Baháʼí Faith in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Baháʼí Faith in the Democratic Republic of the Congo begins after ʻAbdu'l-Bahá wrote letters encouraging taking the religion to Africa in 1916.

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.

Likewise, from Germany teachers and believers may travel to the continents of America, Africa, Japan and China; in brief, they may travel through all the continents and islands of the globe"[1] and " ...the anthem of the oneness of the world of humanity may confer a new life upon all the children of men, and the tabernacle of universal peace be pitched on the apex of America; thus Europe and Africa may become vivified with the breaths of the Holy Spirit, this world may become another world, the body politic may attain to a new exhilaration...."[7] Shoghi Effendi, head of the religion after the death of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, and his wife, Rúhíyyih Khanum may have been the first Baháʼís to visit Congo when they drove across the eastern part of the country in 1940.

[9] The first converts were Louis Selemani, Remy Kalonji, and Valerien Mukendi - they, with a dozen pioneers from Europe, North America and other parts of Africa, and Congolese who had become Baháʼís in Rwanda and Burundi who moved back to their home provinces - all these formed the basis of the quickly growing community.

To administer these communities a regional National Spiritual Assembly was elected in Central and East Africa to cover them.

[2] The Eastern Belgian Congo, as part of the experience across central Africa west to east and to the south began to have qualities of mass conversion.

By the spring of 1962 there was widespread knowledge of many more Baháʼís and about November 1962 the National Spiritual Assembly of Central and West Africa was claiming over 14,000 people had converted to the religion.

[14] From January to March 1970 Hand of the Cause Rúhíyyih Khanum crossed Africa from east to west visiting many of these country's communities including the Congo, meeting with individuals and institutions both Baháʼí and civic.

[2] Rúhíyyih Khanum's second visit was in January 1972 and traveled almost 3,000 miles through central and southern Zaire by river boat and automobile.

Members of the Baháʼí Faith first entered the Province of Kivu about November 1959[16] from Uganda where the religion had grown quickly.

In 1982 the Baháʼí Administrative Committee for Central South Zaire in Lubumbashi published a work commemorating Bahíyyih Khánum.

[19][21] In 1983 a local TV program in Kivu featured a presentation on the religion was followed up by a showing of the filmThe Green Light Expedition about Rúhíyyih Khanum's trip up the Amazon River.

[24] The religion entered a new phase of activity when a message of the Universal House of Justice dated 20 October 1983 was released.

[30] In 1989 Baháʼís engaged in a study reviewing the effect of the religion in the prospects of fighting the growth of AIDS in Kinshasa.