South Africa

 South Africa
Bahá’í Regional Conference, Johannesburg, 2008.
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Location of South Africa
National AssemblySouth Africa
Statistics:
Total Population
 -  UN 2021[1] 59,392,255
Bahá'í pop.
 -  Bahá'í source  
 -  Non-Bahá'í source 282,019
History:
Firsts
 -  Local Bahá'í c. 1911, Agnes Cook 
 -  Local Assembly 1925, Pretoria 
 -  National Assembly 1956, as South & West Africa
1987 
How to contact:
 -  Phone 27 (11) 801 3100 
 -  Email nsa.sec@bahai.org.za
Official Website https://www.bahai.org.za/
Related media
Categories: South Africa • People

The Republic of South Africa is a country in Southern Africa. It has twelve official languages and Christianity is the predominant religion.

The region has been inhabited since prehistory being among the earliest places modern humans are known to have lived. In the 17th century the Netherlands began to colonize the region but in the 19th century the British Empire established control of the region. In 1910 it achieved independence as the Union of South Africa and it became a Republic in 1961. South Africa instituted apartheid in 1948 which institutionalised racial segregation, remaining in place until it was dismantled in the early 1990s with multiracial elections being held in 1994.

The Bahá’í Faith has been present in South Africa since at least 1911 and a community was established in the 1920s although it had dissipated by the 1930s. Efforts to re-establish a community in the 1950s found success and since the end of the apartheid regime the Bahá’í community has participated in efforts to promote racial unity and contribute to social and economic development in South Africa.

History[edit]

Early Efforts[edit]

Likely the earliest mention of the Bahá’í Faith in South Africa came when George Davidson Buchanan, an American Presbyterian minister who had learnt of the Faith in the Holy Land in 1892, mentioned the religion positively in sermons while stationed in Cape Town in the early 1900's. Buchanan later became a Bahá’í while in the United States and received a Tablet from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. In 1911 Arthur and Agnes Cook began holding Bahá’í meetings in their home in Sea Point, Cape Town, and in 1912 William Fraetas and his wife Mary, who were South Africans who had become Bahá’ís in America, returned to Cape Town.

In 1920 Fanny Knobloch pioneered to South Africa from the United States with the approval of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá settling in Cape Town. She taught in Cape Town after arriving, spent 1922 in Johannesburg to teach, then returned to Cape Town in 1923 where she established contact with the Fraetas's. Martha Root visited South Africa from December 1924 to January 1925 to support Knobloch, and together they taught in Pretoria with their efforts resulting in Agnes Carey becoming the first Bahá’í in Pretoria in 1925, and the establishment of the Local Spiritual Assembly of Pretoria later the same year.[2]

Knobloch fell ill in 1925, with her sister Pauline spending six months in the country to support the Pretoria community in her absence, however due to ill health Knobloch returned to the United States in 1926. She returned to South Africa in 1928 but found that two members of the Pretoria community were attempting to combine the Bahá’í Faith with astrology which had alienated the rest of the community. Knobloch resolved the situation but returned to America in 1929 due to a lack of finances and feeling disheartened, and the Local Spiritual Assembly of Pretoria lapsed in 1931.[3] Shoghi Effendi briefly visited South Africa in 1929, two months after Knobloch's departure, when he stopped in Cape Town while returning to the Holy Land from England via Africa.

In 1936 Knobloch wrote to Shoghi Effendi recommending he send pioneers to South Africa and he approved of the suggestion although pioneers did not settle in the country until the Ten Year Crusade. In 1937 and 1948 Loulie Mathews made travel teaching trips to the country, and in 1940 Reginald Turvey, a South African who had become a Bahá’í abroad, returned to the country from England. Shoghi Effendi visited South Africa briefly a second time, accompanied by his wife Rúḥíyyih Khánum and father-in-law William Sutherland Maxwell, when they stopped in Cape Town while returning to the Holy Land from Europe.

