BaháÊ¼í Faith in Chad

Though the BaháÊ¼í Faith in Chad began after its independence in 1960 members of the religion were present in associated territories since 1953. The BaháÊ¼ís of Chad elected their first National Spiritual Assembly in 1971. Through succeeding decades BaháÊ¼ís have been active in a number of ways and by some counts have become the third largest international religion in Chad with over 80,300 members by 2000 and 96,800 in 2005.
Early phase
Before independence the region of Chad was part of the French Equatorial Africa (as well as modern day Congo, Central Africa, and Gabon.) The first pioneers in the region were Max Kinyerezi who settled in what was then French Equatorial Africa (specifically in the area later part of Republic of the Congo), The BaháÊ¼ís organized these and neighboring areas into the regional National Spiritual Assembly of central and eastern Africa in 1956 - including Uganda, Tanganyika, Kenya, Belgian Congo, Ruanda-Urundi, French Equatorial Africa, Zanzibar, Comoro Is, Seychelles and Chagos Archipelago. However once Chad was politically independent none of the territory specific to Chad had a Baha'i in it until 1961. The first BaháÊ¼í in Chad was Cleophas K. Vava in what was then called Fort Lamy, the capital. About November 1962 the national spiritual assembly of Central and West Africa was claiming over 14,000 people almost all of whom were not in Chad. The situation changed little when the regional assembly associations were changed in 1963 to align Chad with Uganda and other central African countries. Early pioneers were Dempsey and Adrienne Morgan arrived in December 1967. The first native Chadian BaháÊ¼í, Ernest Nbouba, converted early in 1968. By Ridván 1968 there were 7 Chadian BaháÊ¼ís and two pioneers so a local assembly was elected. The BaháÊ¼í community was much stimulated by the arrival of the first Hand of the Cause to visit Chad, Rúhíyyih Khanum who had been crossing Africa from east to west visiting many country's communities including Chad. She arrived by way of Bangui in February 1970, on the tenth anniversary of Chad's independence, to Fort Lamy and visited there and in the villages of Gassi and Djari. During the two weeks visit she met with mostly individuals and institutions of the religion. In Gassi she helped dedicate the BaháÊ¼í center being built. From Chad Khanum traveled into Cameroon. Two developments following her trip were the participation of Chad BaháÊ¼ís in the first regional national convention of central Africa held in Bangui (Uganda splitting off its own national assembly in 1970) and second, the BaháÊ¼ís of Chad attempted to be registered with the federal government but it turned out the government had no procedure to register a new religion organizing in the country. Chad delegates to the regional convention arrived in time for pre-convention classes and saw Hand of the Cause Abu'l-Qásim Faizi who represented the Universal House of Justice. The BaháÊ¼ís of Gassi had already formed a children's BaháÊ¼í school while land for nine BaháÊ¼í centers was donated at the convention and the consultation of the delegates focused on the need to French-speaking pioneers who understood the religion especially in outlying areas. In December 1971 bus loads and cars of youth came from Chad and the Central African Republic to Cameroon who hosted the first regional African youth conference.
In 1972 (and again in 1974) the BaháÊ¼ís of Chad celebrated the first United Nations Day of Chad. The public meeting held at the national BaháÊ¼í center with the cooperation of United Nations Development Program Resident Representative featured an assistant of the UN Representative who spoke and offered literature while a BaháÊ¼í spoke of the BaháÊ¼í teachings - the event was covered by print and radio media in Chad and 50 people attended the meeting. The third national convention was held in Sarh in southern Chad where the mayor had donate use of the city's municipal center. In 1974 prayers were published translated into Massa, Ngambay and Kanuri languages. In October 1976 the BaháÊ¼ís held a national conference on the progress of the religion as part of a wave of such conferences across the world. Following the conference waves of traveling BaháÊ¼ís, some from Iran, brought the religion to villages as well as offering institutes to promote understanding of the religion and classes for children. In January 1977 the BaháÊ¼ís in Sahr held a conference for women at which only 12 of the 40 participants were BaháÊ¼ís following which a wave of conversions included half women. Other conferences continued through summer 1977. The community of Chad avoided being banned as part of a sweep across several Sub-Saharan countries. Chad was one of the countries BaháÊ¼í organized a series of events in honor of the International Year of the Child, 1979. A BaháÊ¼í consultant traveled western Africa including Chad assisting communities in their efforts. Though the consultant took ill in Chad, the program developed was the most successful in the region. A children's committee organized institutes for 125 villages and themselves conducted the meetings and produced a set of lesson plans in both French and English that was distributed to other West African communities. In 1981 the national convention was held in Moïssala In 1982 sixty of the local assemblies of Chad were designated as leaders in their regions to help nearby communities organize their religious meetings while at the same time a regional permanent institute was finished in Manda. In 1983 crowd surpassing the seats allotted turns out for a film describing BaháÊ¼í pilgrimage in Moïssala.
