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Niger

From Bahaipedia
 Niger
Youth Conference in Maradi, Niger, 2024.
Location of Niger
National AssemblyNiger
Statistics:
Total Population
 -  UN 2021[1] 25,252,722
Bahá'í pop.
 -  Bahá'í source  
 -  Non-Bahá'í source 8,627
History:
Firsts
 -  National Assembly 1975 
Related media
Categories: Niger • People

The Republic of the Niger is a West African country named after the Niger River. The countries official language is French with several other major languages being spoken. The predominant religion is Islam.

The region has been inhabited since ancient history and remained independent of any colonial powers throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods. In 1900 France seized control of the area and established French Niger which was incorporated into colonial federation French West Africa in 1922. The area achieved independence as Niger in 1960.

The Bahá’í Faith was established in Niger in the 1960s with administrative development occurring throughout the 1970s. The religion was outlawed in 1978 and the community was unable to function or develop until the ban was reversed in 1991. The Niger Bahá’í community has since recovered and remains active to the present day.

History[edit]

At the opening of the Ten Year Crusade in 1953 the region of French West Africa as a whole was named as a goal territory for a Bahá’í community to be established so Niger itself was not set as a goal.[2] In 1962 a delegation of parliamentarians from Niger, then a newly formed nation, visited the Shrine of the Báb while visiting Israel.[3]

Rúhíyyih Khánum holding a Bahá’í meeting in Gabagura, 1970.

In 1964 the Universal House of Justice inaugurated a Nine Year Teaching Plan and at the opening of the Plan it organized the establishment of the National Spiritual Assembly of West Central Africa which was assigned the responsibility of administrating Bahá’í activity in several countries including Niger.[4] The first goal of the Nine Year Plan given to the Assembly was to open Niger to the Faith and establish a Local Spiritual Assembly in the country by 1973.[5]

In December 1965 the Universal House of Justice announced that a Bahá’í had been able to pioneer to Niger opening the country to the Faith,[6] and in 1966 it was reported that additional pioneers had settled in the country.[7] The first pioneers were two housewives from Tehran who pioneered with their children while their husbands settled their business affairs in Iran joining them later. All the pioneers fell ill with malaria after arriving and one of the children aged five passed away.[8]

In February 1970 Rúḥíyyih Khánum visited Niger during her tour of Africa and met with the pioneers, the President of the country,[9] and participated in teaching events including participating in an interview on Radio Niger.[10] At Ridvan 1970 a joint National Spiritual Assembly for Dahomey, Togo, and Niger was formed assuming responsibility for the Bahá’í community of Niger,[11] and in April 1972 the government of Niger granted official recognition of the Bahá’í Faith as a religion through the efforts of visiting Bahá’í Aziz Navidi.[12]

In 1975 Niger formed an independent National Spiritual Assembly with its seat in Niamey,[13][14] and as of 1976 Bahá’í teaching institutes were being held once or twice a month for youth to study the Faith with youth facilitating classes and travel teachers serving as guest speakers.[15] The Niger community also secured a large property to serve as a Bahá’í Center in Zinder in 1976.[16]

Delegates of Niger and other African Nations at International Convention, 1993.

In late 1976 the National Spiritual Assembly of Niger held a National Teaching Conference at which it requested Bahá’ís spend part of their holidays undertaking teaching trips and a teaching team toured several villages in the country resulting in twenty declarations and two Local Spiritual Assemblies forming.[17] In December 1977 the National Spiritual Assembly announced it had received letters from two local Village Chiefs commending the Bahá’í Faith for the influence the religion had in their villages.[18] In 1978 a building was secured in Niamey to serve as a Bahá’í Teaching Institute.[19]

The development of the Bahá’í community of Niger was curtailed in 1978 when the government banned the Bahá’í Faith in the country necessitating the disbandment of all Bahá’í institutions. Bahá’í historian Moojan Momen has stated that the government ban occurred at the same time as several other African nations banning the Faith due to international pressure exerted by Arab countries hostile to the Faith.[20]

The Bahá’í Faith remained banned in Niger until 1991 when the restrictions on it were reversed allowing it to be practiced freely in the country.[21] In 1992 the National Spiritual Assembly of Niger was re-established.[22]

In December, 2024, a Bahá’í Youth Conference in Maradi was held which and attended by over three hundred youth who discussed the role youth can play in building peaceful communities at the conference.[23]

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. ↑ Redman, E. The Knights of Bahá’u’lláh, George Ronald Press, London. p 43
  3. ↑ Baha'i News (1962). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 375, Pg(s) 6. View as PDF.
  4. ↑ Baha'i News (1963). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 393, Pg(s) 2. View as PDF.
  5. ↑ Baha'i News (1967). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 433, Pg(s) 5. View as PDF.
  6. ↑ Baha'i News (1966). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 419, Pg(s) 1. View as PDF.
  7. ↑ Baha'i News (1966). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 422, Pg(s) 7. View as PDF.
  8. ↑ Baha'i News (1970). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 471, Pg(s) 13. View as PDF.
  9. ↑ Baha'i News (1970). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 471, Pg(s) 11. View as PDF.
  10. ↑ Baha'i News (1970). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 471, Pg(s) 13. View as PDF.
  11. ↑ Baha'i News (1970). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 472, Pg(s) 5. View as PDF.
  12. ↑ Baha'i News (1972). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 498, Pg(s) 23. View as PDF.
  13. ↑ Baha'i News (1975). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 526, Pg(s) 3. View as PDF.
  14. ↑ Baha'i News (1975). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 530, Pg(s) 17. View as PDF.
  15. ↑ Baha'i News (1976). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 542, Pg(s) 12. View as PDF.
  16. ↑ Baha'i News (1976). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 544, Pg(s) 11. View as PDF.
  17. ↑ Baha'i News (1977). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 550, Pg(s) 5. View as PDF.
  18. ↑ Baha'i News (1978). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 566, Pg(s) 8. View as PDF.
  19. ↑ Baha'i News (1978). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 569, Pg(s) 14. View as PDF.
  20. ↑ Peter Smith & Moojan Momen, The Bahá'í Faith 1957-1988: A Survey of Contemporary Developments, published in Religion, 19, pages 63-91, 1989
  21. ↑ References to the Bahá'í Faith in the U.S. State Department's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices by United States Department of State, compiled by Ralph D. Wagner, 1991-2001
  22. ↑ Ridvan 1992 message from the Universal House of Justice
  23. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/1767/


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