Ethiopia

Ethiopia
Bahá’í Conference in Addis Ababa, 1971.
Location of Ethiopia
National Assembly		Ethiopia
Statistics:
Total Population
-	UN 2021	120,283,026
Bahá'í pop.
-	Bahá'í source
-	Non-Bahá'í source	30,357
History: Firsts
-	Pioneers	1933, Sabri Elias
-	Local Assembly	1934, Addis Ababa
-	National Assembly	1975
How to contact:
-	Email	Contact form
Official Website		https://www.bahai.et/
Related media
Categories: Ethiopia • People

The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is a country in East Africa. Its official languages are Afar, Amharic, Oromo, Somali, and Tigrinya and Christianity and Islam are the predominant religions.

The region has been inhabited since prehistory and united as a civilization by several dynasties for nine hundred years before Christ. In English contexts it was referred to as Abyssinia. In 1936 Fascist Italy invaded the country and established Italian East Africa, however during the Second World War the British Army occupied the region and in 1944 it regained independence as Ethiopia.

The Bahá’í Faith was first present in Ethiopia in 1933. The early community was disrupted by the invasion of Italy however after the Second World War the community was re-established. Mass teaching resulted in a period of intense growth of the community in the late 1960's and throughout the 1970's and the community has continued to develop to the present day. In recent years a regional office of the Bahá’í International Community was established in Addis Ababa which coordinates and communicates the Bahá’í communities efforts to contribute to social and economic development of the African continent.

History

Bahá’í Community of Addis Ababa in the 1930's.

The first Bahá’í pioneer to Ethiopia was Sabri Elias who moved to the country from Egypt in 1933 settling in Addis Ababa. He actively pursued the establishment of a Bahá’í community, had Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era translated into a local language, was joined by multiple pioneer families from Egypt, and quickly found success in teaching with the Local Spiritual Assembly of Addis Ababa being established in November, 1934. Elias departed in 1935 and when Italy occupied the country in 1936 the Assembly stopped meeting.

In 1944 Elias returned to Ethiopia at the request of Shoghi Effendi, and upon arriving he was only able to establish contact with one of the Bahá’ís who had previously declared in Addis Ababa . He began teaching the Faith again, was joined by several additonal pioneers from Egypt, found more of the converts from the 1930's, and the community was quickly re-established with the Addis Ababa Local Spiritual Assembly re-forming in 1947.

As of 1951 the Bahá’ís of Addis Ababa remained active, with prominent individuals in the city inquiring about the Faith and a meeting place being secured and furnished for regular Bahá’í gatherings. In 1955 the Assembly of Addis Ababa was incorporated, and in 1959 the first Bahá’í Summer School of Addis Ababa was held. In 1960 the towns of Volisso, Bedele, and Shashemenn were opened to the Faith.

First Summer School of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, 1959.

In 1961 the seat of the National Spiritual Assembly of North East Africa was moved to Addis Ababa from Egypt and in July that year the body was officially registered with the Ethiopian government. In 1963 further recognition of the Faith as an independent religion was secured in the country when permission was granted for a Bahá’í cemetery to be established in Addis Ababa, and as of that year while Addis Ababa remained the countries only Assembly there were seven Bahá’í Groups across the country with Bahá’ís residing in an additional twelve localities. By 1968 only an additional three localities had Bahá’í residents across the country, with growth having stagnated throughout the 1960's.

In 1968 the Bahá’í community of Ethiopia experienced a sudden increase in growth, with twenty-five people declaring in villages outside of Addis Ababa through the efforts of Bahá’í university students travel teaching. In 1969 Rúḥíyyih Khánum visited Ethiopia early in her expansive teaching tour of Africa and throughout the year one thousand people declared, and a Bahá’í Teaching Institute was inaugurated in Gemeto. The growth continued with mass teaching in the south-east of the country and by 1971 there were twenty-five Local Spiritual Assemblies across the country, and fifty-six in the south-east of the country alone by 1973.

In 1975 the National Spiritual Assembly of North East Africa was renamed the National Spiritual Assembly of Ethiopia, although it remained responsible for administrating the Faith in Eritrea and Libya. By 1976 there were one hundred and twenty Local Spiritual Assemblies across the country and the community began to focus on meeting the needs of its rapidly increasing membership and throughout the mid 1970's translations of Bahá’í Writings into local languages were produced. Despite political upheaval across Ethiopia in the late 1970's the Bahá’í community remained active and was notably self-reliant, with no Bahá’í pioneers residing in the country and all administration and teaching being undertaken by local Bahá’ís.

Staff and some of the associates of the Bahá’í International Community Addis Ababa Office, 2016.

In 1980 the Faith was granted tax exempt status in Ethiopia, and by 1983 every civil area in the country had Bahá’í residents. In the late 1980's the city of Addis Ababa was split into districts administratively and the Bahá’í community likewise established twelve corresponding Local Spiritual Assemblies with the National Assembly praising the cities Bahá’í community efforts in the transition. In 1994 the National Spiritual Assembly of Ethiopia submitted a document to the Constitution Drafting Commission of the country which received significant press coverage.

In 2001 the Bahá’í community of Weyisso Kenchera in Ethiopia began a water pond project to alleviate water shortages in the area. Throughout the 2000's efforts to establish the Institute Process in Ethiopia were undertaken with forty-five children's classes having been established by 2006. In 2007 a Bahá’í couple developed the children's television program Tsehai Loves Learning in Ethiopia which incorporated Bahá’í principles and quickly became popular, and received the Prix Jeunesse International Next Generation prize for children's televeision programming in Munich in 2008.

In 2013 a major international Bahá’í Youth Conference was held in Addis Ababa. In 2014 the Bahá’í International Community established a regional office in Addis Ababa which contributes to the worldwide Bahá’í communities efforts to contribute to the development and prosperity of Africa as a whole, and in 2017 the Office collaborated with the Bahá’í community of Ethiopia to host a commemoration of the Centernary of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh. As of 2024 there are ten Local Spiritual Assemblies in Ethiopia with the country having twenty-three clusters.