AFRICA

AFRICA. - One of the five largest continents.

OUTLINE: I. Geography:

1. Africa in general

2. French Equatorial Africa

3. French West Africa

4. South-West Africa

II. Ethnography

III. Ancient Christian history

IV. The General Councils

V. Christian monuments

VI. Medieval and modern Christian history

VII. Present state of the missions

Its shape resembles that of a trapezoid, welded roughly along the 5th parallel N. onto a triangle. Between the two extreme points N. (Cape Blanc) and S. (Cape of Needles), which lie approximately the same distance from the Equator, there are 8,300 km.; the width decreases from a maximum of 7,500 km. (Cape Verde-Cape Guardafui) to less than 200 (on average) in southern Africa. Hence most of the continent lies in the Northern Hemisphere.

The simplicity of the outline is matched by the general uniformity of the relief. The backbone of the continent is formed by an immense block of ancient, uncorrugated rocks, forming broad plateaus that rise from the 400-600 m. (on average) of the Saharan region to 1,000-1,200 m. in central and southern Africa and over 3,000 m. in eastern Africa. The plateaus are often cut and divided by long fractures that have given rise to several series of lakes (Rodolfo, Alberto, Edoardo, Kivu, Tanganyika, Nyassa) or have been invaded by the sea (Red Sea). Along the edges of these fractures and along the coasts, mountain features appear as raised rims of the plateaus, descending to the sea in steep fronts and spreading out into more or less extensive terraces. True mountain systems formed by folded rocks exist only in the Atlas region, or Maghreb (bounded to the south by the line Cape Nun-Gulf of Gabes), where a complex of reliefs develops that is connected to the perimediterranean European ranges (Sierra Nevada, Alps, etc.) of similar origin. The highest peaks of Africa generally correspond to volcanic masses: toward the east these rise to 6,000 m. (Kilimanjaro), allowing the development of glaciers even below the Equator (Kenya and Ruwenzori).

The coasts of Africa are almost everywhere difficult
**AFRICA - A. Equatorial**

**FRENCH, 1. State or colonial borders; 2. Mandate borders; 3. Ecclesiastical circumscription borders; 4. Railways; 5. Roads.**

---

**I. GEOGRAPHY.**

1. A. IN GENERAL. - a) *Physical geography, coastlines, inland waters.* - A. extends between the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, isolated on all sides except to the N., where the Mediterranean approaches it to southern Europe (Strait of Gibraltar, Tunis Canal) and the Isthmus of Suez, now traversed by an oceanic canal, connects it to Asia, which shares some of its characteristics in certain regions (Arabia, India). Of the 30 million sq. km. of its surface (3 times that of Europe), barely half belongs to the islands (Canary Islands, Cape Verde, and Madagascar, which alone accounts for 9/10 of this). Lacking any true peninsulas, A. is, among the continents, one of the least indented: 98% of it consists of a continental block in which, for every 1,000 sq. km. of area, there are only 8 sq. km. of coastline (32 in Europe, 12 in Asia).

Access is difficult due to the poorly articulated and harbor-poor coasts, and even where major rivers (Nile, Niger) form large deltas or (Congo, Gambia) estuaries, these cannot be navigated directly from the sea except for limited stretches, interrupted as they are by waterfalls, rapids, and cataracts even in their lower courses. Less than half of African territory (48%) drains into the sea; 2/5 is without outflow (Sahara, Kalahari), and 1/8 flows into inland basins (Chad). The regime of African rivers is essentially or exclusively pluvial; they are therefore subject to seasonal floods: famous are those of the Nile, the longest river on earth (6,500 km., basin 2.8 million sq. km.), used for irrigation since remote antiquity (Egypt). The Congo (4,200 km. in length), whose basin (3.7 million sq. km.) straddles the Equator, has a constant and abundant flow (minimum 50,000 cu. m. per second) in every season; its numerous and long tributaries (Cuanza, Cunene, Ubangi, Kasai) form an extensive network of waterways in a zone (virgin forest) where communications are particularly difficult. Other significant basins and rivers include the Niger (4,200 km., basin 2.1 million sq. km.), the Zambezi (2,700 and 1.3), the Orange (1,900 and 1.0), the Senegal (1,700 and 0.5), etc.

A. is home to a large number of lakes, particularly in the intertropical zone, among the largest and deepest on earth. Lake Victoria (68,800 sq. km.) is the third largest in the world by area; notably elongated, as mentioned, are Lakes Nyasa (30,800) and Tanganyika (31,900), the latter with the deepest terrestrial cryptodepression (1,435 m.) after Baikal. Of the other lakes, the largest (Chad, Ngami) lie in the most depressed areas of closed basins, have shallow depths, and exhibit significant seasonal variations in level.

b) *Climate.* – Nearly 4/5 of African territory (77%)

SENEGALENSIS

**SEN**

**SEN**

SENEGALENSIS

**SEN**

**SEN**

SENEGALENSIS

**SENEGAL**

**SENEG**

and in turn it is replaced by the steppe as soon as aridity becomes prevalent. One thus passes by degrees to desert steppes and to true deserts, of which Africa possesses the largest and most typical (the Sahara) on the entire Earth. Subtropical thermal and pluviometric regimes (Mediterranean, with winter rains) occur only in the lesser Africa to the north and, over smaller areas, in the extreme southern tip of the continent.

c) Population. — The population of Africa is estimated today at about 175 million inhabitants (though this figure may be excessive). The density, which on average does not reach 6 inhabitants per square kilometer, fluctuates between extremes that are not very far apart. Disregarding certain islands (Madeira, the Canaries, Mauritius, Zanzibar, Réunion), the highest concentrations are found in Egypt (almost 500 inhabitants per square kilometer), in lesser Africa, in western Sudan, in the Cape region, in Ethiopia, and in certain zones of the lake plateau, etc.; in general, however, the density barely exceeds 15–20 inhabitants per square kilometer over fairly large areas. On the other hand, vast regions are entirely or almost entirely uninhabited, not only in the desert but also (for opposite reasons) in the equatorial forest. A highly expressive index of the conditions of settlement in the continent, and of its difference from, for example, Europe, is given by the fact that throughout Africa the number of urban centers with more than 100,000 inhabitants is just over twenty (23 in 1940), with only one reaching a million (Cairo): that is to say, fewer than in Italy alone in Europe.

Beyond five-sevenths of the African population consists of Africans of the Negrid group, with varieties and crossings no less numerous than those among whites and yellows. They inhabit the continent south of the Sahara, while northern Africa, north of the line from the mouth of the Senegal to the mouth of the Jubba, is populated by Mediterraneans and Orientalids (Hamites and Semites of tradition). Among the latter, the Arabs, after conquering the Maghreb in the 7th century, imposed their language and civilization on all of North Africa. The Jews are numerous especially in coastal centers, where they appear confined to special quarters by regulation. Europeans number probably a little more than 4½ million, half of whom are in southern Africa and slightly less in the Maghreb and Egypt (the areas most suited to white settlement), but nowhere do they numerically prevail over the indigenous population, except in restricted areas or urban islands.

Unlike members of other races, Negroes appear divided into a very large number of separate groups: south of the Sahara not fewer than 800 different languages are spoken, many of which are used and understood by only a few thousand individuals. Taken together, all these populations have absorbed and assimilated very little of our civilization: Africa is, in this respect, the most conservative of the continents. The hostility of the aborigines toward European penetration has, however, given way almost everywhere to a more or less peaceful collaboration. Only the Islamized populations of northern Africa have taken a distinctly antagonistic stance toward their present rulers.

d) Religious confessions. — Religious contrasts operate in the same direction: even here the reflection of racial differentiations is transparent. Islam, introduced and spread by the Arabs, dominates the Semito-Hamitic environment in the north: Muslims number no fewer than 55 million adherents in Africa (35% of the total), and although their area of predominance stops around the 10th parallel north, they are gaining ground among the mass of Negro and Negrid populations, which in their great majority practice animist cults. Christians number about 24 million souls: of these about 8 million are Catholic, 7 million Protestant, and 9 million between Orthodox and Copts. Their area of diffusion corresponds to the marginal territories of European penetration and to the Ethiopian highlands, where Christianity has deep roots and was able to resist the Islamic onslaught. The Israelites number slightly more than half a million (especially numerous in the cities of North Africa), and about 150,000 the Industri (East Africa).

e) Colonization. — Classical antiquity and the Middle Ages essentially knew only the northern, trans-Saharan extremity of the continent and the lower and middle Nile Valley. Beyond these regions they had vague and confused notions of the rest of Africa, where (Sudan) Western penetration had been sporadic or occasional. In the second half of the 15th century, Portuguese expansion began along the Atlantic coasts, followed in the 16th century by Dutch, French, and English expansion. By the end of the 16th century the outline of the continent had been fully mapped, but since the aim of the expeditions was essentially trade with the Indies, exploration and colonization were almost everywhere confined to the coastal zone, where supply stations, ports, and trading posts were established (on the west coast also for the slave trade). Although Dutch colonists (Boers) had already settled in the most favorable regions of the southern hinterland (Cape) from the early years of the 17th century, the exploration of the interior was, in the end, the work of the 19th century; thus it is the most recent of all the continents.

