The establishment of the Baha'i Faith in West Africa: The first decade, 1952--1962

This study is a first attempt to understand how a Baha'i community was permanently established in West Africa, from the time of the arrival of the first Baha'i pioneers (missionaries) there in 1953 until about 1963. There are currently about one-million Baha'is in Africa.;The study begins by noting the African presence at the genesis of the Babi/Baha'i religions, which has been previously been ignored. The Baha'i Faith was self-consciously formulated in response to the challenges of modernity. Therefore, the Baha'i teachings are fundamentally a religious response to the challenges and crises of modern society---first in Iran, then in America and in Africa. The expansion of Baha'is to the West, and especially to the United States, is discussed briefly. The crisis of colonial society in the 1950s, and the dilemmas of mission Christianity in Africa in particular, are examined. The argument is made that the Baha'i Faith offered a productive religious alternative in such crises that some Africans found attractive.;The dissertation outlines the institutional expansion of the Baha'i religion in West Africa, in accord with international plans of diffusion formulated by Baha'i leadership, discussing successes and failures. Special interest is taken in the biographies of African American Baha'is who relocated from the United States to carry their religion to West Africa.;But the history of the Baha'i Faith in West Africa is not just a history of expansion. This study seeks to understand what message the Baha'is brought to Africa and how that message was understood and transformed by African converts. It discusses initial Baha'i successes in East Africa that were quickly replicated in West Africa. It looks briefly at the Basel Mission community of Presbyterian Christians in the British Cameroons, where Baha'is were most successful in finding new converts, while also remembering the context of African traditional religion with which the new converts would have been familiar. It argues that the Baha'i Faith took on the characteristics of a movement within the Basel Mission.;Finally, the study recounts the rise and collapse of an independent Baha'i church in Calabar, Nigeria, and the conversion of its leaders to a more orthodox Baha'i teaching.