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arXiv · 2604.04777

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

Hector Galindo-Silva
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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.

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Hector Galindo-Silva. 2026-04-06. Colonial Rule and Religious Change: Evidence from Africa's Colonial Borders. https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.04777

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