into slavery by his brothers, rose to become a ruler in Egypt and saved nations from starvation during a widespread drought. It was in Egypt that the Israelites multiplied into a great nation, only to be enslaved by Pharaoh and later delivered by Moses in the defining act of Israel’s national identity — the Exodus.

St George church, Ethiopia : One of the eleven rock-hewn monolithic churches in Lalibela, a City in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia.

Egypt also served as a place of refuge for Jesus Himself. When Herod sought to kill the infant Messiah, Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt to protect their child, fulfilling the prophecy in Hosea: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” Thus, Africa became not only a geographical backdrop but a protective haven for the incarnate Son of God.

South of Egypt, the Kingdom of Cush, often identified with Ethiopia or Sudan, held a prominent place in the biblical imagination. Cushites were known for their military strength and rich cultural heritage. The prophet Zephaniah, whose father was likely of Cushite descent, prophesied that even beyond the rivers of Cush, God's people would one day bring Him offerings. In the book of Jeremiah, a Cushite court official named Ebed-Melech courageously rescued the prophet from a muddy cistern when others had left him to die. God rewarded Ebed-Melech’s faith and promised him deliverance, acknowledging his righteousness in a time of national judgment.

Beta Giyorgis church, curved out of solid rock in the shape of a cross, in Lalibela, Ethiopia.

Africa reemerges powerfully in the New Testament, most strikingly at a pivotal moment in the life of Christ. On the road to Golgotha, Jesus, beaten and burdened by the cross, was met by a man compelled to carry that cross: Simon of Cyrene. Cyrene was a city in modern-day Libya, in North Africa. Simon’s act of carrying the cross, though involuntary, has echoed through Christian history as an intimate and sacrificial connection to the suffering of Christ. The Gospel of Mark notes that Simon was “the father of Alexander and Rufus,” likely because his sons were known to the early church. Many scholars believe that Rufus, mentioned later in Paul’s letter to the Romans, was indeed this same man’s son, a suggestion that Simon’s African family became key figures in the Christian community at Rome.

Africa’s role expands further in the book of Acts, where we meet the Ethiopian eunuch. A high-ranking treasury official under Queen Candace of Ethiopia, the eunuch had traveled to Jerusalem to worship, a testament to the longstanding spiritual connections between Africa and the Hebrew God. On his return journey, he was reading Isaiah’s prophecy about the suffering servant when Philip, prompted by the Holy Spirit, explained to him that the prophecy pointed to Jesus Christ. The eunuch believed and was baptized on the spot. This encounter marks the first recorded conversion of a Black African in the New Testament and symbolizes the gospel’s southward movement into sub-Saharan Africa. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church traces its foundation to this very event, maintaining one of the oldest Christian traditions in the world.

Abuna Yemata Guh, a Monolithic Orthodox Christian church in Ethiopia a height of 2580m, dating back to the 5th Century AD (Anno Domini)

At the birth of the Church during Pentecost, Africa’s presence was again unmistakable. The book of Acts records that devout Jews from every nation were in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit descended and the apostles spoke in many tongues. Among them were people from Egypt and the regions of Libya near Cyrene. These African pilgrims heard the gospel in their own languages on the very day the Church was born, a powerful reminder that Christianity was global from the start, not the product of a single culture or race.

Soon after, Africa again surfaces in the leadership of the early church. In Antioch, one of the most influential centers of early Christianity, a group of prophets and teachers helped lead the community. Among them was Lucius of Cyrene, another North African. It was this multiethnic leadership team that commissioned Paul and Barnabas for their missionary journeys, an event that would shape the future of the global church.

Though not a biblical figure, John Mark, the author of the Gospel of Mark, is strongly associated with Africa in church tradition. He is believed to have founded the church in Alexandria, Egypt, which became one of the most important centers of Christian theology in the early centuries. From this city emerged many of Christianity’s greatest thinkers.

By the second and third centuries, Africa had become a fountain of Christian theological brilliance. Tertullian of Carthage in present-day Tunisia was the first to use the term “Trinity.” Origen of Alexandria pioneered biblical interpretation and theology. Athanasius of Alexandria led the charge in defending the doctrine of Christ’s divinity. And Augustine of Hippo, a North African Berber from present-day Algeria, became one of the most influential theologians in all of Christian history, shaping doctrines of grace, sin, and salvation that still inform Western theology today.

This African lineage of thought, leadership, and faith dismantles the myth that Christianity is a Western invention. The truth is far more diverse and beautiful. Africans were among the first to receive the gospel, the first to lead churches, the first to develop doctrine, and the first to suffer for the name of Christ. Christianity is not a borrowed or imposed religion in Africa, it is a homegrown, indigenous expression of faith that predates European colonialism by over a millennium.

As Dr. Lamin Sanneh, a Gambian scholar and Yale professor, once wrote, “The evidence shows that Christianity in Africa was neither a by-product of Western colonialism nor the handmaiden of imperial domination.” Africans heard and embraced the gospel long before Europe ever rose to power. They translated it, preached it, and built institutions around it ,  and continue to do so today.

Church of St George, Lalibela

To speak of Christianity as a white man’s religion is not only to misunderstand history, but to erase the deep African imprint on the gospel story itself. From Egypt to Ethiopia, from Simon of Cyrene to Augustine of Hippo, the fingerprints of Africa are on every page of the Christian story. Christianity is, and always has been, a faith of all peoples, rooted in a Savior who crossed ethnic, cultural, and national boundaries to bring salvation to the world.