The massive shape of the territory, its difficult penetrability, the presence of an immense desert zone on the southern border of the ancient world, the rapid and fortunate colonization of the New World, and the long disputes for European predominance explain this delay. But the discovery and taking possession of the interior regions of Africa were then favored by the concurrent efforts of the religious fervor of Christian missionaries, the scientific zeal of explorers and scholars, and the interests of commerce, which paved the way for the expansion of European powers. With the disappearance of Holland, and the decline of Spain and Portugal, the struggle saw mainly France and England (and later Germany and Italy) in the field. The Berlin Conference (1884) regulated the partition of Africa, recognizing the independence of a few States, some of which were later absorbed into the English (Boers) or French (Morocco) spheres of influence, while the nominal sovereignty of Turkey in northern Africa (Libya, Egypt) came to an end. Today the European powers control almost the entire continent. Great Britain and France alone dominate over two-thirds of the territory (32% and 36% respectively) and of the African populations (38% and 26%); the share belonging to the independent States, reduced to three (Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia), is minimal (1/14 of the territory and 1/8 of the population). We give hereafter the statistical overview of the subdivision of the continent: it should be noted that the fate of the Italian colonies is still (1948) uncertain. The territories (former mandates) of Togo, Cameroon (French and English), Ruanda-Urundi (Belgian), Tanganyika (English), and South West Africa (Union of South Africa) represent the former German colonies lost as a consequence of defeat in the First World War. The form of dependence of the colonial territories on the mother country varies greatly: from regions that form an integral part of it (Algeria for France, the Canary Islands for Spain, the four Libyan provinces for Italy) one descends, through protectorates, to mere

f) Statistical overview.

| Territories | Area in sq km | Population |
|---|---|---|
| Kingdom of Egypt | 935,300 | 19,000,000 |
| Empire of Ethiopia | 1,120,000 | 10,000,000 |
| Republic of Liberia | 95,400 | 2,200,000 |
| A. independent | 2,150,700 | 31,200,000 |
| International Territory of Tangier | 583 | 106,000 |
| Algeria | 2,204,863 | 7,600,000 |
| Tunisia | 125,130 | 2,730,000 |
| Morocco | 398,627 | 8,993,000 |
| A.O.F. | 4,701,575 | 15,938,000 |
| A.E.F. | 2,370,000 | 4,004,000 |
| Somali Coast | 21,963 | 45,000 |
| Madagascar and dependencies | 592,200 | 4,227,000 |
| Réunion | 2,511 | 240,000 |
| Cameroon (mandate) | 422,000 | 2,615,000 |
| Togoland (mandate) | 56,500 | 918,000 |
| A. French | 10,895,369 | 47,310,000 |
| Libya | 1,759,540 | 930,000 |
| Eritrea | 119,472 | 640,000 |
| Italian Somalia | 506,573 | 1,030,000 |
| A. Italian | 2,385,585 | 2,600,000 |
| Madeira | 782 | 212,000 |
| Cape Verde Islands | 4,033 | 182,000 |
| Portuguese Guinea | 36,125 | 350,000 |
| São Tomé and Príncipe | 964 | 60,000 |
| Angola | 1,246,700 | 3,738,000 |
| Mozambique | 771,125 | 5,085,000 |
| A. Portuguese | 2,059,729 | 9,627,000 |
| Canary Islands | 7,496 | 761,000 |
| Presidios | 213 | 120,000 |
| Spanish Morocco | 20,427 | 800,000 |
| Spanish Sahara and Ifni | 285,000 | 65,000 |
| Spanish Guinea | 26,649 | 200,000 |
| A. Spanish | 339,785 | 1,946,000 |
| Belgian Congo | 2,336,892 | 10,500,000 |
| Ruanda-Urundi (mandate) | 54,172 | 3,800,000 |
| A. Belgian | 2,391,064 | 14,300,000 |
| Gambia | 10,536 | 205,000 |
| Sierra Leone | 72,362 | 2,121,000 |
| Gold Coast | 203,704 | 3,572,000 |
| Nigeria | 876,654 | 20,900,000 |
| Union of South Africa | 1,223,854 | 11,258,000 |
| Basutoland | 30,344 | 580,000 |
| Bechuanaland | 600,000 | 284,000 |
| Swaziland | 17,366 | 186,000 |
| Southern Rhodesia | 389,384 | 1,777,000 |
| Northern Rhodesia | 751,908 | 1,675,000 |
| Nyasaland | 123,795 | 1,686,000 |
| Kenya | 582,636 | 4,045,000 |
| Uganda | 243,406 | 3,930,000 |
| British Somaliland | 176,113 | 700,000 |
| Socotra | 3,579 | 12,000 |
| Mauritius and dependencies | 2,096 | 425,000 |
| Seychelles and dependencies | 404 | 33,600 |
| Zanzibar and Pemba | 2,642 | 250,000 |
| Saint Helena and Ascension | 210 | 5,000 |
| Togo (mandate) | 30,776 | 391,000 |
| Cameroon (mandate) | 88,266 | 925,000 |
| A. of South West Africa (mandate) | 822,875 | 318,000 |
| Tanganyika (mandate) | 932,400 | 5,545,000 |
| A. British | 7,189,000 | 60,823,000 |
| Anglo-Egyptian Sudan | 2,462,925 | 6,591,000 |
| TOTAL A. | 29,875,000 | 174,593,000 |

g) Economic conditions, products, communications. –
The recent date of African colonization and its still incipient development correspond to the stage of its economic evolution: the continent is, in essence, still a reserve of raw materials, whose utilization appears far too distant from its immense possibilities. The occupations of the indigenous peoples remain, fundamentally, the traditional ones: hunters and gatherers in the forests, herdsmen in the steppes, herdsmen-farmers on the plateaus, and farmers in the savannas. Fishing is limited to the coasts of Guinea, Southwest Africa, Mozambique, and Madagascar. When one disregards the Mediterranean and southern countries, all agriculture is still indigenous. Among agricultural products, the only one for which the African market holds the lead is cocoa (65% of the world total; almost entirely from the coasts and islands of the Gulf of Guinea); but also of notable importance are peanuts (18.3%), cotton (9.1%) from the countries of West Sudan; vegetable oils (African palm, sesame, castor) from Egypt, Sudan, and Uganda; sugarcane (6%); vanilla (40%), bananas, dates, alfa, esparto grass, etc., from the Mascarene Islands. The equatorial forest provides rubber, precious woods (ebony, mahogany, rosewood), copal, copra, etc.; the temperate countries produce grapes and wines (10% of world production, mainly from the Maghreb, Madeira), olive oil, fruit, cork, etc.

Among animal products, ivory, which was of great importance in the past, has now greatly diminished (elephant hunting); but livestock farming, which is widespread in temperate Africa and the Sudan, occupies a large place in the continent’s economy, which counts 5 million camels (83% of the world total), 160 million goats and sheep (16%), and 67 million cattle (9%). In central Africa, livestock farming is hindered by the spread of the tsetse fly, etc. Wool production represents 9.4% of the world total; hides also constitute an article of large-scale export.

