Protestantism in South Africa accounted for 73.2% of the population in 2010.[1] Approximately 81% of South Africans are Christian and 5 out of 6 Christians are Protestant (c. 36.5 million people). Later censuses do not ask for citizens’ religious affiliations.[2] Estimates in 2017 suggested that 62.5% of the population are Protestant.[3]
Christianity arrived in South Africa with settlers from Europe in 1652, when the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (the Dutch East India Company) authorized Jan van Riebeeck to establish a post to resupply food and fuel to ships traveling between the Netherlands and Southeast and South Asia.[4] Many Dutch (Boers) followed and settled in Cape Town, opening the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church) which they granted exclusive rights and protection to until 1806.[4] [5]
In July 1737, the Moravian Brethren send Georg Schmidt to South Africa as a Christian missionary.[6] He began working with the Khoi-Khoi tribe and in 1742, he baptised five Khoi-khoi slaves. The Dutch Reformed Church believed that baptised Christians must be free citizens and could not be slaves and forced Schmidt to leave South Africa.[4] [7] [8] Protestant mission work did not start again until 1792 when the Moravian Brethren returned.[6]
At the start of the 19th century, Christian missionaries arrived from England, Scotland, France, the US and the Netherlands[8] to work in South Africa and to travel on to the rest of the continent.
According to the CIA Factbook, while the majority of South Africans are Protestant, no individual church predominates. The largest Protestant denomination in the country is Pentecostalism, followed by Methodism, Dutch Reformed and Anglicans.[9]
Protestant denominations in South Africa include:
C. Jeannerat, D. Péclard & E. Morier-Genoud, Embroiled. Swiss churches, South Africa and Apartheid, Berlin: LIT Verlag (Coll. “Schweizerische Afrikastudien/Études africaines suisses”), 2011