# African Initiated Churches · The Canon · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

Source: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/atlas/library/canon/african-initiated-churches/ · The Congregation of Tomorrow · the Atlas · language: en
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The Canon · No. 122
African Initiated Churches
AICs; African Independent Churches; Zionist and Aladura churches
c.1890s CE – present · Abrahamic · Living · South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, DR Congo, Zimbabwe, Ghana
VIII. POSTWAR & CONTEMPORARY — 1945 – PRESENT
### How many
### Who began it
### What it is for
### What it worships
### What it holds
### What it does
### After death
### Its texts
### Its branches
### Of note
### Its timeline
- 1880s–1900s CE Ethiopian movement in South Africa: African clergy leave mission churches over racial exclusion.
- 1913–15 CE William Wadé Harris walks through the Ivory Coast and Gold Coast baptising an estimated 100,000–200,000 people in eighteen months, one of the fastest mass conversions in Christian history.
- 1910 CE Isaiah Shembe founds the Nazareth Baptist Church in Natal.
- 1921 CE Simon Kimbangu begins healing in the Belgian Congo; within months the colonial authorities arrest him. He is imprisoned for thirty years and dies in 1951 without release.
- 1924 CE Engenas Lekganyane founds the Zion Christian Church.
- 1930 CE Oshitelu founds the Church of the Lord (Aladura) in Nigeria.
- 1959 CE The Kimbanguist Church is legalised; it joins the World Council of Churches in 1969, the first AIC to do so.
- 1960s–90s CE Enormous growth across the continent; by the 1990s AICs are a large share of African Christianity.
- 1990s–present Overlap and competition with neo-Pentecostal churches, which are growing faster and are more urban, prosperity-oriented and media-driven.
### Sources
Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.
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