Activities of a growing community
Since its inception the religion has had involvement in socio-economic development beginning by giving greater freedom to women, promulgating the promotion of female education as a priority concern, and that involvement was given practical expression by creating schools, agricultural coops, and clinics. BaháÊ¼ís were urged to seek out ways, compatible with the BaháÊ¼í teachings, in which they could become involved in the social and economic development of the communities in which they lived. World-wide in 1979 there were 129 officially recognized BaháÊ¼í socio-economic development projects. By 1987, the number of officially recognized development projects had increased to 1482. There is evidence of activities of the BaháÊ¼í community through from the '80s through 2008 and some by invitation with third parties. BaháÊ¼í youth have mobilized for a number of purposes over the years. BaháÊ¼ís have also been cooperative agents with various agencies and the BaháÊ¼ís started a non-governmental organization devoted to solving local ecological and developmental challenges. See details below. The overall process of advancing development projects gained the a diploma of Participation from the Trade Chamber at the fourth International Fair of Customs and Economic Union of Central Africa (later renamed the Economic Community of Central African States).
*Since the United Nations established the International Youth Year (IYY) in 1979 and in successive years plans have evolved for promoting the constructive action of youth. In 1985 BaháÊ¼í youth in Chad mobilized to alleviate the suffering of thousands afflicted by famine by visiting the sick and elderly, preparing food and collected and distributed clothing. A regional youth conference was organized in Sarh with attendance of 200 youth from surrounding localities and planted three hectares of trees in Makiling in support of IYY. To encourage all youth clubs in Chad and their sponsoring local assemblies to undertake activities for IYY, the National Spiritual Assembly of the BaháÊ¼ís of Chad printed and distributed in large quantities of the official Youth Year emblem for all local communities. And Bahá´ís have continued to host United Nations Day as well as adding World Religion Day observances.
*In conjunction with the Chadian Ministry of Education, the BaháÊ¼í community sponsored a program with a guest speaker for the International Literacy Year (see International Literacy Day) which was televised on 24 October 1989. After that the BaháÊ¼í Faith was mentioned on local television in Mongo in 1996.
*Begun in Bongor and then moved to Sarh, the APRODEPIT, an acronym for Action pour la Promotion des Ressources des Organisations de Défense de l'Environnement et de la Pisciculture integrée au Tchad (Action for the Promotion of Resources for Organizations Defending the Environment and Integrated Pisciculture in Chad) is a BaháÊ¼í-inspired non-governmental organization, stressing participation and consultation in an effort to promote conservation and community development along the Chari River since 1992.
*The US Embassy in Chad reported in 2008 that it had hosted an iftar dinner inviting representatives of the Muslim, Christian, and BaháÊ¼í communities.
Modern community
Long term pioneers are in Chad - some of many years stay and others of a short stay. There are Ruhi Institute Study Circles. The religion continues to grow through the 1980s establishing schools, libraries, a pharmacy and exhibits on BaháÊ¼í marriage in the name of the religion. Sometimes more people came than could take classes while some of these institutions became self-sustaining.
Demographics
The World Christian Encyclopedia estimates the BaháÊ¼í population in 2000 to be over 80,300, and 96,845 in 2005<ref name"WCE-05"/> and is the third largest internationally organized religion after Islam and Christianity in the country.<ref name"prof"/>

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