Ramanuja (New Delhi: Oriental, 1978); Ramnarayan
Vyas, The Bhagavata Bhakti Cult and the Three Acaryas,
Sankara, Ramanuja and Vallabha (Delhi: Nag, 1977).
advaita Fellowship See NISARGADATTA
MAHARAJ.
Africa, Hinduism in
Hinduism is practiced throughout the African
continent but is primarily focused in South Africa,
Kenya, Tanzania, and Ghana. According to 2000
census data, nearly 1 million Hindus live in South
Africa, the largest concentration of followers on
the continent.
India has had a long history of interaction with
East Africa, first recorded as trade during the time
of the Roman Empire, which exported products
and slaves from East Africa and imported Indian
cloth and spices. An Indian presence in Africa has
been discovered at archaeological sites in Zim-
babwe and the Swahili coast. Remains of small
Indo-African colonies have also been identified
on Madagascar and Zanzibar. Zanzibar appears to
have been the center of South Asian mercantilism,
which predated the entry of the Europeans. Even
today words from Indian languages can be found
in the Swahili language.
The trade initiated by the Roman Empire
ebbed for centuries, but the onset of European
colonization of Africa and India, and particu-
larly the British Empire, renewed communication
between East Africa and India, as Kenya, Uganda,
and South Africa became part of the British
Empire and began to be settled by South Asian
colonists. Europeans presided over a flourishing
of trade across the Indian Ocean that included
the German colony of Tanzania (German East
Africa), although they also suppressed the slave
trade. The Indian community in Zanzibar grew to
include Hindus, Muslims, Roman Catholics from
Goa, Buddhists from Sri Lanka, Sikhs, and Parsees
(Zoroastrians from India).
Construction by the British of the Kenya-
Uganda railway generated another emigration of
South Asian workers to East Africa. First Muslims,
and later Hindus, arrived as construction laborers.
After completion of the railway, many remained
to create Indian bazaars and shops along the new
line. The British practice of separating different
ethnic groups into homogeneous colonies kept
Indian immigrants in segregated communities.
Racist attitudes and policies among the European
colonists prompted various South Asian groups
to organize politically. Schools were founded in
order to educate South Asians. After World War
II, nationalist movements among the indigenous
African population channeled resentment of the
financial success of the Asians and threatened the
South Asian communities. Even under duress,
South Asians continued to immigrate to East
Africa and to assist in the development of Hindu
communities there.
The majority of the Hindu population in East
Africa is from the Gujarat (70 percent) and Punjab
regions; all but the lowest castes are represented.
As a result of constant communication with India,
Hindus in East Africa practice the religion of the
subcontinent, although members of the different
castes interact more freely in East Africa than in
India. Various temples allow the Hindu popula-
tion to worship their respective deities.
In 1972 Idi Amin expelled all Hindus from
Uganda. Twenty years later Uganda allowed the
Hindu population to return. Today there are two
Hindu temples in Uganda, and 65 percent of the
South Asian population in Uganda is Hindu.
The Hindu population continues to be sepa-
rate from other ethnic and religious groups in
Africa, as the indigenous and European popula-
tions of Africa tend to be primarily Christian or
Muslim. Modern movements, such as the VEDANTA
SOCIETIES and RAMAKRISHNA MAT H AND MISSION
and the SAT YA SAI BABA movement can be found,
although traditional Hinduism and Hindu move-
ments remain of interest to the immigrants and
their descendants.K 10 advaita Fellowship