Bahá'í Faith in South Africa

The Bahá'í Faith in South Africa began with the holding of Bahá'í meetings in the country in 1911.cite web
coauthors = National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of South Africa
title = Bahá'ís in South Africa - Progress of the Bahá'í Faith in South Africa since 1911
work = Official Website
publisher = National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of South Africa
year = 1997
url = http://www.bahai.org.za/cm/node/19
accessdate = 2008-03-19] A small population of Bahá'ís remained until 1950 when large numbers of international Bahá'í pioneers settled in South Africa. In 1956, after members of various tribes in South Africa became Bahá'ís, a regional Bahá'í Assembly which included South Africa was elected. Later each of the constituent countries successively formed their own independent Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly. Then in 1995, after a prolonged period of growth and oppression during Apartheid and the homelands reuniting with South Africa, the Bahá'í National Spiritual Assembly of South Africa was formed. In 2005 Bahá'ís were estimated at 201,883 adherents in 2005.Citation | contribution-url = http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/country/?CountryID=158 | year = 2007-8 | title = Religious Intelligence | contribution = Country Profile: South Africa (Republic of South Africa) | place = Republic of South Africa | publisher = Religious Intelligence ]

Early history

1911 marks the beginning of a presence of the Bahá'í Faith in South Africa at the home of Agnes Cook in Sea Point, Cape Town. Mr. and Mrs. William Fraetas from Muizenberg who had met `Abdu'l-Bahá, the son of the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, Bahá'u'lláh, in New York, in 1912 came back to South Africa in these early days. By 1929 there were 6 small groups of Bahá'ís mainly due to pioneers and travelling Bahá'ís, notably Martha Root, in the Western Cape and near Johannesburg. The very first local Bahá'í Assembly formed in Pretoria in 1925 but was dissolved in 1931, and by about 1937 only one Bahá'í remained from that period, Mrs. Agnes Carey. Carey was a social worker for women prisoners who had been released from the Pretoria prison, and because of her staunchness in the religion she was later honoured with the title of "The Mother of the Bahá'ís of South Africa" by Shoghi Effendi, who was appointed the leader of the religion after `Abdu'l-Bahá's death. Shoghi Effendi had travelled through South Africa in 1929 and 1940.cite news
coauthors = Bahá'í International Community
title = Generation expresses gratitude
work = BWNS
language = English
publisher = Bahá'í International Community
date = 2003-12-31
url = http://www.bahaiworldnews.org/story/270
accessdate = 2008-03-19 ] In 1949 the painter Reginald Turvey returned to South Africa from England as a Bahá'í since 1936 through his association with the well-known painter Mark Tobey and life-long friend Bernard Leach. Turvey was unaware of the existence of other Bahá'ís in South Africa including Agnes Carey. As a result Turvey spent thirteen years believing he was the sole Bahá'í in South Africa. For his patience, devotion and subsequent services to the African Bahá'ís in his latter years, he was given the title of "The Father of the Bahá'ís of South Africa". [cite journal
coauthors = from the book, [http://www.grbooks.com/show_book.php?book_id=158 Reginald Turvey / Life and Art] , Lowell Johnson, George Ronald Publishing, U.K., ISBN 9780853982388
title = Reginald Turvey, painter, South Africa
journal = BAFA
publisher = Bahá'í Faith and Arts and the Arts Dialogue
year = 2007
url = http://bahai-library.com/bafa/t/turvey.htm
accessdate = 2008-03-19]

Ten-Year Crusade

In 1953 Shoghi Effendi planned an international teaching plan termed the "Ten-Year Crusade". During the plan 65 pioneers from the United States, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and England settled in South Africa. Many of the pioneers settled permanently in the country; William Sears and his family, Harry and Margaret Ford, and Robert Miller and his family settled in Johannesburg; Ruth and Bishop Brown, who were Margaret Ford's mother and step-father, settled in Durban. Lowell and Edith Johnson settled in Cape Town while Eleanor and Lyall Hadden settled in Pretoria.

In 1954 in Pretoria, Klaas Mtsweni, a Zulu, became the first indigenous South African to become a Bahá'í. In the succeeding years members of other South African ethnic groups including the Tswana, the Xhosa, the southern and Northern Sotho peoples, the Coloured ethnic group, the Cape Coloureds, the Cape Malays, and White, Afrikaners became Bahá'ís. In 1959, after years of political involvement in ANC related organizations [cite web
last = Igama Lamakhosikazi
first = Malibongwe
title = ANC Women's League - 50 Years of struggle
work = Official Webpage
publisher = The ANC Women's League
date = 2008
url = http://www.anc.org.za/wl/docs/50years.html
accessdate = 2008-03-19 ] in the 1950s, Bertha Mkize became a Bahá'í and withdrew from political involvements and instead pioneered to KwaZulu where she helped found 28 Bahá'í communities. [Citation
authors = Universal House of Justice
coauthors = Based on a memoir by Dipchand Khianra
title = Bertha Mkhize - 1889-1981
journal = The Bahá'í World of the Bahá'í Era 136-140 (1979-1983)
volume = XVIII
publisher = Bahá'í World Centre
pages = p. 773
year = 1986
url = http://bahai-library.org/books/bw18/773-800.html
isbn = 0853982341]