Despite our imperfect knowledge, mineral reserves are undoubtedly substantial; but exploitation is only in its infancy. It is true that Africa may be said to have a monopoly on diamond extraction (99% of the world total) and holds first place in gold extraction (65%): both are localized in central Africa. Other notable titles include phosphates (38%; North Africa), chromium (33%; Rhodesia, Union of South Africa), manganese (20%; Union of South Africa, Congo, Morocco), antimony (19%; Belgian Congo, Rhodesia), and tin (13%; mainly Nigeria, Belgian Congo). On the other hand, production of fossil coal (Union of South Africa), petroleum (Egypt), and iron (Algeria, Katanga, Union of South Africa) is scarce, not least because of the unsuitable climate and the shortage of labor, which, together with other factors, accounts for the absence in Africa of large-scale modern industry.

European commercial dominance is essentially limited to coastal regions, beyond which it extends inland only along the courses of the major rivers (Nile, Congo, Niger). Africa’s share of the world total is modest: imports rose from 3.7% to 5.2%, and exports from 2.6% to 4.7% of this total between 1900 and 1937. In the past, the most flourishing trade was that in slaves, whose uncertain, organized trade, especially in the Sudan, aimed to supply the tropical countries of America with the labor necessary for the grueling work of plantations. The slave trade ended in 1889. Internal and foreign commerce long suffered from the natural obstacles that

As has been seen, they make the development of communication routes difficult in Africa, but especially after the mid-19th century progress was quite rapid. Good ports were established at several points along the coast, even where it was less suitable (Dakar, Durban); steam navigation was introduced and spread on rivers and lakes, connecting interrupted stretches with other means (paths, canals, roads) where rapids and waterfalls occurred. Railways began there around 1860, and, as in Asia, they moved from the periphery toward the interior, but in relation to the development of individual regions, thus giving rise to independent networks, isolated from one another, and often built with different track gauges. Overall, Africa today has 75,000 km of railways, which is equivalent to only 5.7% of the world network, and to 0.2 km of line per 100 sq km of territory, the lowest value among the individual continents. Of the five main line groups — the Maghreb, comprising Northwest Africa; the Egyptian-Sudanese; the Western, or of the Franco-British colonies, in West Sudan; the Eastern, or of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika; and the Southern or Austral — the most important is the last, which is becoming denser toward the south and extends northward to the Congo Basin. This network, to which the only trans-African line already completed is connected (from Lobito to Beira via Elisabethville and Bulawayo), is integrated by a suitable combination of mechanical means (automotive, river, and lake), which makes it possible to reach the Nile Valley and thus the Mediterranean, realizing the great trans-African route Alexandria-Cape Town. In recent years, moreover, and also as a result of the recent conflict, air services have developed greatly, which are almost all in operation for European connections (France-England).

The railway network is still too sparse and too distant to be able to meet all transport needs, so that traditional systems, which, in harmony with the climate and terrain, have served this purpose from time immemorial, have not disappeared.

One of the characteristics of Africa in this regard is the lack of vehicles, except in the southern regions, where the Boers introduced large ox-drawn wagons. Northern Africa and Ethiopia use the horse, mule, and donkey for transporting goods; Egypt, the Sahara, and Somalia use camels; for the rest, that is, for almost all equatorial Africa, men and things are transported on human backs (since none of the domesticated animals that could be used here resists the deadly bite of the tsetse fly), usually in caravans of 40-60 porters who take turns at predetermined stages. The spread of the automobile and the multiplication of roads have somewhat reduced, but not eliminated, these very slow and often precarious systems of locomotion.

If the Author cannot perhaps ever, due to its environmental conditions, be a territory suitable everywhere for white colonization, a rational development of its vast resources will certainly lead it to a more intimate integration into the global economy. The most cautious estimates of its population capacity assign it, as possible, a human load about 10 times greater than today's; and no account has been taken of what increasingly advanced production techniques will be able to achieve.

2. FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA (A.E.F.). — Formerly French Congo; acquired by France between 1875 and 1916. It is governed by a governor, represented by a military commander in Tchad and by a vice-governor in the other colonies:

| Code | Name | Amount |
|------|------|--------|
| 415 | A. | 1682 |
| 715 | B. | 385 |
| 415 | C. | 685 |

In total 2.4 million sq. km. (more than 4 times the metropolitan area) with 4 million inhabitants (fewer than in Paris); the density (1.7 inhabitants per sq. km.) is very low. The colony stretches from the Equator to the Tropics, from the Sahara to the Congo, and thus presents conditions that vary greatly from zone to zone. More than in the forms of the terrain, however, the differences are evident in climate and vegetation: from the meager steppes of Tchad and Tibesti one passes gradually, through the savannas of the Chari Basin, to the great and dense rainforest of Gabon and Middle Congo.

The population is predominantly composed of Sudanese in the north and Bantu in the Congo Basin; decimated by endemic diseases (sleeping sickness, typhus, tuberculosis), poor nutrition, and the abuse of alcohol. There are fewer than 9,000 Europeans, and 88,000 Catholics.

The economy is backward, with poor communications, mostly by river (512 sq. km. of railways). The most notable products are those of the forests: timber (okume), rubber, oils and palm nuts; cotton, peanuts, cocoa, etc., are in promising development. Copper and gold are extracted from the subsoil; the presence of iron has been confirmed.

The only notable inhabited center is the capital Brazzaville (25,000 inhabitants), on the Lower Congo.

3. A. OCCIDENTALE FRANCESE (A.O.F.). — È il più grande territorio coloniale della Francia (4,7 milioni di kmq., oltre 8 volte la metropoli); costituito tra il 1855 ed il 1900. Risulta di 7 unità amministrativamente autonome, rette ognuna da un governatore e dipendenti da un unico governatore generale che risiede a Dakar. Abbraccia le due depressioni del Senegal e del Niger ed i gruppi montuosi del Futa Gialon e dell'Atakora, dai quali si scende al golfo di Guinea. Il clima trapassa per gradi dall'estrema aridità (Sahara) all'estrema umidità (fascia equatoriale); perciò si susseguono da N. a S., in strisce parallele, il deserto, la steppa, la savana e la foresta vergine. La popolazione (15,9 milioni di ab.), costituita da nomadi di razza bianca a N., da negri sudanesi sedentari a S., è stabilita soprattutto nelle zone prossime alle coste (4 ab. per kmq.); il resto, cioè la grande maggioranza del paese, è quasi vuoto. Gli europei sono oltre 37 mila, per 3/4 francesi; i cattolici oltre 150 mila. Le comunicazioni, dovunque difficili e scarse (40 mila kmq. di piste, 4 mila di ferrovie), anche per la scarsa portuosità della costa, rendono ardua l'opera di avvaloramento delle possibilità naturali, varie e cospicue. L'A.O.F. produce ed esporta soprattutto arachidi (700 mila tonn.), noci e olio di palma, legnami (okume), cacao, caffè, banane e cotone; le risorse minerarie, pur non mancando, sono ancora modestamente sfruttate (oro in Guinea).

Dakar, con oltre 100 mila ab., è divenuto non solo il porto del Sudan e del Senegal, ma anche il più importante scalo sulla via tra l'A. e l'America del Sud.

Ecco il quadro statistico:

| Colonie | Superficie | Abitanti |
| Mauritania | 835 000 kmq. | 497 000 |
| Senegal | 201 000 | 1 871 000 |
| Costa d'Avorio | 477 000 | 4 022 000 |
| Guinea | 251 000 | 2 125 000 |
| Dahomey | 112 000 | 1 458 000 |
| Sudan | 1 531 000 | 3 797 000 |
| Niger | 1 294 000 | 2 168 000 |

4. A. DI SUD-OVEST (A. di SO.). – Colonia tedesca fino al 1917; poi trasferita come mandato all'Unione Sudafricana. È un vastissimo territorio (830 mila kmq.; oltre 2 ½ volte l'Italia), tagliato a mezzo dal Tropico del Capricorno, con una costa importuosa e desolata ed un interno stepposo e quasi tutto desertico. L'uno e l'altro sono caratterizzati da clima tipicamente caldo-arido.

La popolazione supera di poco i 300 mila ab., di cui 1/10 ca. europei (e di questi 1/3 tedeschi).

