Foreign powers have consistently exploited Africa's pre-existing religious and ethnic tensions to advance their own geopolitical, economic, and strategic agendas, often to the detriment of African stability and sovereignty.

This exploitation has taken various forms, from the deliberate actions of colonial powers to the modern-day proxy wars fueled by rivalries in the Middle East and competition among global powers.

The core strategy is to repackage political or economic struggles as religious conflicts, which:

1. Provides a moral justification for external intervention.

2. Creates proxy forces that can be easily mobilized, funded, and controlled.

3. Fragment African resistance to foreign economic extraction.

1. Colonial Legacies: Manufacturing Divisions 🇬🇧🇫🇷

The foundation for the geopolitical exploitation of African religious tensions was laid during the colonial era through the deliberate strategy of "Divide and Rule."

A. The Creation of Divided Political Units

European colonial powers, particularly the British and French, drew arbitrary borders that amalgamated hostile or distinct religious and ethnic groups into single nations (e.g., Nigeria, Sudan, Rwanda). This intentional mixing created foundational cleavages that guaranteed perpetual internal conflict—a condition that prevented African unity and facilitated continued colonial control.

• Differential Religious Policy: Colonial administrations often favored one religious group over another for administrative and educational purposes. In Northern Nigeria, the British largely restricted Christian missionary activity to avoid upsetting the established Islamic authority, while promoting Christianity in the South. This created a religiously-bifurcated political elite that was destined to clash after independence, ensuring that post-colonial politics would be dominated by internal, often religiously-framed, regional competition rather than unified resistance to neocolonial influence.

• Undermining Cohesion: By portraying Indigenous African Religions (IARs) as "primitive" and promoting Christianity as the marker of "civilization," colonial powers sought to sever the spiritual basis of traditional authority and communal cohesion, creating a new class of religiously-aligned elites loyal to the external power.

B. Geopolitical Goal: Resource Control

The strategic goal of this division was to maintain cheap, unhindered access to Africa's vast natural resources (minerals, land, labor). A fractured, politically unstable Africa is one whose leaders are more reliant on external military or financial aid, making them easily co-opted and their resources readily accessible to foreign extractive interests.

2. Middle Eastern Rivalries: The Geopolitics of Religion 🇸🇦🇮🇷

In the post-Cold War era, African religious landscapes, particularly the Muslim-majority regions, have become a theater for the geopolitical competition between Middle Eastern powers, most notably the rivalry between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran.

A. Spreading Religious "Soft Power"

Both Iran and Saudi Arabia have engaged in significant religious soft power projection across Africa to increase their sphere of influence, often through the promotion of specific, sometimes radical, interpretations of Islam (Salafism by Saudi Arabia, and Shiism by Iran).

• Funding and Education: This involves large-scale funding for the construction of mosques, Islamic centers, and educational institutions, offering scholarships for African students to study in the Gulf or Iran, and disseminating religious literature and media (like satellite TV and digital content).

• Geopolitical Goal: Countering Rivals: For Saudi Arabia, this religious outreach was historically linked to counteracting rival ideologies like Pan-Arabism, and later, the influence of Iran. By promoting their specific brand of Islam, these states seek to cultivate a loyal religious and political constituency within African nations that aligns with their foreign policy goals. This competition introduces an external sectarian dimension that often exacerbates local tensions, as seen in Nigeria, where the geopolitical rivalry between the Gulf states manifests in competition between different religious trends.

B. Proxy Conflict and Destabilization in the Horn of Africa

The rivalry has become overtly destabilizing in the Horn of Africa, where it intersects with major shipping lanes and resource access (e.g., the Red Sea corridor).

• Funding Opposing Factions: The economic and political competition between Gulf states, such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, risks funding opposing factions in fragile countries like Sudan. What appears to be an internal civil war is often exacerbated by external actors providing arms and financial support to groups based on strategic interests, which may or may not align with existing ethnic or religious fault lines but are framed that way for mobilization. The control of strategic ports and gold resources, not religious doctrine, is the ultimate geopolitical prize.

3. Western and Global Powers: The Military Footprint 🇺🇸🇨🇳

Major global powers utilize the narrative of religious extremism and sectarian conflict to justify and expand their military and counter-terrorism presence in Africa.

A. Justifying Military Intervention

The threat of Islamist groups (like Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, and those in the Sahel) provides a convenient and potent pretext for external military involvement by Western powers, particularly the United States and France.

• The "Christian Genocide" Narrative: As observed in the case of Nigeria, some US political actors have promoted a narrative of "Christian genocide" to justify greater military intervention or the establishment of alternative military bases in West Africa. Nigerian officials have cautioned that this framing oversimplifies complex conflicts over resources and governance into a religious war, which in turn invites foreign interference that undermines the nation's sovereignty and unity.

• Geopolitical Goal: Strategic Access: This counter-terrorism agenda allows foreign powers to secure strategic military access to unstable regions like the Sahel and the Gulf of Guinea. The fight against religiously-motivated terrorism becomes the Trojan Horse for maintaining a geopolitical foothold essential for projecting global power, monitoring global shipping lanes, and competing with rising powers like China.

B. Competition for Influence

The growing economic presence of China and the renewed interest of Russia (often through paramilitary groups like the Wagner Group) in Africa creates a new layer of geopolitical competition. Western powers may indirectly exacerbate religious tensions or support certain regimes based on their religious/ethnic alignment to counter the influence of these other global rivals, prioritizing short-term strategic gains over long-term stability and cohesion.

Foreign powers have consistently leveraged Africa's deep-seated religious tensions to advance their geopolitical agendas by turning local cleavages into external proxy battles. From the colonial policy of deliberate amalgamation and selective religious patronage designed to prevent African political unity, to the modern-day funding of sectarian rivalries by Gulf states for regional dominance, and the use of the "extremism" narrative by Western powers to justify strategic military presence, the common thread is the exploitation of religious difference as a tool for power projection and economic extraction. The result is the perpetuation of conflict, political instability, and the fragmentation of African societies.

To understand how global competition plays out in Africa, you may find this video on Religious dynamics and geopolitical reconfigurations in Africa insightful.