In April 1956 the Bahá'í Faith was present in small numbers across 15 countries of Southern Africa including islands off Southern Africa. To administer these Bahá'í communities a regional governing body was elected in South Africa to cover them. Following the death of Shoghi Effendi and the election of the Universal House of Justice, the islands of the Indian Ocean and the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland each formed their own National Spiritual Assembly in 1964. Starting in 1967 the number of Bahá'ís in the region was growing and it was necessary for new independent National Assemblies to be formed in those countries: 1967 - Zambia; 1970 - Botswana, Malawi, Zimbabwe; 1971 - Lesotho; 1972 - Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion Island; 1977 - Swaziland; 1981 - Namibia; 1985 - Mozambique; 1991 - Angola; and in 1995 a re-united South Africa which included Bophuthatswana, Ciskei and Transkei.

Apartheid

Faced with the segregated social pattern and laws of Apartheid in South Africa, the integrated population of Bahá'ís had to decide how to be composed in their administrative structures – whether the National Spiritual Assembly would be all black or all white. The Bahá'í community decided that instead of dividing the South African Bahá'í community into two population groups, one black and one white, they instead limited membership in the Bahá'í administration to black adherents, and placed the entire Bahá'í community under the leadership of its black population.cite conference | coauthors = Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report
title = Regional Profile: Eastern Cape and Appendix: Statistics on Violations in the Eastern Cape
booktitle = Volume Three - Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report
pages = p. 32, 146.
publisher = Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report
date = 1998-10-29
url = http://www.doj.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/TRC%20VOLUME%203.pdf
accessdate = 2008-03-19] cite web
coauthors = National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of South Africa
title = Statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
work = Official Webpage
publisher = National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of South Africa
date = 1997-11-19
url = http://www.bahai.org.za/cm/node/19
accessdate = 2008-03-19] cite conference
coauthors = Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa
title = various chapters
booktitle = Volume Four - Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report
pages = see paragraphs 6, 27, 75, 84, 102
publisher = Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa
date = 1998-10-29
url = http://www.doj.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/TRC%20VOLUME%204.pdf
accessdate = 2008-03-19] In 1997 the National Spiritual Assembly presented a Statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa which said in part:

Abhorring all forms of prejudice and rejecting any system of segregation, the Bahá'í Faith was introduced on a one to one basis and the community quietly grew during the apartheid years, without publicity. Despite the nature of the politics of that time, we presented our teachings on unity and the oneness of humankind to prominent individuals in politics, commerce and academia and leaders of thought including State Presidents.... [b] oth individual Bahá'ís and our administrative institutions were continually watched by the security police.... Our activities did not include opposition to the previous Government for involvement in partisan politics and opposition to government are explicitly prohibited by the sacred Texts of our Faith.... During the time when the previous Government prohibited integration within our communities, rather than divide into separate administrative structures for each population group, we opted to limit membership of the Bahá'í Administration to the black adherents who were and remain in the majority of our membership and thereby placed the entire Bahá'í community under the stewardship of its black membership.... The pursuit of our objectives of unity and equality has not been without costs. The "white" Bahá'ís were often ostracized by their white neighbours for their association with "non-whites". The Black Bahá'ís were subjected to scorn by their black compatriots for their lack of political action and their complete integration with their white Bahá'í brethren. The most tragic loss to our community was the brutal execution of four of our adherents, at our places of worship, three in Mdantsane and one in Umtata.cite news
last = Reber
first = Pat
title = Baha'i Church Shooting Verdicts in
language = English
publisher = South Africa Associated Press
date = 1999-05-02
url = http://bahai-library.com/newspapers/031599-1.html
accessdate = 2008-03-19]

Of the four Bahá'ís murdered two of them were Alex A. N. Vari and Shamam Bakhshandegi at the Bahá'í Faith Centre, Mdantsane, Ciskei, on 13 March 1994. [cite conference
coauthors = Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa
publisher = Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report
date = 1998-10-29
title = Victim Findings
pages = pp. 13, 16
booktitle = Volume Seven -Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report
url = http://oldwww.parliament.gov.za/pls/portal30/docs/FOLDER/PARLIAMENTARY_INFORMATION/PUBLICATIONS/TRC/VICTIMS%2010-300.pdf
accessdate = 2008-03-20]

