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Tanzania

From Bahaipedia
 Tanzania
Members of the Tanzanian Bahá’í community at the 2006 National Bahá’í Convention in Dodoma, Tanzania
Location of Tanzania
National AssemblyTanzania
Statistics:
Total Population
 -  UN 2021[2] 63,588,334
Bahá'í pop.
 -  Bahá'í source 35,000[1] 
 -  Non-Bahá'í source 254,241
Local Assemblies 137
Localities 3,000
History:
Firsts
 -  Local Bahá'í 1951, P.K.G. Nair 
 -  Pioneers 1950, Jalál Nakhjavání
1951, Claire Gung 
 -  Local Assembly 1952, Dar-es-Salaam 
 -  National Assembly 1964 
How to contact:
 -  Phone 255-685-637 422 
 -  Email secretariat@bahai.or.tz
 -  Address P.O. Box 585
Dar es Salaam 
Official Website https://www.bahai.or.tz/
Related media
Categories: Tanzania • People

The United Republic of Tanzania is a nation in East Africa. Its official languages are Swahili and English and the predominant religions are Christianity and Islam.

The region has been inhabited since prehistory. In the late 19th century it was colonised by Germany and incorporated into German East Africa however after the First World War it came under British control. Britain divided the area into the colonies of Tanganyika and the Zanzibar Archipelago. Tanganyika became independent in 1961 and Zanzibar achieved independence in 1963 with the two merging to form Tanzania in 1964.

The Bahá’í community of Tanzania was established in 1950 with the country receiving the first Bahá’í pioneers to Africa to be coordinated by Shoghi Effendi. The community experienced rapid growth in the 1960's and 1970's and has since focused on developing its capacity for consolidation and participation in social and economic development activities, remaining active to the present day.

History[edit]

In 1950 Shoghi Effendi announced the African Campaign, a teaching plan to establish Bahá’í communities across Africa, and opening Tanganyika to the Faith was a specific goal of the plan.[3] Jalál Nakhjavání was the first pioneer to arrive in Africa during the campaign pioneering from Iran and settling in Dar-es-Salaam in October 1950,[4] and he was joined by Claire Gung in January 1951 who settled in Lushoto where she was the only Bahá’í until departing in 1953.[5] In June, 1951, Nakhjavání's wife and children and his brother-in-law also pioneered to Dar-es-Salaam and the cities Local Spiritual Assembly was established in 1952.[4] The first person to become a Bahá’í in Tanzania was P.K.G. Nair who was of Indian descent,[1] and the first native Tanzanian Bahá’í was Denis Dudley-Smith Kutendele who was elected to the inaugural Local Spiritual Assembly of Dar-es-Salaam but pioneered to Nyasaland later the same year.[6]

In 1955 a second Local Spiritual Assembly was established in Tanganyika,[7] and in 1956 the National Spiritual Assembly of Central & East Africa was established which assumed responsibility for administrating the Faith in Tanganyika at the national level.[8] In 1956 land was purchased in the capital of Tanganyika for the establishment of a Bahá’í cemetery,[9] in 1957 a Bahá’í weekend school was held in Tanganyika to deepen the Bahá’í community,[10] and by 1959 Bahá’í Holy Days had been officially recognized by the governing authorities of Tanganyika.[11]

From 1959 to 1960 two hundred people declared in Tanganyika,[12] and in 1961 Rúḥíyyih Khánum visited the country visiting several villages.[13] Expansion of the Bahá’í community accelerated significantly in the early 1960's and there were forty-one Local Spiritual Assemblies in the country by 1963.[14] The independent National Spiritual Assembly of Tanganyika and Zanzibar was established in 1964 but was renamed the National Spiritual Assembly of Tanzania in accordance with the two former colonies merging into a single nation.[15]

In 1968 Enoch Olinga attended the National Convention of Tanzania,[16] and Rúḥíyyih Khánum made three visits to Tanzania during her extensive travel teaching tour of Africa in 1969, 1972, and 1973.[17] Raḥmatu’lláh Muhájir visited the country in 1974 and 1975 to assist with the formulation of teaching plans including plans to establish the Faith in the Mara region near Lake Victoria in collaboration with the Bahá’í communities of Uganda and Kenya. In 1976 a Local Spiritual Assembly was established in the Rukwa region of Tanzania, the last region which did not yet have a Local Spiritual Assembly,[18] and in the late 1970's several pioneers settled in the interior of Tanzania in efforts to establish the Faith more expansively across the country.[19]

