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Zambia

From Bahaipedia
 Zambia
Lusaka Bahá’í Regional Conference, 2008.
Location of Zambia
National AssemblyZambia
Statistics:
Total Population
 -  UN 2021[2] 19,473,125
Bahá'í pop.
 -  Bahá'í source 4,000[1] 
 -  Non-Bahá'í source 339,127
History:
Firsts
 -  Local Bahá'í 1954, Christopher Mwitumwa 
 -  Pioneers 1952, Eric Manton 
 -  Local Assembly 1956, Luanshya 
 -  National Assembly 1967 
How to contact:
 -  Email secretariat@nsazambia.org
Official Website The Bahá’í Community of Zambia
Related media
Categories: Zambia • People

The Republic of Zambia is a nation in East Africa. English is the official language of the country and Christianity is its official religion.

The region has been inhabited since prehistory by the Khoisan and Batwa peoples with the Bantu settling in the area in the 3rd century. In the 18th century the area was colonised by the British Empire with the protectorates of Barotziland and North-Eastern Rhodesia being established. The two protectorates were merged into the protectorate of Northern Rhodesia in 1911. The protectorate achieved independence as Zambia in 1964.

The Bahá’í Faith was established in Zambia in 1952 with a Bahá’í community becoming firmly established in the late 1950's. The community experienced accelerated growth in the 1970's and began to undertake efforts to contribute to the social and economic development of the community in the 1980's, notably establishing the William Masehla Institute in 1983 and the Banani International School in 1993.

History[edit]

In 1950 Shoghi Effendi launched the African Campaign which was a teaching plan which aimed to establish Bahá’í communities across Africa. Zambia was opened to the Bahá’í Faith by Eric Manton who arrived in the country, settling in Livingstone, on February 7, 1952, accompanied by his son Terry.[3] Manton was later posted to Ndola and then Kitwe in his professional career and hired Christopher Mwitumwa as a servant. In 1954 Manton visited fellow pioneer Enayat Sohaili in Nyasaland accompanied by Terry and Christopher and after arriving back in Zambia Christopher became the first Zambian Bahá’í with his friend Sandikonda Sani accepting the Faith a short time afterward. In April, 1955, Stuart Davidson, a white South African farmer, and Jessie Franksen, an English nurse, became Bahá’ís in Zambia,[4] and in October, 1955, Ethna Archibald pioneered to Lusaka.[5]

In April, 1956, the first Local Spiritual Assembly of Zambia was established in Luanshya.[6] In April, 1957, Doris Ballard pioneered to Chingola,[7] and that year additional Local Spiritual Assemblies were formed in Kitwe and Fisenge and an Area Teaching Committee for Northern Rhodesia was established.[8][9] In 1958 the Local Spiritual Assembly of Chingola was formed.[10] By the end of the Ten Year Crusade 1963 there were 1200 Bahá’ís in Zambia residing in fifty-nine localities and twelve Local Spiritual Assemblies in the country.[11] In 1964 the National Spiritual Assembly of South Central Africa was established with its seat in Salisbury.[12] The community continued to grow in the 1960's, establishing its independent National Spiritual Assembly in 1967,[13] and having eighteen Local Spiritual Assemblies by 1968 with Bahá’ís residing in 233 localities across the country.[14]

As of 1973 Zambia had a community of 3800 Bahá’ís living in 581 localities and seventy-two Local Spiritual Assemblies and as of that year the National Spiritual Assembly had been incorporated with the National Spiritual Assembly, had secured a National Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds and Temple site, and Bahá’í marriage had been officially recognized.[15] In April that year Gregory C. Dahl, an American Bahá’í, visited Zambia and was interviewed and performed Bahá’í inspired music on radio and television which resulted in increased interest in the Faith, prompting the Bahá’í community of Lusaka to contribute a Bahá’í display to the National Agricultural Show in August, 1973. In September Raḥmatu’lláh Muhájir visited the country to stimulate mass teaching efforts and helped plan a six month teaching project centred on Kasama and from October, 1973, to October, 1974, 1500 people declared in the Northern Province of Zambia.[16]

In January 1975 the first National Teaching Conference of Zambia was held,[16] and throughout the mid 1970's the Western Province of Zambia was opened to the Faith and Bahá’í Training Institutes to assist prospective pioneers were developed.[17] In the late 1970's efforts were undertaken to proclaim the Faith to traditional rulers in the country,[18] and to provide training for Local Spiritual Assembly officers.[19]

Two tutorial schools had been established by the Bahá’í community by 1983,[20][21] and that year the William Masehla Bahá’í Institute was established which aimed to combine practical education in the fields of agriculture, health literacy, technologies relevant to villages, and Bahá’í topics, and then mobilize trainees to assist their local communities.[22] By the late 1980's the Bahá’ís of Zambia were facilitating community health education programs across the country which trained volunteers to serve as health educators in their communities.[23] In 1988 and 1989 Bahá’í youth played a prominent role in proclamation and teaching projects in Lusaka and Ndola.[24]

