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Madagascar

From Bahaipedia
 Madagascar
First National Convention of Madagascar, 1972.
Location of Madagascar
National AssemblyMadagascar
Statistics:
Total Population
 -  UN 2021[1] 28,915,653
Bahá'í pop.
 -  Bahá'í source  
 -  Non-Bahá'í source 24,682
History:
Firsts
 -  Local Bahá'í 1953, Alexis Gilbert Robert 
 -  Pioneers 1953, Mehrangiz Munsiff 
 -  Local Assembly 1955, Antananarivo 
 -  National Assembly 1972 
How to contact:
 -  Email secretariat@bahaismada.org
Official Website https://www.bahai.org/national-communities/madagascar
Related media
Categories: Madagascar • People

The Republic of Madagascar is an island nation located off the East Coast of Africa. Malagasy and French are its official languages and Christianity is the predominant religion.

The region has been inhabited by various groups from between 250 BCE and 550 CE and was united as the Kingdom of Madagascar in the 18th century. In 1897 it was annexed by France, becoming the colony of Madagascar and Dependencies. It became an autonomous territory in 1958 as the Malagasy Republic and fully independent in 1960.

The Bahá’í community of Madagascar was established in 1953 and continues to remain active and develop to the present day.

History[edit]

In 1950 Shoghi Effendi launched the African Campaign, a teaching plan to establish Bahá’í communities across Africa, and as of 1951 the Bahá’í community of India had been assigned the responsibility of settling a pioneer in the country.[2]

Madagascar was opened to the Faith by Mehrangiz Munsiff, an Indian Bahá’í, who pioneered from Britain in April, 1953.[3] She settled in Antananarivo where she initially stayed with an Indian couple before moving to a hotel.[4] Due to her finances depleting Alexis Gilbert Robert, who she had been teaching the Faith, invited her to stay in his home. By December Munsiff had decided to depart the country due to a lack of success in teaching,[5] however that month Robert and his wife declared and shortly afterward Pierre Victor Cornielle de Jouvancourt and Robert's cousin, Gaston Mondy, also declared. Daniel Randrianarivo became the first native Malagasy Bahá’í around the same time.[6]

In January, 1954, Munsiff left Madagascar and Alexis Gilbert Robert and his wife continued the teaching work with their efforts resulting in the Local Spiritual Assembly of Antananarivo being established in 1955.[6][7] As of 1957 an Area Teaching Committee of Madagascar had been established to organize teaching activities in the country.[8]

In 1963 the Local Spiritual Assembly of Antananarivo was incorporated and as of that year there were three additional Bahá’í groups on the main island of Madagascar, a Bahá’í group on the neighboring island Juan de Nova, and another on the island of Nossi-Be.[9] In 1964 the National Spiritual Assembly of the Indian Ocean was established which had jursidiction of the Bahá’í community of Madagascar.[10] In 1967 Rúhíyyih Khanum visited Madagascar spending ten days in the capital city although she was ill and bedridden for much of her visit.[11] As of 1968 Antananarivo remained the only Local Spiritual Assembly in the country but there was a small Bahá’í presence in sixteen additional localities.[12]

In the late 1960's and the opening of the 1970's Madagascar's Bahá’í community experienced a sudden period of growth and secured a National Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds in 1970, a Temple site, in 1971, and land for a national endowment in 1972.[13] Eight Local Spiritual Assemblies had been established by 1972 and that year an independent National Spiritual Assembly of Madagascar was established,[14] with the body also being made responsible for administrating Bahá’í activity in the Comoros Islands.[15] By 1973 the efforts of the Madagascar Bahá’ís had lead to the establishment of twenty-seven Local Spiritual Assemblies during the year.[16]