In the early 1980's several Local Spiritual Assemblies lapsed in Tanzania and the community began to focus on the importance of deepening new Bahá’ís and consolidating the growth of the community,[20] and during the 1980's a permanent Bahá’í training institute was developed and expanded in the country,[21] and a deepening program for Local Spiritual Assemblies was developed.[22] In 1986 the Tanzanian Bahá’ís also established the Ruaha Secondary School,[23][24] and began to support the Community Development Project on Health which provided training programmes for community health workers.[25]

In 1992 five Bahá’í community health workers received acknowledgement from regional authorities for their work in providing health care education in villages,[26] and 1993 representatives of the Bahá’í International Community attended a symposium on women farmers sponsored by the Advocates for African Food Security in Tanzania.[27] At the close of 1994 the Bahá’ís of Tanzania contributed an exhibit to the National Book Fair in Dar-es-Salaam.[28] In 1996 the Guardian newspaper in Tanzania published extensive feature articles on Bahá’í families in the country.[29]

In April 1996 a Bahá’í Conference was held in Arusha, Tanzania, to consult on methods of teaching the Faith,[30] and in 1997 Tanzanian Bahá’ís attended the first Ruhi Institute course to be held in East Africa in Nakuru, Kenya, marking the early development of the institute process for Tanzania.[31] As of 2001 there were approximately 35,000 Bahá’ís in Tanzania and 137 Local Spiritual Assemblies.[1]

In 2001 the Bahá’í operated Ruaha Secondary School received a $122,000 grant to expand its dormitory facilities by the Unity Foundation, a Bahá’í inspired development agency based in Luxembourg.[32] In 2005 the Bahá’í community of Tanzania organized an observance of the International Day of Peace at which representatives from several different religions prayed for and discussed accomplishing world peace,[33] and 2006 the Tanzanian Bahá’ís collaborated with the Dar-es-Salaam Union Student Organisation to organize a symposium of the role of family and youth in establishing community.[34]

In 2013 major international Bahá’í Youth Conferences were held in Kigoma and Dar-es-Salaam,[35][36] and in 2022 local Global Conferences were held across Tanzania as part of an international initiative of the Bahá’í community as a whole.[37]

Notes[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Tanzania 2001.
  2. ↑ "World Population Prospects 2022". population.un.org. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
  3. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1994). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 19 (1983-1986), Pg(s) 655. View as PDF.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1986). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 18 (1979-1983), Pg(s) 798. View as PDF.
  5. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1994). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 19 (1983-1986), Pg(s) 655. View as PDF.
  6. ↑ Baha'i News (1952). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 259, Pg(s) 4. View as PDF.
  7. ↑ Baha'i News (1955). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 295, Pg(s) 5. View as PDF.
  8. ↑ Baha'i News (1954). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 285, Pg(s) 2. View as PDF.
  9. ↑ Baha'i News (1956). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 303, Pg(s) 3. View as PDF.
  10. ↑ Baha'i News (July 1957). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 317, Pg(s) 12. View as PDF.
  11. ↑ Baha'i News (1959). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 346, Pg(s) 6. View as PDF.
  12. ↑ Baha'i News (1960). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 351, Pg(s) 3. View as PDF.
  13. ↑ Baha'i News (1961). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 362, Pg(s) 6. View as PDF.
  14. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1970). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 13 (1954-1963), Pg(s) 287. View as PDF.
  15. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1974). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 14 (1963-1968), Pg(s) 96. View as PDF.
  16. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1976). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 15 (1968-1973), Pg(s) 208. View as PDF.
  17. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1976). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 15 (1968-1973), Pg(s) 606. View as PDF.
  18. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1978). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 16 (1973-1976), Pg(s) 146. View as PDF.
  19. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1981). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 17 (1976-1979), Pg(s) 143. View as PDF.
  20. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1986). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 18 (1979-1983), Pg(s) 166. View as PDF.
  21. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1994). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 19 (1983-1986), Pg(s) 151. View as PDF.
  22. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 160. View as PDF.
  23. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/145/?storyid=145
  24. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1994). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 19 (1983-1986), Pg(s) 154. View as PDF.
  25. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 253. View as PDF.
  26. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1993). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 21 (1992-1993), Pg(s) 128. View as PDF.
  27. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1994). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 22 (1993-1994), Pg(s) 85. View as PDF.
  28. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1996). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 23 (1994-1995), Pg(s) 89. View as PDF.
  29. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1997). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 24 (1995-1996), Pg(s) 181. View as PDF.
  30. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 25 (1996-1997), Pg(s) 106. View as PDF.
  31. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1999). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 26 (1997-1998), Pg(s) 92. View as PDF.
  32. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/145/?storyid=145
  33. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/398/
  34. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/487/
  35. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/community-news/youth-conferences/kigoma.html
  36. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/community-news/youth-conferences/daressalaam.html
  37. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/1592/slideshow/32/

References[edit]

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