Millions of African Catholics, as well as the continent’s leaders, are mourning a man who they felt spoke for Africa.

Home to nearly a fifth of the Church’s followers, or 272 million people, Africa is becoming increasingly important in the Catholic world, and observers say Pope Francis did a lot to raise the profile of the continent within the institution.

Heads of state reflected the sentiments of many describing how the late Pope spoke out for the marginalised.

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu called him a “tireless champion of the poor” and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa highlighted his “world view of inclusion [and] equality”.

The Vatican says that over the past year, seven million Africans have converted to Catholicism, making the continent one of the fastest-growing regions for the Church.

“This Pope has made a lot of efforts to make our faith inclusive… I remember him with joy,” Ghanaian Catholic Aba Amissah Quainoo told the BBC in the capital, Accra.

“He was really loved by all because of his stance on the poor and the marginalised,” Rev George Obeng Appah added.

At the Holy Family Basilica in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, Rosemary Muthui said worshippers there will remember the Pope as a man who brought change to the Church, especially in promoting equality.

“His love for the African Church was great, and we will miss him,” she told the BBC.

She said she met him when he went to Kenya a decade ago on the first of his five visits to the continent which took in 10 African countries in all.

His last in 2023 was to South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, Kitsita Ndongo Rachel did not hesitate when she broke protocol to personally meet the Pope.

“My heart was beating, I was less than 100 metres away. I slipped between the security agents; knelt down and asked the Pope for his blessing,” the journalist remembers.

“He blessed me, and he blessed my rosary.”

She says her actions were influenced by the Pope’s teachings which spoke to her about what can be done in her conflict-ridden country.

“When we listen to him, we feel that he wanted or he wants justice for the Democratic Republic of Congo, he knows that millions of people have died.”

Nigeria and Kenya have among the highest weekly church attendance rates globally, while DR Congo, Cameroon, Uganda and Angola also have strong Catholic communities.

“One of the biggest things Pope Francis did for Africa was to bring global attention to the continent’s importance in the Catholic Church,” said Charles Collins, managing editor of Crux, a leading Catholic news website covering Vatican affairs and Catholicism.

“He has not only spoken about Africa’s struggles but has physically gone to marginalised areas, showing solidarity with victims of war, displacement and injustice,” said Father Stan Chu Ilo, president of the Pan-African Catholic Theological Network.

During his 2015 trip to the Central African Republic, the Pope pressed home a message of peace amid conflict there.

In 2019, in a highly symbolic moment at the Vatican, the Pope knelt down and kissed the feet of South Sudan’s rival leaders. His trip to the country four years later was a special peace mission that included then Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

And in a letter sent in the last week of March, Pope Francis urged President Salva Kiir and First Vice-President Riek Machar “to prioritise peace, reconciliation and development for the benefits of their people – South Sudanese”.

But the need to make that plea speaks to the limits of the Pope’s power, as there are now fears the country could be on the brink of another civil war.

Despite the remarkable growth of the Church on the continent and the creation of new African cardinals, Africa remains underrepresented in high-ranking Vatican positions.

“The Catholic Church’s future is African, but it hasn’t yet translated into real influence at the Vatican. That shift is still to come,” Mr Collins said.

Now attention starts to turn to who will succeed him and whether an African could take the helm for the first time in 1,500 years.

“An African Pope is not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’ – because the Catholic Church in Africa is now a theological, spiritual, and demographic powerhouse,” Father Ilo said.

Additional reporting by Thomas Naadi, Peter Njoroge and Nichola Mandil