Modern community

Following the end of Apartheid the South African Bahá'í community continued to grow; Currently there are around of 201,000 Bahá'is in South Africa. [Citation | contribution-url = http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/country/?CountryID=158 | year = 2007-8 | title = Religious Intelligence | contribution = Country Profile: South Africa (Republic of South Africa) | place = Republic of South Africa | publisher = Religious Intelligence ] The Bahá'í community in South Africa has also been involved in a variety of projects around the country. The Parliament of the World's Religions held its 1999 session in South Africa and the Bahá'ís helped in its organization and operation; Dr. Marks, the South African co-chair, is a Bahá'í. [Citation| last = Bamford | first = Suzanne | last2 = Rice | first2 = Muhtadia| title = In South Africa, the world's religions gather for dialogue and action | periodical = One Country | volume = 11 | issue = 3 | month = October-December | year = 1999 | url = http://www.onecountry.org/e113/e11301as.htm ] In 2001 the Bahá'í International Community released two statements with regard to issues in South Africa. The first, on HIV/AIDS and gender equality issues particular to South Africa underscored the " [f] allacious notions about the naturally voracious sexual appetites of men" and "how culturally accepted social inequalities conspire with economic vulnerability to leave women and girls with little or no power to reject unwanted or unsafe sex. Yet, once infected with HIV/AIDS, women are often stigmatised as the source of the disease and persecuted, sometimes violently." [Citation
coauthors = Bahá'í International Community
title = Statement on HIV/AIDS and Gender Equality
date = 2001-06-25
place = New York, United States
publisher = Bahá'í International Community
url = http://www.bci.org/southafrica/aids.html ] The second statement was on the issue of racism. [Citation
coauthors = Bahá'í International Community
contribution = One Same Substance: Consciously Creating a Global Culture of Unity
contribution-url = http://www.bic-un.bahai.org/01-0831.htm
title = World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance
date = 2001-08-31
place = Durban, South Africa
publisher = World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance
url = http://www.bic-un.bahai.org/01-0831.htm
doi = official UN document (A/CONF.189/10/Add.2) in English French and Spanish under item 9 of the provisional agenda. ] Bahá'ís also participated in the follow up to the 1992 Rio Conference on the Environment - Earth Summit 2002 held in South Africa in 2002. Some 30 representatives of six Bahá'í and Bahá'í-inspired organizations took part in the Summit including a statement entitled "Religion and Development at the Crossroads: Convergence or Divergence?". Delegations from the Bahá'í International Community, as well as the official Bahá'í communities of South Africa, Brazil, and Canada were accredited to the Summit as well as numerous sessions of Commissions of the United Nations on Sustainable Development. [Citation
coauthors = Bahá'í International Community
title = Baha'is to stress spiritual values at World Summit on Sustainable Development
newspaper = Bahá'í World News Service
date = 2002-08-23
url = http://www.bahaiworldnews.org/story/170] [Citation
coauthors = Bahá'í International Community
contribution = Baha’í International Community
contribution-url = http://esa.un.org/coordination/ngo/session/views/viewer.asp?Document=E/C.2/2007/2/Add.23&number=2&view=2007_C2_Add_23_e.pdf&jumpto=2&session_db=..%5Cdb%5CPrevious_Sessions%5C..%5Csession_data.mdb
title = Quadrennial reports for the period 2002-2005 submitted through the Secretary-General pursuant to Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31* - Note by the Secretary-General
date = 2007-05-18 resumed session
pages = 4-6
publisher = United Nations
url = http://esa.un.org/coordination/ngo/session/views/viewer.asp?Document=E/C.2/2007/2/Add.23&number=2&view=2007_C2_Add_23_e.pdf&jumpto=2&session_db=..%5Cdb%5CPrevious_Sessions%5C..%5Csession_data.mdb
doi = E/C.2/2007/2/Add.23 ] During the Summit the experience of South African Bahá'í community with dealing with racism, education and gender inequality was offered. [Citation
first = Farzin
last = Aghdasi
first2 = Abbas
last2 = Shaker
contribution = Community Development Using Spiritually Based Indicators in The South African Baha’i Community
contribution-url = http://www.bci.org/bahaistudies/Development.htm
date = 2002-08-09
publisher = Bahá'í International Community
url = http://www.bci.org/bahaistudies/Development.htm ]