Livestock farming predominates in the country (in millions of head: 3.5 sheep; 1.1 goats; 1.3 cattle), which has spurred the refrigerated meat industry and the dairy industry (butter is exported). The country’s fishing resources are considerable (crustaceans and *snock*, or southern sea pike), and its mineral resources are notable (copper, silver, zinc, lead, gold, iron, vanadium, tungsten, and especially diamonds [½ of export value]).

The interior of the country is crossed by a railway that connects it to the nearby Cape Colony; on this line is Windhoek, the capital (10,000 inhabitants), of whom 5,000 are white. The main port is Walvis Bay.

3. — Ethnologically, the picture is one of the most complete. It includes: 1) the culture of the Pygmies, whose economy is based on hunting and gathering wild fruits; 2) the culture of the steppe hunters, which is not everywhere uniform but in many places presents itself as a basic culture; 3) the culture of the Hamitic (Eastern) herders; in the western part of southern Africa, this culture is represented by the Herero and the Ottenottti; 4) the properly Negro cultures, such as the matriarchal Bantu culture and the patriarchal Old Negro culture, in which agriculture prevails; these two types, variously intertwined, represent the characteristic culture of the Negro populations of Africa, and while the former is especially evident in the so-called West African cycle, the latter holds sway in the Old Negro culture; 5) the Neo-Sudanese culture, with typically Eastern infiltrations, to which the Rhodesian culture is closely related; 6) the Old Mediterranean culture, or, according to others, Sirtic and Atlantic; 7) to all these cultures, which, more or less, can be traced in their present crystallization to our late Middle Ages, must be added the more recent cultural infiltrations—Islamic, Neo-Arabic, and finally those due to European colonization. For the religion of the primitives of Africa, V. PRIMITIVI, religione dei.

Africa - Woman of the Tiger (NE Africa).
Giglioli Collection. Rome, Museo preistorico etnografico.
nz, Deutsch-Südwestafrika, Oldenburg-Lip-sia 1891; H. Blumhagen, Südwestafrika einst und jetzt, Berlin 1934; A. Festa, L'A. di SO., in Riv. delle Colonie, 12 (1938), pp. 1605-16.

II. ETHNOGRAPHY

1. — Anthropologically, Africa presents: 1) the Pygmy race, which exhibits traits of great antiquity: very short stature, mesocephalic, dark reddish skin; its present habitat is the equatorial forests; 2) the Khoi-San race, which includes the Hottentots (Khoi-Khoin) and the Bushmen (San); of small stature, dolichocephalic; dark yellowish skin; steatopygia is typical in women; its habitat is the western part of southern Africa; 3) the Negroid race, which is divided into the Nilotic, Bantu, and Sudanese groups; it is of large build; dolichocephalic; has black skin; it extends from the extreme eastern tip of Africa to the Equator, occupying the entire central trunk of the continent, the southern part of western Africa, and the region of the Upper Nile; 4) the Ethiopian race, to which the linguistic term Semito-Hamitic corresponds; it is of large build, reddish-brown in colour and generally of more noble features; its habitat, with infiltrations below the Equator, covers all of eastern Africa north of that line, extending as far as the Mediterranean and throughout western Africa.

2. — Linguistically, mention must also be made of the remnants of an Old Pygmy language, which is nevertheless akin to the Khoi-San group, Hottentot and Bushman. The following groups follow: the Bantu languages, which are the most widespread and also proper to present-day Pygmies; the Nilotic group; the Sudanese group; the Semito-Hamitic group.

III. ANCIENT CHRISTIAN HISTORY

Precise data are lacking on the introduction of Christianity into Africa, and the first historically verified notice does not go beyond the year 180. But the writings of Tertullian, which date from a little later, show that by this time the Christian religion had already taken firm root on African soil. Today the prevailing opinion dates the beginning of Christian evangelisation in Africa to the first half of the 2nd century. Whence did Christianity come to Africa? The prevailing view is that the first contacts with the Gospel came from the East. Liturgical concomitances between Asia Minor and Carthage current at the time of Cyprian certainly reveal ancient relations. But the organisation of the Christian community seems to have been the work of Rome, where the African filiation was explicitly affirmed from the time of Innocent I.

For the entire second century the Christianity of Africa has no history until the martyrdom of the Scillitans, who were killed for the faith at Carthage in July 180, by order of the proconsul Vigellius Saturninus, the first, according to Tertullian, to draw the sword against the Christians. Until then there was, therefore, freedom to organize, and in 197 the African controversialist could speak of the crowds of Christians who filled the forum, the senate, the cities, the municipalities, the countryside. The first bishop mentioned is Agrippino of Carthage. At the end of the 2nd century the Christian religion becomes the object of repressive measures by the Roman governors incited by the popular reaction hostile to Christianity, and a great number of its adherents are imprisoned and subjected to torture. Tertullian encourages them to sustain the struggle (Ad Martyras), while he addresses the pagans to vindicate the rights of conscience (Apologeticum, Ad Nationes). The victims increase at the beginning of the 3rd century with the edicts of Septimius Severus. The most illustrious are those of Tuburbo, not far from Carthage: Felicitas and her
AFRICA - GUER

rier Assaorta (Massaua).
Collection Giglioli. Rome, Museo preistorico etnografico.

The Church in Africa experienced a period of intense persecution during the 3rd century, of which we possess a primary document: the acts of the martyrdom attributed by some to Tertullian. After a respite of several years, the persecution resumed in 212, partly provoked by the intransigent stance of certain extremist groups within the community who had embraced Montanism (v.), which had meanwhile taken root in Africa. Tertullian himself eventually adhered to it, leading him to sever his ties with Rome, where Pope Zephyrinus had condemned the Phrygian innovations. Meanwhile, other heresies were disrupting the internal peace of the community: those introduced by innovators such as Hermogenes, Marcion, and Praxeas, against whom Tertullian took up his pen.

With the return of calm, the African Church took advantage of the peace that lasted until the time of St. Cyprian, elected bishop of Carthage on the eve of the Decian persecution (249), to make further progress. Already the Council of Carthage of 225, convened by Agrippinus, counted 70 bishops from Proconsular Africa and Numidia; another council held during the episcopate of Bishop Donatus (236–48) counted 90. The Gospel was preached in both Mauretanias, not only to the Roman populations but also to the Berber tribes of the Gaetulians and the Moors. However, the Decian persecution revealed how superficial the faith of many sympathizers who had joined the communities truly was. Faced with the alternative of renouncing their faith or facing the rigor of the law, many Christians chose martyrdom, others fled, and many apostatized (lapsi). The persecution ended in 251, but its consequences were grave for the principle of unity.

Cyprian, having returned to his see, addressed the issue of the lapsi, who now sought readmission to the Church, and a line of conduct inspired by prudence was decided upon. This, however, clashed with the opposition of the extremists led by the priest Novatus (v.) and the partisans of Novatian (v.), the former being the first advocates of
AFRICA - Masai woman in hybrid costume in Nairobi (Africa O.).
Giglioli Collection. Rome, Museo preistorico etnografico

pages, of which we possess a first-rate document, the acts of their martyrdom attributed by some to Tertullian. After a truce of several years, the persecution resumed in 212, partly provoked also by

mass rehabilitation of apostates, the latter determined on the utmost severity. Hence the first schism. A conflict, perhaps even more serious, though external to A., soon arose over the controversy concerning the validity of baptism conferred by heretics, affirmed at Rome but denied by the entire African episcopate led by Cyprian. He defended his thesis in three successive Councils of Carthage (255-56). We still possess the minutes of the 3rd synod (1 Sept. 256): they confront us with a compact group of 87 episcopal sees, representing only a part of the African episcopate, which suggests that the number of sees exceeded a hundred.

