SA Secualr Society member, Jessie-Lee Smith examines trends in religious and non-religious beliefs in South Africa.
Historically, religion has been integral to South Africa’s identity, influencing its socio-political landscape. For example, during apartheid, the ruling National Party leaned heavily on Calvinist theology from the Dutch Reformed Church to justify racial segregation. This rhetoric was woven into the fabric of many South African cultures with the policy of Christian National Education (CNE). CNE shaped the entire school curriculum, promoting conservative Christian morality while marginalizing other religions and worldviews.
However, the 1993 Interim Constitution incorporated special considerations for human rights, including freedom of religion. Since then, the country has maintained constitutional protections for different faiths and non-religious beliefs. Today, over 85% of South Africans still identify with a Christian church, making Christianity the dominant religion in the country.
Religious belief systems
Christianity falls under the umbrella of theism, which maintains that a deity or deities created the universe and continue to actively participate in the world’s activities and human history. However, in 2022, traditional African religions were the second-largest religious group in South Africa at 7,8% of the population. These traditional religions take on many forms and are not inherently theist in nature.
A theist believes that a god/gods/or deity(s) created the world, man, and the universe and maintains participation and stake in its activities and human behaviour. Other theist systems in South Africa include Islam (1.6%), Hinduism (1.1%), and Judaism (0.1%).
Deism teaches that God created the universe and started it functioning, but is no longer actively involved in it and does not interfere with it. Deists reject traditional Christian doctrines such as the Trinity, the deity of Christ, and miracles, regarding God as uninvolved in human affairs.
Pantheism comes from the Greek words pân (all) and Theós (God). This religious belief system departs from theism because it does not acknowledge traditional notions of a personal god or gods. Instead, pantheists generally see everything in the universe as part of a single, all-encompassing divine reality. Pantheists tend to see everything, every rock, every tree, and every person as god.
Non-religious belief systems
According to the South African National Census, in 1996, 11.7% of the South African population reported being non-religious, increasing to 15.1% in 2001. However, this trajectory shifted in the 2016 Community Survey, where the religiously unaffiliated population dropped to 10.7%. The latest statistics from the 2022 National Census showed a dramatic drop to 2.9% of individuals reporting having no religious affiliation.
While little is known about how many religiously unaffiliated South Africans classify themselves, a growing range of terms used to describe the nuances of being religiously unaffiliated exist. Many of these terms can overlap, and individuals may identify as more than one at any time.
Agnosticism and Atheism
In its 2013 General Household Survey, South Africa distinguished agnosticism and atheism from unreligiously affiliated. Agnosticism and atheism were separated and further distinguished in South Africa’s 2016 Community Survey.
Agnostic, derived from the Greek agnōstos (“unknowable”), was popularised in 1869 by biologist and anthropologist T. H. Huxley. The term emphasises that humans cannot definitively know what lies beyond their direct experience and, at its core, it maintains that claims about God or the supernatural should be grounded in evidence that humans generally lack.
In contemporary times, agnosticism may take two forms: secular or religious. Secular agnostics generally argue that humans can neither accept nor deny the existence of a deity, god, or higher power. On the other hand, religious agnostics may accept or hold a belief in the existence of a god but believe that evidence for which religious doctrine (if any) holds the most truth is insufficient.
Unlike agnostics, atheists are generally understood to reject a higher power or god altogether. Stemming from the Greek term átheos (without god), atheism is primarily a critique and denial of belief in God or spiritual beings. Many atheists argue that their beliefs stem from there being no convincing evidence for God’s existence or that the very concept of a transcendent, non-empirical God is incoherent.
However, despite essentially rejecting the existence of a god or gods, many modern atheists remain “fallible”, which means they remain open to future evidence proving the existence of god while maintaining that current reasons for belief are unpersuasive.
Other non-religious beliefs
Nonthiesm is often used as an umbrella term to describe a belief system which does not subscribe to any belief in gods or deities. The term is often used interchangeably with atheists. However, nontheists may not hold the same active rejection of active disbelief in a god or gods. Similar to apatheism, nontheism implies indifference or silence or indifference to the topic of religion.
First coined by Canadian sociologist Stuart Johnson, apatheism describes an attitude of indifference and disinterest in whether God exists. Johnson used the word to describe the kind of lack of concern toward religion that accompanies an ever-secularizing society.
Coming from the Dutch term “iets” (something), Ietism is similar to religious agnosticism. However, it can be argued that Ietsists are more solidified in their belief that there must be something beyond the observable world. Ietsists reject religious definitions about the nature of “something” but believe in some kind of higher power, cosmic force, or spiritual dimension.
Traditional African philosophies
According to a 2009 Pocket Guide to South Africa’s People, a small percentage of non-religious South Africans do not belong to any major religions but regard themselves as traditionalists with no specific religious affiliation. These religiously unaffiliated individuals may only nominally or culturally be affiliated with a religious tradition and their superstitions.
Ubuntu is an African philosophy that emphasises community, interconnectedness and shared humanity. It is derived from the Nguni phrase Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu, meaning “a person is a person through others.” Ubuntu promotes values such as compassion, reciprocity, dignity, and mutual care, encouraging collective well-being over individualism. It underscores the belief that one’s identity and success are deeply tied to the community and that cooperation, respect, and ethical engagement with others are essential for societal harmony.
(Photo: Wiki Commons)
Contemporary philosophies
Contemporary philosophies generally refer to modern worldviews that do not rely on religious or supernatural frameworks to address questions about human existence, morality, knowledge, and purpose. Instead, they base their principles and ethical guidelines on reason, science, human experience, and shared human values.
Humanists tend to be atheists. However, this belief system, or worldview, places specific values on humans and their capacity for self-determination. Humanists trust the scientific method when seeking to understand how the universe works and maintain a conviction that the universe or nature is all that exists or is real. In South Africa, humanists often advocate for social justice, equality, and environmental sustainability, aligning their worldview with actionable values.
An existentialist embraces or aligns with existentialist philosophy, emphasising individual freedom, personal responsibility, and the search for meaning in an indifferent or meaningless universe. An existentialist may believe people define their purpose through choices and actions rather than adhering to predetermined religious, societal, or moral structures. They often grapple with themes of absurdity, anxiety, and authenticity, recognising that freedom comes with the burden of responsibility.
Conclusion
South Africa’s religious landscape has remained dominated by Christianity, arguably influenced by early European missionaries and Apartheid’s dominating Calvinist theology. Despite the dominance of a theist landscape, traditional African religions are second most popular at 7.8% of the population. These religions may be theistic, while some see divinity in all things (pantheists) or believe in a divine being who created the universe but remains uninvolved (deists).
Since the 1990s, census data has revealed shifting patterns among those who consider themselves non-religious, with 2022 figures indicating that only 2.9% of South Africans reported no religious affiliation. While they make up almost 2,000,000 people, little research has been done into identifying precisely what belief systems non-religious South Africans ascribe to. Non-religious people may identify with various terms describing different philosophies and/or belief systems. For example, Agnostics emphasise uncertainty about the existence of deities, while atheists reject any notion of a higher power. Those who consider themselves religiously unaffiliated may also be indifferent to religion altogether (apatheists). Still others align with non-religious philosophies or traditions, such as humanism and existentialism, or traditional African philosophies, such as Ubuntu.
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