Guinea

Guinea
Location of Guinea
National Assembly		Guinea
Statistics:
Total Population
-	UN 2021	13,531,906
Bahá'í pop.
-	Bahá'í source
-	Non-Bahá'í source	197
History: Firsts
-	National Assembly	1975, with Liberia 1982, independently
How to contact:
-	Email	asnguinee@yahoo.fr
Official Website		https://www.bahai.org/national-communities/guinea
Related media
Categories: Guinea • People

The Republic of Guinea, or Guinea-Conakry, is a country in West Africa, not to be confused with Guinea-Bissau or Equatorial Guinea. French is the official language of the country, and over twenty native languages are spoken.

Several African empires ruled over the region throughout the middle ages, but by the 16th century it was ruled by several minor kingdoms. In the late 19th century the Wassoulou Empire briefly held power in the region, which came to be under the power of France by the close of the 19th century. The colony of French Guinea was a constituent of French West Africa until 1958 when Guinea achieved full independence from France.

The Bahá’í Faith was established in Guinea in the early 1970's. Initially supported by the Bahá’í community of Liberia the Bahá’í community of Guinea developed the capacity to function independently in the early 1980's.

History

As French West Africa as a whole was set as a goal territory to be opened to the Faith at the opening of the Ten Year Crusade Guinea itself was not a specific goal for pioneers and remained unopened. As of 1971 it was the only country in Africa which had not been opened to the Faith. Bahá'í's from Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Mauritania and the Ivory Coast had attempted to enter the country but all had been unsuccessful due to the political situation.

In the early 1970's Jamshid Fanaiyan began teaching the Faith in a Liberian town near the border of Guinea, and some locals declared. Some of the people who had become Bahá'ís after being taught by Jamshid actually lived in Guinea, and were questioned after returning home by soldiers who had been sent on behalf of the government. They remained firm and the Bahá'í community of Guinea grew, and by 1972 the first Local Spiritual Assembly of Guinea had been formed. In July 1972 President Sekou Toure of Guinea was indirectly presented with some Bahá'í literature at the celebration of the 125th Anniversary of Independence in Liberia. In 1975 the National Spiritual Assembly of Liberia and Guinea was formed with its seat in Liberia, succeeding the National Spiritual Assembly of West Africa in administrating the Faith in the countries. Around this time Shidan Kouchekzadeh and his wife pioneered to Guinea from Sierra Leone.

In 1982 Liberia formed an independent National Spiritual Assembly leaving Guinea with an independent Assembly, and in 1986 the National Spiritual Assembly of Guinea had a Receipt of a Declaration of Trust. In March 1986 the Promise of World Peace, the peace statement by the Universal House of Justice, was indirectly presented to the President of Guinea, in October two Bahá’í representatives participated in a seminar on helping handicapped persons as members of an international non-governmental organization, and in December Radio Bahá’í Liberia, the first Bahá’í-owned radio station in Africa, began broadcasting with its broadcasts reaching most of Guinea. In 1989 a thesis consisting of an analysis of Bahá’í principles on world peace was written by Parivash Ardei, a student at Conakry University in Guinea, and she received the highest mark possible for it.

In 2001 annual Bahá’í Youth Conferences began to be held in Guinea.

See also

• All articles about Guinea
• National Spiritual Assembly of Guinea