<P> The Bahá'í Faith in Africa has a diverse history . It is the 3rd most widespread organized Abrahamic religion in Africa after Islam and Christianity after its wide - scale growth in the 1950s and extend in the 1960s . The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia) lists many large and smaller populations in Africa with Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa and Zambia among the top ten numerical populations of Bahá'ís in the world in 2005 (each with over 200,000 adherents), and Mauritius in terms of percentage of the national population . </P> <P> All three individual heads of the religion, Bahá'u'lláh, ` Abdu'l - Bahá, and Shoghi Effendi, were in Africa at various times . More recently the roughly 2000 Bahá'ís of Egypt have been embroiled in the Egyptian identification card controversy from 2006 through 2009 . Since then there have been homes burned down and families driven out of towns . On the other hand, Sub-Saharan Bahá'ís were able to mobilize for nine regional conferences called for by the Universal House of Justice 20 October 2008 to celebrate recent achievements in grassroots community - building and to plan their next steps in organizing in their home areas . </P> <P> Christianity is now one of the most widely practiced religions in Africa along with Islam and is the largest religion in Sub-Saharan Africa . Most adherents outside Egypt, Ethiopia and Eritrea are Roman Catholic or Protestant . Several syncretistic and messianic sects have formed throughout much of the continent, including the Nazareth Baptist Church in South Africa and the Aladura churches in Nigeria. There is also fairly widespread populations of Seventh - day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses . The oldest Christian denominations in Africa are the Coptic church in Egypt and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, all Oriental Orthodox, which rose to prominence in the fourth century AD after King Ezana the Great made Ethiopia one of the first Christian nations . </P> <P> In the first few centuries of Christianity, Africa produced many figures who had a major influence outside the continent, including St Augustine of Hippo, St Maurice, Origen, Tertullian, and three Roman Catholic popes (Victor I, Miltiades and Gelasius I), as well as the Biblical characters Simon of Cyrene and the Ethiopian eunuch baptised by Philip the Evangelist . Christianity existed in Ethiopia before the rule of King Ezana the Great of the Kingdom of Axum, but the religion took a strong foothold when it was declared a state religion in 330 AD, becoming one of the first Christian nations . The earliest and best known reference to the introduction of Christianity to Africa is mentioned in the Christian Bible's Acts of the Apostles, and pertains to the evangelist Phillip's conversion of an Ethiopian traveler in the 1st century AD . Although the Bible refers to them as Ethiopians, scholars have argued that Ethiopia was a common term encompassing the area South - Southeast of Egypt . </P>

Which religion has the highest population in africa