Zimbabwe is aChristian majority country, with adherents ofIslam being a small minority. Due to the secular nature of Zimbabwe's constitution,Muslims are free to proselytize and build places of worship in the country. Islam is the religion of less than 1 percent of the population ofZimbabwe.[1]
In the middle ages, the Muslims of theSwahili coast had contact withGreat Zimbabwe. From their outposts atSofala,Inhambane,Quelimane and along the Zambezi River atTete and Sena they would bring luxuries from across the Indian Ocean to Zimbabwe in exchange for gold. Indeed, the economy of the greatKilwa Sultanate was dependant on the gold trade with Great Zimbabwe.
This continued with theMutapa Empire, but the coming of the Portuguese began to strain relations. In 1561 Muslims at the Mutapa capital convinced the king to killGonçalo da Silveira after he attempted to baptize the court. In retaliation the Portuguese launched a large campaign with 1000 men in 1568 and the Swahili traders of the Zambezi were massacred with revolting cruelty.[2]
After this Muslim presence in Zimbabwe declined. Although in 1630s the Mutapa gave granted a small territory to a Muslim Sharif. A decade later in the Torwa civil war of the 1640s many Muslims were killed. Thereafter any Muslims left in Zimbabwe gradually assimilated into the Shona culture. The only remnants of the former Islamic presence in Zimbabwe is in the fragments of Islamic influence among the Lemba peoples.[3]
Estimates on the number of Muslims in Zimbabwe are around 136,000 as of 2020.[4] The Muslim community consists primarily ofSouth Asian immigrants (Indian and Pakistani), a small but growing number of indigenous Zimbabweans, and migrants from other African countries such as theYao tribe of neighbouringMalawi.[5] There are mosques located in nearly all of the larger towns. As a result of outreach efforts in rural areas, some chiefs and headmen have reportedly converted from Christianity to Islam.[6]
TheLemba or Remba are an ethnic group in Zimbabwe who have cultural traditions similar to Muslims in the Middle East, such as male circumcision.[7]
An estimated 1 percent of the total population is Muslim.
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