In 1990 the Bahá’í community of Zambia was invited to participate in an event commemorating the nation's independence.[25] In 1993 the Bahá’ís of Zambia founded the Banani International School for Girls in response to only twenty percent of girls in the country receiving basic education.[26] In 1995 a Teaching Campaign named after Isobel Sabri was undertaken which resulted in 220 declarations in six weeks.[27] As of 1995 the William Masehla Foundation had become a registered non-governmental organization and had expanded its efforts to include supporting the Banani International School and a healthcare project.[28]

In early 1996 Rwandan Bahá’ís who had settled in Zambia due to the violence in their home nation undertook a teaching campaign in Lusaka to reach French speakers.[29] In December 1998 the National Spiritual Assembly of Zambia issued a statement titled The Spiritual Foundations of Human Rights to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.[30] In 1999 a Bahá’í seminar for Bahá’ís who were village headmen in Sinazongwe to allow for consultation and deepening on the Faith.[31]

As of 2002 there were 15,000 Bahá’ís in Zambia and 80 Local Spiritual Assemblies and that year the Bahá’í community of Zambia celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Bahá’í Faith in the country.[32] In 2008 a major Regional Bahá’í Conference was held in Lusaka,[33] and in 2013 two major International Bahá’í Youth Conferences were held in Chibombo and Mwinilunga.[34][35] As of 2018 there were approximately 4000 Bahá’ís in the country.[36]

In 2023 the Banani International School celebrated its 30th Anniversary,[37] and that year the Universal House of Justice announced that a Mashriqu’l-Adhkár was to be constructed in Mwinilunga.[38]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Bahá’í Faith in Zambia, 2018
  2. ↑ "World Population Prospects 2022". population.un.org. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
  3. ↑ Edith & Lowell Johnson, Heroes and Heroines of the Ten Year Crusade in Southern Africa, NSA of South Africa: Johannesburg, 2003, p 130
  4. ↑ Edith & Lowell Johnson, Heroes and Heroines of the Ten Year Crusade in Southern Africa, NSA of South Africa: Johannesburg, 2003, p 131
  5. ↑ Edith & Lowell Johnson, Heroes and Heroines of the Ten Year Crusade in Southern Africa, NSA of South Africa: Johannesburg, 2003, p 115
  6. ↑ Edith & Lowell Johnson, Heroes and Heroines of the Ten Year Crusade in Southern Africa, NSA of South Africa: Johannesburg, 2003, p 125
  7. ↑ Edith & Lowell Johnson, Heroes and Heroines of the Ten Year Crusade in Southern Africa, NSA of South Africa: Johannesburg, 2003, p 117
  8. ↑ Edith & Lowell Johnson, Heroes and Heroines of the Ten Year Crusade in Southern Africa, NSA of South Africa: Johannesburg, 2003, p 126
  9. ↑ Edith & Lowell Johnson, Heroes and Heroines of the Ten Year Crusade in Southern Africa, NSA of South Africa: Johannesburg, 2003, p 120
  10. ↑ Edith & Lowell Johnson, Heroes and Heroines of the Ten Year Crusade in Southern Africa, NSA of South Africa: Johannesburg, 2003, p 120
  11. ↑ Edith & Lowell Johnson, Heroes and Heroines of the Ten Year Crusade in Southern Africa, NSA of South Africa: Johannesburg, 2003, p 114
  12. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1974). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 14 (1963-1968), Pg(s) 96. View as PDF.
  13. ↑ Baha'i News (1981). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 608, Pg(s) 10. View as PDF.
  14. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1974). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 14 (1963-1968), Pg(s) 151. View as PDF.
  15. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1976). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 15 (1968-1973), Pg(s) 202. View as PDF.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1978). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 16 (1973-1976), Pg(s) 160. View as PDF.
  17. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1978). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 16 (1973-1976), Pg(s) 161. View as PDF.
  18. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1986). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 18 (1979-1983), Pg(s) 164. View as PDF.
  19. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1986). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 18 (1979-1983), Pg(s) 167. View as PDF.
  20. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1986). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 18 (1979-1983), Pg(s) 118. View as PDF.
  21. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 25 (1996-1997), Pg(s) 222. View as PDF.
  22. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1994). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 19 (1983-1986), Pg(s) 353. View as PDF.
  23. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 183. View as PDF.
  24. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 262. View as PDF.
  25. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 250. View as PDF.
  26. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1994). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 22 (1993-1994), Pg(s) 255. View as PDF.
  27. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1996). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 23 (1994-1995), Pg(s) 82. View as PDF.
  28. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1996). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 23 (1994-1995), Pg(s) 127. View as PDF.
  29. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1997). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 24 (1995-1996), Pg(s) 112. View as PDF.
  30. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2000). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 27 (1998-1999), Pg(s) 89. View as PDF.
  31. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2001). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 28 (1999-2000), Pg(s) 59. View as PDF.
  32. ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2004). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 31 (2002-2003), Pg(s) 75. View as PDF.
  33. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/lusaka.html
  34. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/community-news/youth-conferences/chibombo.html
  35. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/community-news/youth-conferences/mwinilunga.html
  36. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20180530180717/http://www.bahaizambia.org/bahai-faith
  37. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/1706/
  38. ↑ https://news.bahai.org/story/1669/
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