The breach between Rome and A. was ended by the death of Pope Stephen and the persecution of Valerian, in which Cyprian (258) and many bishops and a considerable number of Christians (“Massa Candida”) fell as martyrs of the faith. Gallienus’ edict of toleration (260) allowed the Church to resume its advance during a forty-year period of relative tranquillity, so that at the end of the 3rd century, when the rigors of Maximinus, aimed at restoring military discipline, claimed some victims among the soldiers (Marcellus the Centurion, Fabius the Standard-bearer, Cassian of Tangier, Maximilian the Conscript, etc.), the number of episcopal foundations had increased by about a hundred. The persecution of Diocletian (303-304) left lasting traces, for while martyrs and apologists bore witness to the faith with blood and word, numerous were the groups that renounced it, including priests and bishops who handed over the sacred books or sacrificed. When the time came to assign blame to the deceased bishops, the Synod of Cirta (305) revealed the jealousies of the bishops of Numidia and the insubordination of the priests, which led to the struggle against Caecilian, bishop of Carthage, initiating the schism of Donatus of Casae Nigrae (v. DONATISM), during which the centrifugal tendency of some groups within the community became more pronounced. The rigorous measures of the emperor Constantius, who from 347 imposed unity by force, did not yield the desired fruit, because Julian the Apostate’s policy of toleration (362) allowed Donatism to revive and consolidate under the leadership of the new head Parmenian (v.).

At the end of the 4th century the Catholic Church was divided into six ecclesiastical provinces: Numidia, Mauretania Caesariensis, Mauretania Sitifensis, Proconsularis (Zeugitana), Byzacena and Tripolitania, over which the primate of Carthage always exercised supreme authority.

---

However, the lack of skilled leaders prevented the Church from taking effective action against the schism, except for the apologetic work of OPTATUS OF MILEVIS (q.v.). It was precisely at this time that Augustine of Hippo and Aurelius of Carthage rose to improve the fortunes of Catholicism. Aurelius restored the prestige of synodal assemblies, in which a common action against Donatism was decided, supported by imperial authority (401–408) and by the campaign conducted by Augustine through treatises and propaganda among the masses. With the fall of Donatism (411), another grave danger presented itself: Pelagianism (q.v.), which had a dangerous advocate in Caelestius, excommunicated at the Carthaginian Synod of 411–12. The rehabilitation of Pelagianism at the Council of Diospolis in Palestine (415) prompted the African bishops to seek the intervention of Innocent I, who resolutely supported them. Their struggle gave the heresy no respite until Zosimus’s *tractoria* and imperial intervention definitively crushed it (418). Ten years later, Prosper of Aquitaine, alluding to these events, could write: “O Africa, what you decree is approved by Rome and followed by the empire.”

The edifice built by Augustine and Aurelius over thirty years was almost destroyed by the Vandals. Led by Gaiseric, they landed in Africa in 429, coming from Spain, spreading terror everywhere. After a 14-month siege, Hippo fell; in 435 Carthage met the same fate. In the following years, Tripolitania and Mauretania followed. When Gaiseric died in 477, the Vandals were masters of Africa from Ceuta to Tripoli and enjoyed their conquest for nearly a century, until Belisarius, sent by Justinian (523), put an end to it in two battles, reducing the Vandals to slavery. At this time, the Church was reduced to a wretched state, and Victor of Vita has drawn a grim picture of the terrible persecution that lasted nearly a century in his *Historia persecutionis Africanae provinciae*. The interrupted tradition was nevertheless restored under the leadership of the primate of Carthage, Reparatus; but the raids of the Berber tribes, which followed Belisarius’s victories, prevented any unified action by the episcopate. The situation was aggravated by Byzantium’s attempts to subjugate it to its plans, for Africa, sincerely orthodox, always opposed Justinian’s dogmatic innovations with tenacious resistance. This was clearly seen in the affair of the “Three Chapters” (q.v.) (543–55), which marked the beginning of oppressive measures by the Byzantine authorities against the recalcitrant

AFRICA

(Feb. 1st. Naz.)
AFRICA - Stool of Central African wood.

citizens and other opponents of Monophysitism such as Reparatus of Carthage, Primosus of Ardimonte, Theodore of Cabarsussi, Victor of Tunnuna, Facundus of Hermiana.

The situation changed with the advent of Justin II, and this state of affairs remained unchanged under his successors. The creation of the Exarchate under Maurice (582-602) halted the decline, but increased the interference of civil power in ecclesiastical affairs, and the bishops, now devoid of strength, had no other defender than the Pope. It was the time of the providential action of St. Gregory the Great. Byzantine influence in Africa persisted even in the 7th century, although the process of separation of those provinces from the Byzantine Empire was underway, accelerated in 638 by Heraclius' *Ecthesis*, which scandalized the Africans attached to orthodoxy. The last manifestation of faith occurred in the provincial synods of Africa in 646, in which the episcopate, spurred also by the preaching of St. Maximus (v.), condemned Monothelitism (v.) introduced by groups of Orientals forced by Muslim invasions to take refuge in Africa.

From this moment onward events hastened the country into a series of disasters: in 643 the Arabs took advantage of the revolt of the Exarch Gregory to penetrate into Byzacena. The assaults were renewed in the following decades and led to the fall of Carthage (697) and of all Africa (710) into the hands of the infidels. During the last half-century, destruction and massacres began the ruin of that once-flourishing Church, of which only scattered groups remained in the following centuries, almost as a testimony to a faith that never wished to die.

IV. I CONCILI GENERALI D'A.

I due primi concili africani di cui abbiamo memoria sono quelli del 251 e del 252, tenuti da s. Cipriano a Cartagine, per regolare la questione dello scisma di Felicissimo e quella dei lapsi. Vi intervennero vescovi di molte diocesi, anche assai lontane da Cartagine.

Vivente ancora s. Cipriano, Cartagine fu sede di tre concili generali (autunno del 256, primavera del 257, sett. del 257) nei quali fu discussa la necessità del battesimo degli eretici, tesi sostenuta a viso aperto dal vescovo di Cartagine, ma che incontrò l'opposizione risoluta di papa Stefano, il quale minacciò la scomunica. Dato l'irrigidimento di s. Cipriano, le conseguenze sarebbero state gravi, per la comunione tra le due Chiese. Ma la morte del Pontefice prevenne ogni sentenza, e l'unità non fu rotta.

After the suppression of Donatism, enforced by force by the emperor Constantius in 347, the African Church devoted itself to a work of reorganization and restoration, especially of ecclesiastical discipline, which had been weakened in the preceding years. Each ecclesiastical province, among which was Byzacena, which was under the jurisdiction of Adrumetum, held its own assemblies, in which many matters of worship and discipline were resolved in the same manner. The acts of the Synod of Adrumetum have been lost, but mention is expressly made of them in the general African Synod of 348 or 349, in which canon 13, against usury, was a confirmation of that of Adrumetum (cf. P. Monceaux, *Histoire littéraire de l'Afrique chrétienne*, III, Paris 1905, pp. 213-14).

Council of 349. — General synod held at Carthage, under the presidency of the African primate Gratus, in 349 or the year before, to celebrate the end of the Donatist schism and the restoration of religious unity, but above all to confirm the decisions of the various provincial synods that had preceded it with a view to restoring ecclesiastical discipline, which had greatly declined during the preceding disturbances. Hence

(Fig. 1. Nuz.)
AFRICA - Vasi dell'A. Centrale.

citranti ed altri avversari del monofisismo come Reparato di Cartagine, Primoso di Adrumeto, Teodoro di Cabarsussi, Vittore di Tunnuna, Facondo di Ermiana.

due specie di misure alle quali si volle far fronte con i 14 canoni decretati. I primi due e l’ultimo riguardano direttamente il donatismo, soppresso in apparenza, ma sempre pronto alla rivolta. Gli altri statuti invece risolvono questioni di culto e di disciplina. Essi si sono conservati quasi per intero sino ai nostri giorni.

Concilio del 386. — Sembra che sia in connessione con le decisioni adottate dal Sinodo romano dello stesso anno, in cui si discusse anche la questione dello scisma donatista. I nove canoni approvati dal sinodo furono comunicati dal papa Siricio alla Chiesa africana, che li adottò, compreso il can. 8, il quale imponeva che i chierici scismatici fossero riconciliati con l’imposizione delle mani.

