page_title: Baháʼí Faith in Africa
section_title: Period of Shoghi Effendi's lifetime
hierarchical_section_title: Baháʼí Faith in Africa / Period of Shoghi Effendi's lifetime
caption_attribution_description: English: Shoghi Effendi 1921
context_page_description: The Baháʼí Faith in Africa has a diverse history. It is the third most widespread organized Abrahamic religion in Africa after Christianity and Islam. The Association of Religion Data Archives lists many large and smaller populations in Africa with Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa and Zambia among the top ten numerical populations of Baháʼís in the world in 2005, and Mauritius in terms of percentage of the national population.
  All three individual heads of the religion, Baháʼu'lláh, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, and Shoghi Effendi, were in Africa at various times.
context_section_description: Shoghi Effendi, who was appointed the leader of the religion after ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's death, travelled through Africa in 1929 and again in 1940.
  The history of the religion in Kenya has an interesting precursor. Before joining the religion, Richard St. Barbe Baker served in the country in 1920 under the Colonial Office as Assistant Conservator of Forests. There he saw the wide scale deforestation going on. While there he intervened in a case of a colonial officer against a Kikuyu worker - taking a blow aimed at the worker. The struggle would eventually alienate him from the service. He developed a plan for re-forestation where food crops were planted between rows of young native trees. Because of lack of funds St. Barbe consulted with the Kenyans themselves, approaching the Kikuyu Chiefs and Elders, and together they arranged for three thousand tribal warriors to come to his camp and with the assistance of the Chiefs fifty were selected to be the first Men of the Trees. They promised before Ngai, the High God, that they would protect the native forest, plant ten native trees each year, and take care of trees everywhere. Immediately then leaving Kenya, St. Barbe offered a paper at a Congress of Living Religions in the Commonwealth about the Bantu religion following which he was introduced to the Baháʼí Faith because of "his genuine interest in another's religion struck a sympathetic chord with the Baháʼí principles."
  At the other extreme of the continent the Baháʼí Faith in South Africa struggled with issues under the segregated social pattern and laws of Apartheid in South Africa. The Baháʼí community decided that instead of dividing the South African Baháʼí community into two population groups, one black and one white, they instead limited membership in the Baháʼí administration to black adherents, and placed the entire Baháʼí community under the leadership of its black population. In 1997 the National Spiritual Assembly presented a Statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa which said in part:
  Abhorring all forms of prejudice and rejecting any system of segregation, the Baháʼí Faith was introduced on a one to one basis and the community quietly grew during the apartheid years, without publicity.  Despite the nature of the politics of that time, we presented our teachings on unity and the oneness of humankind to prominent individuals in politics, commerce and academia and leaders of thought including State Presidents.... [b]oth individual Baháʼís and our administrative institutions were continually watched by the security police.... Our activities did not include opposition to the previous Government for involvement in partisan politics and opposition to government are explicitly prohibited by the sacred Texts of our Faith.... During the time when the previous Government prohibited integration within our communities, rather than divide into separate administrative structures for each population group, we opted to limit membership of the Baháʼí Administration to the black adherents who were and remain in the majority of our membership and thereby placed the entire Baháʼí community under the stewardship of its black membership.... The pursuit of our objectives of unity and equality has not been without costs.  The "white" Baháʼís were often ostracized by their white neighbours for their association with "non-whites". The Black Baháʼís were subjected to scorn by their black compatriots for their lack of political action and their complete integration with their white Baháʼí brethren.
  To the west the Baháʼí Faith in Morocco began about 1946.
  Wide-scale growth in the religion across Sub-Saharan Africa was observed to begin in the 1950s and extend in the 1960s. In 1953 the Baháʼís initiated a Ten Year Crusade during which a number of Baháʼís pioneered to various parts of Africa following the requests of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. It was emphasized that western pioneers be self-effacing and focus their efforts not on the colonial leadership but on the native Africans - and that the pioneers must show by actions the si
caption: Shoghi Effendi at the time of becoming Guardian in 1921. Taken in Haifa.
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