Establishment of a Community[edit]

As of 1953 there were only two Bahá’ís in South Africa, Agnes Carey and Reginald Turvey. That year the Ten Year Crusade was launched by Shoghi Effendi which was an international teaching campaign which aimed to establish Bahá’í communities across the world. William Sears and his family were the first pioneers to South Africa during the Crusade, arriving in July, 1953, and they were quickly joined by many more.[4]

A Local Spiritual Assembly of Johannesburg was established in 1954 and in September Andries Khorombi of Johannesburg became the first native African of South Africa to become a Bahá’í with William Masehla becoming the second in November.[5] Several more Assemblies were established in 1955, with the community having nine by 1956,[6] prompting the establishment of the National Spiritual Assembly of South and West Africa in 1956 with its seat in Johannesburg and both black and white Bahá’ís were elected to the body. While the teaching work of the Faith in South Africa was severely limited by the restrictions of apartheid the community grew to 2000 Bahá’ís by 1963 with twenty-two Local Spiritual Assemblies.

By 1964 the South African Bahá’í community had expanded to twenty-eight Local Spiritual Assemblies,[7] and by 1968 it had forty-one with Bahá’ís also residing in seventy-four additional localities.[8] In 1972 Rúḥíyyih Khánum visited South Africa during her extensive teaching tour of the African continent,[9] and in 1973 Raḥmatu’lláh Muhájir visited the country to assist with teaching plans.[10] Throughout the mid 1970's South African Bahá’ís made several travel teaching trips to other countries assisting the international Bahá’í community,[11] with trips being made to Mauritius,[12] the Seychelles,[13] and St. Helena.[14]

Community Development[edit]

In 1981 William Sears and John Robarts visited South Africa,[15] and that year independent National Spiritual Assemblies were established for Transkei and Bophuthatswana which were states which had been made nominally independent of the government of South Africa. [16] Ciskei also formed an independent National Assembly in 1985 and in 1987 the National Spiritual Assembly of South and West Africa officially changed its name to the National Spiritual Assembly of South Africa.[17] As of the end of the 1980's regional and local Bahá’í youth committees were established across the country.[18]

In 1992 the National Spiritual Assembly of South Africa inaugurated a new National Bahá’í Center in Johannesburg,[19] and around the same time Bahá’í representatives produced a document commenting on the possibility of constitutional reform in South Africa.[20] In early 1994 three Persian Bahá’í pioneers to South Africa, Houshmand Anvari, Shamam Bakhshandegi, and Riaz Razavi, were murdered at the Bahá’í Center of Mdantsane in Ciskei while at a Bahá’í meeting. Armed gunmen, reportedly representing the militant group the Azanian Liberation Army,[21] invaded the Center and ordered all white people present to line up against a wall and then opened fire.[22]

In the Spring of 1994 the National Spiritual Assembly of South Africa released a statement titled Overcoming Racial Prejudice: South Africa's Most Challenging Issue in recognition of the countries first multiracial elections in which it offered its vision of post apartheid South Africa.[23] A Bahá’í association for social and economic development was also established in South Africa in 1994,[24] and that year President Nelson Mandela invited the Bahá’í community to send a representative to a state banquet held for Queen Elizabeth II.[25] In 1995 the National Spiritual Assemblies of Ciskei, Bophuthatswana, and Transkei were disbanded with all of South Africa being united under the one National Spiritual Assembly reflecting the administrative unification of the country after the abolition of apartheid,[26] with a Bahá’í delegation meeting with Nelson Mandela the same year.[27]

As of 1996 a body called the Bahá’í Health Agency had been established in South Africa and that year it oversaw health care projects in two localities which provided health care information to women and public schools.[28] The same year a three day course on empowering women was held by the Bahá’í community of Cape Town.[29] In 1997 the National Spiritual Assembly of South Africa appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of the government of South Africa, which was a body formed to investigate the role of religious organizations under the apartheid regime. The Assemblies statement drew a positive response resulting in the Bahá’í community being invited to cooperate on joint ventures by other religious leaders.[30]

In 1999 an Office for the Advancement of Women was established by the Bahá’í community of South Africa,[31] and many Bahá’ís attended the Parliament of World Religion's held in the country with the Bahá’í International Community participating in drafting the central document of the Parliament.[32]

Recent Years[edit]

In 2000 Bahá’í inspired curricular materials focused on moral education began to be used in public schools in South Africa,[33] and in 2001 the Bahá’í community of Cape Town began facilitating English language classes for the children of Congolese and Rwandan refugees which expanded into an after-school enrichment program. As of 2001 the institute process had begun to develop in South Africa with devotional gatherings and study circles being offered to members of the wider community.[34]