Concilio del 646. — Ebbe come scopo la condanna del monotelismo. Spinti da s. Massimo il Confessore, campione del duotelismo, i vescovi africani di Numidia, della Bizacena e della Mauretania si riunirono all’inizio del 646 in tre sinodi provinciali. Poco dopo anche la Proconsolare, dove il seggio di Cartagine era vacante, si associava alle decisioni prese dall’episcopato africano. Di questi sinodi restano tre lettere sinodali, la prima delle quali è un documento collegato alle tre province ecclesiastiche indirizzato al papa Teodoro, perché intervenga a Costantinopoli e faccia desistere il patriarca Paolo dall’errore monotelita. La seconda è una lettera dei vescovi della Bizacena, indirizzata all’imperatore Costante II; la terza è la lettera sinodale al patriarca Paolo; per ultima una lettera del neometropolita di Cartagine, Vittore, al papa Teodoro, con preghiera di rimettere al patriarca Paolo la lettera sinodale precitata.

V. CRISTIANI

Le vestigia monumentali del cristianesimo formano due gruppi imponenti: edifici di culto e monumenti sepolcrali, gli uni e gli altri ricchi di iscrizioni. Ma nessuno degli edifici di culto è anteriore alla pace costantiniana.

Nothing remains, for example, of the house in which Christians gathered in CITA DELLA DOMUM, containing a triclinium and a library, as revealed by the minutes of the year 303 in the Gesta apud Zenophilum (CSEL, XXVI, pp. 185-97). However, the African monuments have the merit of having come down to us as they were at the time of the Arab conquest, i.e., at the end of the 7th century A.D. The buildings for worship were largely of the usual type: “oblongam habeat quadraturam, lateribus longioribus, brevioribusque frontibus, sicut pleraque basilicae constituuntur” (Augustine, Quaest. in Heptat., II, 177, 5). Nevertheless, in their details they displayed great variety.

Churches with a single nave are rare (Bir-Ben-Zir in Algeria); most have three naves, but not a few have five (Bir-Oum-Ali, Orléansville, Carthage, Sbiba, Thelepte); some have seven (St. Perpetua in Carthage, one at Tipasa later enlarged) or even nine, such as that of Damous-el-Karita in Carthage. In general, the spaciousness and development were facilitated by the low cost of land and labor, or by the proximity of raw materials. Construction is rarely of brick, more often of small stones, sometimes of large blocks of local stone.

In some cases, pre-existing structures were converted into places of worship, as at Maktar a Punic temple (basilica of Ksar-el-Amar) and the mausoleum of Q. Julius Piso (Bull. arch. du Comité, Feb. 1945, p. xx), or three civil basilicas at Madauros, Tipasa, and Dougqa. Usually the Christian basilicas of Africa do not have a true atrium, but only a simple vestibule; a true atrium with a portico is found at Tebessa, Ksar-el-Zit, and in one of the basilicas at Thelepte. The end wall

can terminate in a quadrilateral form, sometimes semicircular with a diameter as wide as the entire space, even in three-aisled churches; one group has an apse with two side chambers (prothesis and diaconicon) forming a separate unit; generally the apse is deeper than in Roman churches. The naves were not always divided by columns; sometimes by piers, or in part by columns and in part by piers. Access to the presbytery was provided by a single wide staircase, as at Kherbet Guidra, Lambesis, Sidi Mabrout, or by two small staircases on the sides, as at Benin, Mafitou, Morsott, Tipasa.

In the columns and pillars there remain traces of railings and an inscription by Mascula recalls the cancellus virginum. Railings also surrounded the memoriae of the martyrs venerated: “Habent honorabilem locum martyres sancti” (Agost., Serm. 273, 7). On the tombs of the martyrs or on their relics the altar was placed in the raised presbytery; for the most part in the middle of the choir, immediately before the apse or in the apse itself (“mensa Christi est illa in medio constituta”: Agost., Serm. 31: PL 38, 735). The altar was often made of wood (Optatus, De schism. Donatist., II, 21; Agost., Contra Crescon., III, 47; Confer. of 411: PL 11, 1316), and traces of it have been found in the basilica of Morsott and in the main one of Timgad.

Crypts or other cavities beneath the altars contained relics, recalled by inscriptions that often provide important details about the martyrs themselves. For example, one from Rouffach near Constantine: “Depositio cruoris sanctorum martyrum qui sunt passi sub preside Floro in civitate Milevitana in diebus turificiationis” (CIL, VIII, 19353). Floro was governor of Numidia in the year 303. An inscription from Ammedera recalls a group of martyrs “qui persecutionem Diocletiani et Maximiani divinis legibus passi sunt” (Bull. arch. du Comité, Feb. 1934, p. x1). The relics are of every kind; among about a hundred found, there are silver ones (G. B. De Rossi, Capsella argentea Africana, Rome 1889), alabaster, stone, clay, and glass. Sometimes they also contain relics of non-African martyrs, especially Roman ones. In Numidia the formulas Reliquiae and Mensa martyrum are frequent; the latter then spread also into Mauretania Sitifensis and the western part of Proconsularis.

Above the altar rose the ciborium supported by four columns (Sbeitla, Dermech, Siagu). Beneath the apse there is sometimes a crypt (Gemila, Dougla, Benin, Maktar). In the apse there is no evidence of the existence of windows; while the apses of Announa and of St. Salsa at Tipasa show that there were none. At Sicca Veneria the basilica of Dar-el-Kous, dedicated to St. Peter, presents inside the apse five semicircular niches with respective columns.

Upper galleries in the naves have been found only in the inner church in the citadel of Ammedera. At Oum-el-Abnab there is a basilica with two concentric apses. The walls of the naves were sometimes covered with paintings: in fact St. Augustine recalls the representation of the martyrdom of St. Stephen (Serm. 316: PL 38, 3434) and the sacrifice of Abraham, which he says was “tot locis pictum” (Contra Faustum, 22, 73: PL 42, 446), as well as “Petrus et Paulus cum Christo in pictis parietibus” (De consensu Evangelist., I, 10, 16: PL 34, 1049).

Remarkable is the architectural decoration in the basilica of Tigzirt on the capitals, pulvini, cornices, and arches.

The floors of the basilicas were in some places simply of beaten earth or terracotta, and paved with stone; elsewhere, however, they extended across the entire surface like a rich Oriental fabric, full of musical motifs and the richest colors obtained through the use of local stones, limestones, and even fragments of brick, but with a marvelous effect and freshness, featuring medallions, palm trees, vine tendrils, acanthus clusters, craters brimming with flowers and fruit, fish, birds, peacocks, waterfowl, gazelles, deer, crosses, and lozenges. Among the most notable are the floors of the basilicas at Gemila, Orléansville, El Mouassat, Tigzirt, Timgad, Tipasa, Rusguniae, Sidi-Abich, Fourna, and Taparura. A characteristic mural decoration in some basilicas of Tunisia consisted of a series of terracotta squares, about 0.27 meters on each side, with biblical scenes in relief.

Two representations deserve special mention: one of a basilica (ecclesia mater) in a museum at Tabarca (2.20 m x 1 m), and another of a bronze lamp found near Orléansville in 1850, later passing into the Basilewski collection.

Noteworthy is the series of baptisteries discovered near the churches, with basins of the most varied shapes, accessed by steps, usually three in number. Some are in the shape of a Greek cross, hexagonal, octagonal, or with rose windows, while others are square. Of entirely singular form—resembling a ship—is the one near a second basilica at Sbeitla, richly adorned with mosaics, as were many of the preceding ones, and still featuring the four columns that supported the ciborium, a feature also found in the baptisteries of Henchir Deheb, Announa, and Henchir Joubria.

The Christian buildings of Africa have suffered more in recent times from the construction of new settlements and railway lines than during the Arab domination. The same applies to the funerary monuments, which are numerous given the density of the Christian population. Most were above ground; only where the terrain permitted was it possible to have small chamber tombs in the rock or small hypogea (Cherchell, Tipasa, Carthage); underground cemeteries of the Roman type were practiced only at Adrumetum.

In peace, memory, hic iacet; mostly these are inscriptions from the 5th and 6th centuries. In Numidia, epitaphs with *memoria, hic requiescit*, and *reditio* are common, while in Mauretania Sitifensis they feature *memoria* and *mensa*. In Caesariensis (corresponding roughly to the present-day departments of Algiers and Oran), Christianity spread first along the coasts, then along the military line not far inland, and finally along the more southerly military line established by Septimius Severus.

The very eastern part of Mauretania Caesariensis has yielded the oldest Christian inscriptions; these are small cippi of local limestone. One from Tipasa bears the date 238 (CIL, VIII, 20856). One from Tigizit is from 299 (Bull. arch. du Comité, 1896, p. 217). The oldest inscriptions discovered in the western zone are those of Altava, which range from 302 to 320.

