Baháʼí Faith in Botswana
The tablets were translated and presented by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab on April 4, 1919, and published in Star of the West magazine on December 12, 1919.
"[4] The religion arrived in the area during the end of the era of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, the predecessor colonial country, under the Union of South Africa.
[12] The Robarts had joined the religion in 1938 and when the first National Spiritual Assembly of Canada was formed in 1948, John was elected chairman, a post he held until 1953 when they moved.
'"[11] The Robarts family befriended Modiri Molema, a highly respected medical doctor and the only black man who was permitted to associate with whites.
Dr. Molema converted to the religion but his enrollment was not made public because of likely harassment due to his previous high-profile political involvement.
To administer these communities a regional National Spiritual Assembly was elected in South West Africa to cover them.
[13] By early 1957 the Baháʼí community numbered between 10 and 20 individuals and became part of the regional national assembly of South and West Africa.
[12] The assemblies were in Lobatse, and Mahalapye and groups in Gaborone, Ghanzi, Kopong, Mafeking, Molepolole, Morwa, Serowe, and a lone Baháʼí in Moeng (which is near the Tswapong Hills).
[5] In 1967 the newly elected regional assembly of South Central Africa, then comprised the countries of Botswana, Malawi and Rhodesia.
There were ten delegates, sixty additional visitors for the fourth annual convention, held in Salisbury, Rhodesia.
[16] Following the classes the youth visited three villages previously arranged by the national assembly with the approval of the local chiefs where they presented a well received speech especially prepared for them.
[21] In 1984 the Baháʼís of Gaborone held a few public meetings - one highlighted UN Day at which several city officials attended, another was with visiting Counsellor Hooper Dunbar which was also covered by television and radio news.
[29] Hands of the Cause are a select group of Baháʼís, appointed for life, whose main function was to propagate and protect the religion.
In March 1978 Hand of the Cause H. Collis Featherstone toured Botswana for a week speaking of the Baháʼí views on themes of the religion and presented an address on radio.
[33] Paula Rath lived in Botswana in 1972–73 with her former husband, Dick Graham as Baha'i pioneers and ran a little newspaper called Puisano.
[34] Maureen Page was the secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Botswana for many years and her husband Jeff Gruber was a linguist, studying a particular Bushman language.
[35] An Iranian refugee since 1979, Yousef Mostaghim, and his family continued to support Baháʼí activities when they moved for a few months to Gaborone, Botswana, circa 1982 before settling in the United States.
[37][38] Ash Hartwell was an early Peace Corps volunteer in various posts in Africa and then moved back to the United States.
He became a student of Dwight W. Allen on reforming university educational programs, learned and joined the Baháʼí Faith, and then returned to Africa.
[39] While there he had a chance to interact with the Bushmen of the Kalahari during Baháʼí oriented trips and worked managing a program on secondary education teacher training for almost five years before moving on to Egypt.
[42] There was a continued meeting in 1978 when a small group of Baháʼís visited them for a week and encouraged them to adopt an extension goal of a nearby village.
[44] The religion entered a new phase of activity when a message of the Universal House of Justice dated 20 October 1983 was released.
A group of some 10-15 Baha'i youth, including among them White Dikhang, Patrick Masimolole, Godfrey Morewang, "Twist" Nsibisibi, Robert Petersen and Robert Sarracino, traveled from Gaborone south to the area around Lobatse, west to Kanye, north to Molepolole, and back to Gaborone, proclaiming and teaching the Faith in about a dozen villages.
For one week, youth gathered at the Baháʼí Institute in Mahalapye and studied the life of Baháʼu'lláh, the Kitab-i-Aqdas, and such teachings of the religion as chastity and marriage, and the immortality of the soul.
[54] The minister of local government of Botswana, Margaret Nasha, commended the activities of the community when she addressed its golden jubilee held December 2004.
[11] Baháʼís from Botswana were among the thousand who gathered for a regional conference called for by the Universal House of Justice to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in November 2008.
Sean Hinton, a member of the Aspen Institute's Leaders Action Forum, served as the supporter and catalyst for an HIV/AIDS awareness project called Letsema la Itlotlo (conceived by his parents-in-law Gerald and Lally Warren) to promote change in the behaviors that lead to the spread of HIV/AIDS in Botswana by using traditional cultural teachings and the values associated with religious belief as forces of attitudinal change.
[59] Two founding grants were received from De Beers Botswana and from the Office of Social and Economic Development of the Baháʼí International Community.
In 2009 Lucretia Warren, chairperson of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of Botswana and a former member of the Baháʼí Continental Board of Counsellors for Africa,[60] presented at her third[61] Parliament of the World's Religions held in Melbourne Australia as a member of a panel discussion on "Interfaith and the future of Africa".
