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Religion and History in the Republic of the Congo
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
The Republic of the Congo, commonly called Congo-Brazzaville to distinguish it from its much larger neighbor across the river, is a majority Christian country, roughly nine in ten people, split between Roman Catholics carrying a French colonial legacy and a fast-growing Protestant and revivalist Christian population whose churches now rival the older Catholic parishes in size and visibility in the capital. A small Muslim minority, concentrated among West African migrant communities in the cities, and adherents of Kimbanguism, a Congolese-founded Christian movement with roots in the wider Congo basin, sit alongside communities still practicing traditional beliefs centered on ancestor veneration and nature spirits.
Those traditional beliefs remain most visible in rural areas the country's decades of civil conflict left underserved by any organized church, a reminder that the Christian majority figure conceals real unevenness in how thoroughly church infrastructure actually reaches the country's population outside its cities.
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