In the mid 1970's the Madagascar National Spiritual Assembly oversaw the translation of Bahá’í literature into a local language,[17] and the community received the support of travel teachers from other countries,[18] including Mehrangiz Munsiff.[19] By 1979 the community had been granted tax exempt status by the government.[20] In the early 1980's the Faith began to be proclaimed in Madagascar through the use of book exhibitions,[21] and throughout the 1980's the translation of Bahá’í literature into the local language began to increase.[22] In the late 1980's a complete course on Bahá’í consultation was developed to deepen the Madagascar Bahá’í community on the concept,[23] and a Feast programme produced by the National Spiritual Assemblies Radio and Television Team began being broadcast on a national radio station.[24]

In 1995 the first primary school to be established by the Bahá’ís of Madagascar was inaugurated with the countries Minister of Education attending the ceremony.[25] In 1998 a major teaching campaign was launched which resulted in five hundred declarations over a period of two weeks,[26] and the Institute Process began to be established with a institute training session taking place the following year during which Local Spiritual Assembly members studied guidance on the functions of a training institute in fostering human resource development to facilitate large-scale growth.[27]

As of 2003 there were thirty-three Local Spiritual Assemblies in Madagascar and that year 2003 an event was held in Antananarivo to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Bahá’í Faith in the Indian Ocean with Bahá’ís from Madagascar, Reunion, Mauritius, and the Seychelles gathering to commemorate the occasion.[28] In 2013 a major international Bahá’í Youth Conference was held in Antananarivo,[29] and in 2022 smaller scale local Global Conferences were held across the country.[30]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ "World Population Prospects 2022". population.un.org. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
  2. ↑ Baha'i News (1951). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 246, Pg(s) 10. View as PDF.
  3. ↑ Baha'i News (1953). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 267, Pg(s) 9. View as PDF.
  4. ↑ Earl Redman, The Knights of Baha'u'llah, George Ronald: Oxford, 2017, p 76
  5. ↑ Lowell Johnson, Heroes and Heroines of the Ten Year Cruade in Southern Africa, NSA of South Africa: Johannesburg, 2003, p 52
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Earl Redman, The Knights of Baha'u'llah, George Ronald: Oxford, 2017, p 77
  7. ↑ Lowell Johnson, Heroes and Heroines of the Ten Year Cruade in Southern Africa, NSA of South Africa: Johannesburg, 2003, p 53
  8. ↑ Lowell Johnson, Heroes and Heroines of the Ten Year Cruade in Southern Africa, NSA of South Africa: Johannesburg, 2003, p 56
  9. ↑ Lowell Johnson, Heroes and Heroines of the Ten Year Cruade in Southern Africa, NSA of South Africa: Johannesburg, 2003, p 51
  10. ↑ Baha'i News (1963). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 393, Pg(s) 3. View as PDF.
  11. ↑ Baha'i News (1968). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 442, Pg(s) 5. View as PDF.
  12. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1974). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 14 (1963-1968), Pg(s) 147. View as PDF.
  13. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1976). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 15 (1968-1973), Pg(s) 199. View as PDF.
  14. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1976). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 15 (1968-1973), Pg(s) 198. View as PDF.
  15. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1976). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 15 (1968-1973), Pg(s) 196. View as PDF.
  16. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1976). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 15 (1968-1973), Pg(s) 199. View as PDF.
  17. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1978). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 16 (1973-1976), Pg(s) 115. View as PDF.
  18. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1978). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 16 (1973-1976), Pg(s) 153. View as PDF.
  19. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1981). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 17 (1976-1979), Pg(s) 207. View as PDF.
  20. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1981). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 17 (1976-1979), Pg(s) 103. View as PDF.
  21. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1986). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 18 (1979-1983), Pg(s) 164. View as PDF.
  22. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1994). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 19 (1983-1986), Pg(s) 151. View as PDF.
  23. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 167. View as PDF.
  24. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 254. View as PDF.
  25. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1997). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 24 (1995-1996), Pg(s) 75. View as PDF.
  26. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2000). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 27 (1998-1999), Pg(s) 117. View as PDF.
  27. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2001). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 28 (1999-2000), Pg(s) 54. View as PDF.
  28. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2005). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 32 (2003-2004), Pg(s) 50. View as PDF.
  29. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/community-news/youth-conferences/antananarivo.html
  30. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/1590/slideshow/57/
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