Colonial Rule and Religious Change: Evidence from Africa's Colonial Borders

TL;DR

This study examines how different colonial governance styles in Africa influenced religious change, showing direct rule promoted Christian adherence by disrupting traditional social structures, unlike indirect rule.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence linking colonial governance types to religious transformation, highlighting the role of social order disruption in religious change.

Findings

Christian adherence higher under direct colonial rule

Traditional religions persisted more under indirect rule

Disruption of social order facilitated Christian expansion

Abstract

The European colonization of sub-Saharan Africa drove a massive shift from indigenous religions to Christianity, yet the channels through which this transformation occurred remain poorly understood. Using a geographic regression discontinuity design at colonial borders in sub-Saharan Africa, I find that Christian adherence is substantially higher under French and Portuguese direct rule than under British indirect rule -- a gap that implies a correspondingly greater persistence of traditional religions where indirect rule prevailed. Neither mission presence nor pre-colonial political centralization can account for the discontinuity. Instead, the evidence points to the disruption of the inherited social order as the key channel: where direct rule eroded rigid traditional social structures, Christianity -- which bypassed hereditary boundaries -- expanded to fill the void; where indirect rule preserved them, indigenous religions endured. These findings shed light on the dynamics of religious identity change and how it was shaped by colonialism.