As of 2003 there were thirty-eight Local Spiritual Assemblies across South Africa,[35] and that year a Jubilee celebration commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Bahá’í Faith in South Africa during the Ten Year Crusade was held in Phokeng, with additional celebrations being held in Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Mafikeng, Pretoria, Sabie, and Umtata.[36] In 2008 a major Regional Bahá’í Conference was held in Johannesburg at which plans to establish twenty-six intensive programmes of growth were made. The Conference was attended by over one thousand Bahá’ís and was the largest Bahá’í gathering ever held in the country.[37] In 2011 the Centenary of the Bahá’í Faith in South Africa was commemorated,[38] and in 2013 major International Bahá’í Youth Conferences were held in Johannesburg and Mahikeng.[39][40]

In 2020 Dr. Sina Parastaran, a Bahá’í physician based in Jouberton, South Africa, established an online network of volunteers in the area to coordinate providing emotional support to, and answer non-medical questions people from, people in quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[41] In 2021 the Bahá’í Office of External Affairs of South Africa hosted a series of discussions on working towards the equality of men and women with government officials, people active in civil societies, and academics.[42]

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. ↑ Bahá'ís of South Africa, Progress of the Bahá'í Faith in South Africa since 1911, 2007, published online at Baha'i Library Online
  3. ↑ Bahá'ís of South Africa, Progress of the Bahá'í Faith in South Africa since 1911, 2007, published online at Baha'i Library Online
  4. ↑ Baha'i News (1981). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 608, Pg(s) 8. View as PDF.
  5. ↑ Baha'i News (1981). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 608, Pg(s) 9. View as PDF.
  6. ↑ Baha'i News (1981). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 608, Pg(s) 9. View as PDF.
  7. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1974). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 14 (1963-1968), Pg(s) 125. View as PDF.
  8. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1974). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 14 (1963-1968), Pg(s) 149. View as PDF.
  9. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1976). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 15 (1968-1973), Pg(s) 607. View as PDF.
  10. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1978). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 16 (1973-1976), Pg(s) 157. View as PDF.
  11. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1978). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 16 (1973-1976), Pg(s) 152. View as PDF.
  12. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1978). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 16 (1973-1976), Pg(s) 153. View as PDF.
  13. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1978). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 16 (1973-1976), Pg(s) 156. View as PDF.
  14. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1978). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 16 (1973-1976), Pg(s) 157. View as PDF.
  15. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1986). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 18 (1979-1983), Pg(s) 495. View as PDF.
  16. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1986). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 18 (1979-1983), Pg(s) 163. View as PDF.
  17. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 544. View as PDF.
  18. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 263. View as PDF.
  19. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1993). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 21 (1992-1993), Pg(s) 130. View as PDF.
  20. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1993). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 21 (1992-1993), Pg(s) 154. View as PDF.
  21. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1994). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 22 (1993-1994), Pg(s) 148. View as PDF.
  22. ↑ 28 March 1994 message from the Universal House of Justice to all National Spiritual Assemblies
  23. ↑ {[citebw|23|98}}
  24. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1996). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 23 (1994-1995), Pg(s) 128. View as PDF.
  25. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1996). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 23 (1994-1995), Pg(s) 131. View as PDF.
  26. ↑ 1995 Ridvan message of the Universal House of Justice
  27. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1997). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 24 (1995-1996), Pg(s) 72. View as PDF.
  28. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1997). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 24 (1995-1996), Pg(s) 99. View as PDF.
  29. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 25 (1996-1997), Pg(s) 73. View as PDF.
  30. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1999). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 26 (1997-1998), Pg(s) 119. View as PDF.
  31. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2000). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 27 (1998-1999), Pg(s) 87. View as PDF.
  32. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2001). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 28 (1999-2000), Pg(s) 117. View as PDF.
  33. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2002). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 29 (2000-2001), Pg(s) 61. View as PDF.
  34. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2003). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 30 (2001-2002), Pg(s) 190. View as PDF.
  35. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2005). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 32 (2003-2004), Pg(s) 60. View as PDF.
  36. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2005). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 32 (2003-2004), Pg(s) 57. View as PDF.
  37. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/johannesburg.html
  38. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/866/
  39. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/community-news/youth-conferences/johannesburg.html
  40. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/community-news/youth-conferences/mahikeng.html
  41. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/1447/
  42. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/1542/
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