---

**Areae** was the name given to Christian cemeteries in Africa from the time of Tertullian (Ad Scapulam, 3: PL 1, 701). *Area* was the term used for the place where St Cyprian was buried; *area ad sepulchra* was that of Cherchell, containing a cell offered to the Holy Church by the senator Marcus Antonius Julius Severianus (CIL, VIII, 9585). But we also find the term *coemeterium* (Tertullian, De anima, 51: PL 2, 738), *coemeteria memoria gentis Lepidiorum* (G. B. De Rossi, Roma sott., I, Roma 1864, p. 85) and *accubitorium* in an inscription recalling how the priest Victor “hunc locum cunctis fratribus fecit” (CIL, VIII, 9586).

In these cemeteries marble, local stone and terracotta sarcophagi were used. Some carved ones come from Cherchell, Lambesis, Tipasa, Dellys, Carthage, Philippeville, Tebessa; other tombs are of masonry, others of tiles arranged in a capuchin style; others consist of simple amphorae. Many graves are encrusted with mosaics containing inscriptions, portraits of the deceased, biblical scenes, Christograms and symbols, flowers, birds, etc. The most notable examples are found at Tabarca, Uppenna and Thibari; at Hadrumetum they are also found in underground cemeteries.

Christian sepulchral epigraphy is impressive in number, if not in the antiquity of the inscriptions. In the Proconsular province, especially at Carthage, the formulae used are *fidelis*, *fidelis in pace*, *praecessit* (CIL, VIII, 9862, 9885, 21734, 9892, 9855, 9890). Then comes the famous inscription of Renault, from the year 329 (CIL, VIII, 21517), which recalls a group of four local martyrs, two of whom appear under the same day in the Hieronymian Martyrology.

At the Conference of Carthage in 411 many bishops of this region, Catholic and Donatist, were present. The sister of one of them was Robba, “cadea traditorum vexata,” on 25 March 434 at Ala Miliaria (Benian). Over her tomb the Donatists built a basilica with a crypt.

At the end of the 5th century, in 495, at Muzzaïaville a bishop was buried who, after being exiled several times, was killed “in bello Maurorum” (CIL, VIII, 9286), in a rebellion against Vandal rule; and in 508 a certain Masuna styles himself “rex gentium Maurorum et Romanorum” (CIL, VIII, 9835).

Even after the Arab conquest in 683, Christianity in Africa left its monumental traces; Christian communities in small groups withdrew into the interior of both Mauretania Caesariensis and Byzacena; there is mention of a bishop at Gafsa still in the 9th century; and according to al-Idrisi of the Latin dialect in the 12th century. At Kairouan, in the centre of Tunisia, an epitaph of a reader who died in 1030 has been found, possibly contemporary with a fragment already known that had been attributed to the Byzantine period (CIL, VIII, 23128; Bull. arch. du Comité, 1928, p. 370 ff.).

For Carthage, Cherchell, Gemila, Lambesis, Madauros, Orléansville, Sufetula, Sicca Veneria, Tebessa, Tigzirt, Timgad see the individual entries.

R. Cagnat - P. Gauckler, Monuments historiques de la Tu-nisie, Parigi 1898; S. Gsell, Monuments antiques de l'Algérie, 2 voll., Parigi 1901; J. Mesnage, L'A. Chrétienne, Parigi 1912; P. Gauckler, Basiliques chrétiennes de la Tunisie, Parigi 1913; S. Gsell, Inscriptions latines de l'Algérie, I, Parigi 1922; J. Sauer, Der Kirchenbau Nordafrikas in den Tagen des hl. Augustinus, in M. Grabmann-J. Mausbach, Augustinus Festschrift, Colonia 1930, pp. 243-300; Atti del III e IV Congresso Int. di Arch. crist., Città del Vaticano 1934, pp. 387-427; 1940, pp. 145-244; A. Berthier, Les vestiges du Christianisme antique dans la Numidie, Algeri 1943; A. Merlin, Inscriptions latines de la Tunisie, Parigi 1944.

Enrico Joni

VI. STORIA CRISTIANA MEDIEVALE E MODERNA.

La prima A. cristiana, cioè la Chiesa romano-africana, la Chiesa di Tertulliano, di Cipriano, di Agostino, andò sommersa irrimediabilmente sotto le ondate travolgenti, prima dei Vandali (sec. v), poi il Congo ad occidente, indi il Capo di Buona Spe-ranza, infine, ad oriente, il Mozambico e il Ma-dagascar. Nella Guinea lavorarono i Gesuiti, poi i Carmelitani e i Cappuccini, con risultati dapprima assai modesti e poi man mano più discreti. La missione del Congo conobbe periodi di un certo splendore, sotto il red d'ingegno convertito Alfonso, al cui figlio, En-rico, il papa Leone X concesse una dignità ecclesia-stica (forse di protonotario apostolico; altri vuole sia stato eletto vescovò); ma, nonostante tutto, la mis-sione implicata essa stessa nel commercio degli schiavi, si trascinò con poco personale, e decadde già prima ancora della morte del suo «Costantino» (1546). Ripresa nel corso del secolo successivo dai Gesuiti, non ebbe troppa fortuna; fu ravvivata dai Cappuccini nel sec. XVII, con alterne vicende. Sulla costa orien-tale, da sud a nord, si crearono quattro missioni, in quattro regioni o «imperi» indigeni: ad Inhambane, dove in tre settimane tutto il paese, col suo re, venne convertito e battezzato (1560), ma dove dopo due anni si tornò allo stato primitivo; a Monomotapa (il «regno di terra

Africa - Ammaedera. Basilica located at the western extremity of Islam (7th century). The Christian Churches of Egypt and Ethiopia, having fallen into Monophysite heresy and hemmed in by the Arab-Moslem world, somehow survived, dragging themselves down to the present day, but in a state of moral servitude.

Here there was a place of great importance where a monastery of St Francis was founded.
AFRICA - Ammaccera. Basilica located at the western extremity.

of Islamism (7th century). The Christian Churches of Egypt and Ethiopia, having fallen into Monophysite heresy and imprisoned by the Arab-Mahommetan world, survived in some manner, dragging themselves down to the present day, but in a state of moral servitude and without any ferment of vitality. Africa was cut off from Christian Europe. In the Middle Ages there is no mention of Christian life in Africa except on the northern coasts, first with the chapels established there for the spiritual assistance of the Italian colonies, founded by the maritime republics (Genoa, Pisa, Amalfi, etc.); then with the first attempts at true apostolate directed toward the natives, especially in Tunis and Morocco, by the Order of the Franciscans, whose founder himself went on three such missions. The Dominicans, like the Franciscans, encouraged by the Popes, also took part in these early missions to the Saracens; martyrdom did not deter either of them.

It was in the age of geographical discoveries by the Portuguese that African missions can be said to have begun, though they did not extend much beyond the coastal regions, nor more than the colonization itself. Unfortunately, once the Portuguese had found the route to the Indies, they turned their “covetous commercial aims” toward it, the primary reason for the failure of that apostolate, which was too superficial and insufficiently supported from Lisbon. In any case, the missionaries reached all the points attained by the Portuguese traders: Guinea and “dell'Oro” (to which the Portuguese captain paid tribute), where there was the same rapid conversion and equally rapid end, since after only one year (1561) Islam gained the upper hand over the king, the missionary was killed, and Christianity disappeared. In the following century both these missions were resumed, and the entire region of Mozambique (1612) was erected into a “perpetual vicariate” and detached from the jurisdiction of Goa. In Mombasa—a third mission—the Augustinians converted the king and the country, but in 1630 both reverted to Islamism, the missionaries were massacred, and Portugal lost the colony. The last mission begun at the time of the discoveries, Madagascar, experienced more or less similar vicissitudes, but with a greater continuity of apostolate from 1540 to 1667; however, catastrophe also struck Madagascar.

