Baha'i Faith in Nigeria, The

The Baha’i faith was founded in 19th century Iran by Mirza Hosayn-Ali Nuri Baha’ullah (d. 1892) and developed from Babism, an Iranian messianic movement, and Ithna’ashari Shi’i Shaikhism. Baha’is acknowledge numerous prophets, including Muhammad, Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, and most recently Baha’ullah. The Baha’i Faith is monotheistic and universalist, recognizing the truth claims of other religious traditions. Followers believe in progressive revelation, such that each age has its prophet and revelations specific to that time. Both Sunni and Shi’a Muslims consider Baha’is to be heretical, and in Iran they face sometimes severe oppression. It is an international faith, with small communities in most countries. Of the roughly one million Baha’is in Africa today, around 38,000 live in Nigeria.

A small Baha’i community existed in Nigeria as early as the 1940s, in part due to the efforts of the New History Society and Caravan of East and West, which were founded by an American-Iranian Baha’i named Ahmad Sohrab who had broken away from the mainstream Baha’i faith. A number of study circles existed outside of Sohrab’s organizations, one of which was initiated by a Nigerian corporal who had converted in the course of corresponding with a Baha’i in New York. Mainstream Baha’i faith “pioneers”—Americans, British, Persians, and Africans proselytizing in neighboring nations—arrived in the 1950s across West Africa.

As the Baha’is did not organize themselves into churches, the missionary presence was mainly felt through voluntary associations. The Baha’i faith tended to attract unemployed, urban, Christian men, as well as foreign workers residing in West Africa. The most prominent of the African missionaries was Enoch Olinga, a Ugandan Baha’i who traveled throughout West Africa as part of the “Ten Year Crusade,” a proselytization effort initiated by Shoghi Effendi, leader of the Baha’i faith, in 1953.

Sources

Anthony Lee, The Baha’i faith in Africa: establishing a new religious movement, 1952-1962 (Boston: Brill, 2011).

Image Credits:

"Enoch Olinga," Bahá'í Media Bank, from Wikimedia Commons.