In 2004 Bahá'ís Mark Bamford and wife, co-writer and producer Suzanne Kay, and their two children, who had moved from the United States to live in Cape Town, South Africa made the movie Cape of Good Hope. [cite web|publisher=Bahá'í World News Service|title=Couple put their faith into the picture|url=http://news.bahai.org/story/305|accessdate=2007-06-25] [cite web|last=Shuler|first=Deardra|title=Suzanne Kay and Mark Bamford: Bringing the Cape of Good Hope to America|url=http://www.afrocentricnews.com/html/kay_and_mark_bamford.html|publisher=Theodore Myles Publishing|accessdate=2007-06-25] In 2007 two professional filmmakers finished an hourlong documentary about three Bahá'ís and how they practice their faith, and the film is being aired on television in South Africa and neighbouring countries. "Baha'i Faith: A Way Forward" was produced by Ryan and Leyla Haidarian at the request of the South African Broadcasting Corporation, which has licensed rights to the documentary for two years. [Citation
coauthors = Bahá'í International Community
title = South African film shows faith in action
newspaper = Bahá'í World News Service
date = 2007-08-19
url = http://news.bahai.org/story/573 ]

In addition to a variety if singular events the Bahá'ís engaged in a number of annual events. The perennial youth service and arts project "Beyond Words" has toured South African Bahá'í communities since 2000. [Citation
last = Varjavandi
first = Roya
title = Beyond Words and the Spirit of Africa
periodical = The Scottish Bahá'í
issue = 35
date = 2004-02-17
url = http://www.breacais.demon.co.uk/sbn/sbn35/sab1.htm ] The Association for Bahá’í Studies in Southern Africa held its seventh annual conference in 2006 at Bloemfontein, South Africa, including talks by John Grayzel, Chair, Bahá’í Studies, University of Maryland and Continental Counsellor Enos Makhele. [Citation
coauthors = members of the Association for Bahá’í Studies in Southern Africa
title = Conference Programme with Abstracts and Notes from Presentations
year = 2006
place = Bloemfontein, South Africa
publisher = Association for Bahá’í Studies in Southern Africa
url = http://www.bci.org/bahaistudies/Conference%20Report-abstracts%20and%20notes-2006.htm ]

Jubiliee

In 2003 the Bahá'í community of South Africa celebrated their Golden Jubilee (50 year anniversary of the community) in Phokeng which was followed by satellite festivities in eight cities:Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Sabie, Umtata, and Mafikeng. [Citation | last = Woodhurst| first = Alan | title = Bahá’í Activities in South Africa | periodical = Journal of the Bahá'í Community of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland| volume = 20 | issue = 5| year = 2004| url =http://www.bahaijournal.org.uk/BJ200401/africa.htm ] The National Spiritual Assembly's own Golden Jubilee included a 2006 commemoration by Thabo Mbeki on behalf of the Government and people of South Africa to say congratulations and best wishes to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of South Africa. [cite web
author = National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of South Africa
coauthors = President of South Africa, Mr. Thabo Mbeki
title = A message from Mr Thabo Mbeki, the President of South Africa
work = Official Webpage
publisher = National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of South Africa
url = http://www.bahai.org.za/cm/node/18
accessdate = 2008-03-21 ]

Demographics

The number of adherents to the Bahá'í Faith was estimated in 2005 at 201,883.

Publications

*My African Heart by Bonnie Fitzpatrick-Moore, Paperback, 196 pages, ISBN 9781874801863, December 1999, published by Baha'i Publishing Trust of South Africa. [cite web
coauthors = Loot Online (Pty) Ltd
title = loot.co.za
work = My African Heart
publisher = Loot Online (Pty) Ltd
date = 2008
url = http://www2.loot.co.za/shop/product.jsp?lsn=187480186X
accessdate = 2008-03-21] About an African-American Baha'f author who moved to South Africa and lived there for a quarter century.cite web
coauthors = Google, Inc.
title = Lights of the Spirit: Historical Portraits of Black Bahá'ís in North America
publisher = Google, Inc.
date = 2006
pages = pp. 44, 118, 119, 127, 168, 249
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=L2KVX4mx1xEC
accessdate = 2008-03-21 ]
*Lights of the Spirit: Historical Portraits of Black Bahá'ís in North America By Gwendolyn Etter-Lewis, Richard Walter Thomas, 338 pages, ISBN 1931847266, 2006, published by United States Baha'i Publishing Trust, includes several individuals who moved or made special trips to South Africa.

ee also

*Religion in South Africa
*History of South Africa
*World Conference against Racism 2001

References

External links

* [http://www.bahai.org.za/cm/ Bahá'ís of South Africa] Official Website
* [http://www.bci.org/southafrica/index.html Official Webpage of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís oF South Africa] maintained by the Bahá'í International Community
* [http://student.wits.ac.za/Clubs/bahai Bahá'í Club] at University of the Witwatersrand.
* [http://www.bahaistudies.org.za/ Association for Bahá’í Studies in Southern Africa]
* [http://www.bahai-faith.org/afrikaans.html Introduction to the Bahá'í Faith] in Afrikaans.
* [http://www.bahaiyouth.org.za/ Baha'i Youth of South Africa]