The mission to Ethiopia, the only mission in a non-pagan but Christian-Monophysite country, had two distinct periods, the first (1557–77) directed by Bishop Oviedo and ending with the relegation of the missionaries (Jesuits) to their residence; the other, more successful, directed from 1604 to 1622—the year of his death—by Fr. Paez, a man of great worth, who led the mission to triumph; in 1626 King Susenios made a profession of Catholic faith along with much of the nobility and people. In 1629 Catholics were estimated at 130,000. But King Fasiladas, who succeeded Susenios in 1632,

Already before this, as head of the opposition, incited by the monks and also irritated by the not always prudent tactics of Mendez, successor of Fr. Paez, he exiled the missionaries; everything returned to as it was before or nearly so, and for two long centuries the mission could not be resumed.

The general decline of the missions, which occurred from about the middle of the 17th century to the end of the following century, under the influence of various factors (cf. MISSIONS: history), also manifested itself in the African missions. Local causes were added to these. Under Gregory XIII the Jesuits (1582–95) and later the French Capuchins under Urban VIII had attempted the conversion of the Copts in Egypt—1630, in Cairo—followed towards the end of that century by others who reached as far as the mouths of the Nile; while the Friars Minor, from the Custody of the Holy Land, had sent chaplains to the ports of Alexandria and Cairo, whence they also extended their care to those condemned to the galleys of Suez and Alexandria. The Jesuits too—late 17th century—were present in Cairo. Despite sporadic successes (in 1713, the profession of the Catholic faith by the Greek patriarch Samuel Capassuli), so much so that Benedict XIV erected a bishopric in Jerusalem for converts, the Copts generally remained hostile to Westerners. From Egypt, encouraged by the Congregation of Propaganda, the Capuchins and the Friars Minor attempted to revive the mission in Ethiopia; but this enterprise failed; of the former, Fathers Agatangelo and Cassiano were hanged at Gondar as soon as they set foot in the forbidden empire (1638), and the Friars Minor, to whom the mission, erected into an apostolic prefecture, was entrusted, achieved no more encouraging results in their renewed attempts to enter and reside in the country; the difficulty of access at first, then the instability of the kings (of whom only a few seemed favourably disposed) and especially the opposition of the monks rendered these heroic attempts at revival sterile until the end of the 18th century. At the same time in Algeria and Morocco there were no lack of priests and religious (besides the Franciscans also the Trinitarians and Mercedarians), but their activity remained limited exclusively to the care of European merchants and the redemption of slaves, an undertaking to which in Tunisia the new congregation of the Lazarists of St Vincent de Paul also devoted itself.

Africa experienced several expeditions with a particularly missionary intent (especially by the Capuchins), but all failed in their purpose. The Propaganda attempted to revive the missions of Guinea, the Congo, and Angola, which were languishing in the mid-17th century, relying especially on the zeal of the Capuchins; but due to Portuguese hostility, the unhealthy climate, and Dutch persecution, by the end of the 18th century all these missions were in a state of decline that seemed incurable. The mission in Madagascar fared less poorly, first with the Carmelites and then with the Lazarists, but even this came to an end because of the discontinuity of missionaries and intense conflicts; the French Revolution ultimately put an end to any possibility of overseas apostolate. Thus, toward the end of the 18th century, the African Church, despite the efforts made, was in progressive decline and very close to extinction; in addition to the already mentioned environmental and methodological causes, Islamism, which Portugal had deluded itself into thinking it had defeated by circumventing it, re-emerged and once again manifested itself with increasing force.

The Church in Africa began its true rebirth only in the first half of the 19th century. Several factors contributed to this rebirth: the rediscovery (it is fitting to call it such) of Africa, through the initiative of explorers; its colonial division among the various European nations; the general revival of missionary spirit (v. MISSIONOLOGIA, storia: sec. XIX), which for Africa received particular impetus from the anti-slavery movement; the flourishing of new missionary institutes, specialized for Africa (Society of the Holy Spirit, Society of the White Fathers, African Missions of Lyon in France, African Missions of Verona and Consolata in Italy). Science, politics, and faith seemed to assault Africa at the same time, and the Berlin Conference of 1885 in a way sanctioned this takeover, officially opening the African continent to missions, whether Catholic or Protestant. In this way, the evangelization of Africa truly began, extending to all the wounds of the continent and penetrating into the most remote regions, among all peoples, studying, uplifting, and evangelizing.

and already before this, as leader of the opposition, incited by the monks and irritated also by the not always prudent tactics of Mendez, successor of Fr. Paez, he exiled the missionaries; everything returned to as it was before or nearly so, and for two long centuries the mission could not

The northern Africa, colonized by France (Algiers was the first gateway to the interior), by Spain and by Italy, was thus opened to European immigration, which brought about the disappearance of the slave trade and secured the right of citizenship for Christianity, which, though it did not eliminate the numerical superiority of Islam, curbed its dominance. The harshness of the climate, it is true, barred the way to the interior, but the apostolate did not yield and finally spread into the equatorial-western part (1841), creating the mission of the Two Guineas, which extended from Senegal to the Cape. In successive waves, the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit and those of Lyon worked there, distributed gradually into new smaller territorial subdivisions—such as Sierra Leone, Dahomey, Nigeria, the Gold Coast, the Ivory Coast, Gabon, Ubanghi, etc.—and they gave birth to the first indigenous Christian communities. Togo and Cameroon, which passed to Germany, were evangelized by the Pallottines and the Divine Word Fathers, and the Congo, which became Belgian, by missionaries from the metropolis belonging to various societies and religious congregations, favored by a wise colonial legislation.

Almost the same process unfolded in central-eastern Africa, with Zanzibar (1868) as the starting point, the slave-trading emporium which only a few years earlier had seen an annual movement of 65,000 slaves. Apostles of this difficult region were the Fathers of the Holy Spirit, who established successive centers (Bagamoyo, Kilimanjaro, etc.), among which Kenya, which would later become almost entirely the preserve of the Consolata Missionaries. The White Fathers of Lavigerie, instead—and still do—occupied the region of the Great Lakes: Nyanza, Tanganyika, Nyassa, from which the first missions took their names (1878); an arduous apostolate, even tragic (1886: martyrs of Uganda, q.v.), but exceedingly fruitful, especially in Uganda itself, and, after the war of 1914–1918, in the neighboring mandates of Urundi and Ruanda, which today, together with Cameroon and Madagascar, constitute the most prosperous missions in the world.

In north-eastern Africa, in the 19th century, the missions resumed the threads of a nearly buried past, as in Egypt and Ethiopia, and took the first difficult steps into the barren Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. In Egypt the apostolate increasingly assumed a European character, in conformity with the ethnic character of the country, while native Muslims remained almost inaccessible and only the Copts were somewhat approachable. Ethiopia, following the Italian occupation (1936) and the reorganization of its missionary network, seemed poised for a more intense and coordinated evangelization; but then everything reverted to its former state, and indeed worsened. The Sudan—the ancient mission of Central Africa, the field of labor of Comboni—still barren in its Muslim north, has however given rise to new and more recent offshoots in the south, where the Verona Fathers are gathering modest fruits.

The missions in Australia are even more backward, both because of the priority given to the care of souls demanded by the large European immigrant element, and because of the preponderance of Protestantism, which was already dominant in the field, as well as the not infrequent legislative hostility toward the Catholic Church and the intensity of the social question, given the strong racial opposition. The ostracism against Catholicism did not come to an end until 1868. Nevertheless, through the persistent work of missionaries, especially the Oblates of Mary and the Fathers of Mariannhill, good results were achieved, and what is most important, Catholicism succeeded in gaining esteem and respect.

The insular Africa, despite the serious initial difficulties, the struggles and persecutions of Protestants and later those of the sects that held sway in government, today represents one of the most fortunate fields.

VII. CURRENT STATE OF THE MISSIONS

At present, the statistics of the African missions report 10 million Catholics, of whom more than seven and a half million represent the strictly missionary contribution of this last century of evangelization among the true sons of Africa; the rest are accounted for by regions with ordinary hierarchy and not dependent on the Congregation of Propaganda (Algiers and its suffragan sees, Carthage and the eastern territorial units). More precisely, in 1939—the last general statistics available—the Propaganda missions had 7,608,580 Catholics, a total that in recent years must certainly have increased; the catechumens, again in ’39, numbered 2,291,606; the missionaries 5,330, the coadjutor brothers