The opening months of the second phase of the Ten-Year Plan have
witnessed, on the American, the European, the African, the Asiatic and the
Australian fronts, a succession of victories rivalling, in their variety,
rapidity and significance, the prodigious efforts exerted, and the superb
exploits achieved, during the first twelve months of the Global Crusade,
by the mighty company of the stalwart Knights of Baha'u'llah in well nigh
a hundred virgin territories scattered over the face of the planet.
Seven virgin territories have been opened to the Faith since the
announcement on the morrow of the Ridvan Festival, raising the total
number of the Sovereign States and Dependencies enlisted under the banner
of the Cause of God to two hundred and thirty-five. The number of the
unopened territories outside of the Soviet Orbit has now shrunk to eight,
namely: Spitzbergen, Anticosti Island, St. Thomas Island, Nicobar Islands,
Cocos Island, Socotra Island, Loyalty Islands, and the Chagos Archipelago.
The following pioneers have been inscribed on the Roll of Honor since my
last sixth periodic announcement: Elizabeth Stamp, St. Helena; Mr. and
Mrs. Harold Fitzner, Portuguese Timor; Elise Schreiber, Spanish Guinea;
Violet Hoehnke, Admiralty Islands; Shahpoor Rowhani and Ardeshir Faroodi,
Bhutan; Mehraben Sohaili, Comoro Islands; Marcia Atwater, Marshall
Islands.
The number of Baha'i centers scattered over the continents and islands of
the globe has now passed the three thousand mark. A contract has been
signed for the purchase of a three-acre plot as the site of the first
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of Europe, situated on a plateau near the Taunus
Hills in the vicinity of the City of Frankfurt. A thirty thousand square
meter property located on the banks of the Tigris has been acquired as the
site of the future Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the Holy City of Ba_gh_dad. A
plot lying in the outskirts of New Delhi has been secured at the price of
a hundred thousand rupees as the site of the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar
of the Indian sub-continent. A twelve thousand dollar plot has been bought
in Johannesburg as the site of the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of South
Africa. A five-year Plan has been initiated in Baha'u'llah's native land
designed to raise twelve million tumans for the projected construction of
the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar in the cradle of the Faith. A six thousand
dollar plot has been purchased in the vicinity of the resting-place of the
Greatest Holy Leaf and registered in the name of the newly established
Israel Branch of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the
British Isles. A property has been acquired opposite the Mother Temple of
the West to serve as a possible site for the first Dependency of the
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of Wilmette. A contract has been signed, pending
registration of a house valued at ten thousand dollars and situated in the
immediate neighborhood of the Bab's Sepulcher, in the name of the recently
established Israel Branch of the National Spiritual Assembly of the
Baha'is of Canada. Preliminary steps have been taken for the acquisition
of two plots, the one situated on the ridge of Mt. Carmel, the other to
the west of the Bab's resting-place and for their subsequent registration
in the name of the Israel Branches of the National Spiritual Assemblies of
the Baha'is of Persia and of Australia and New Zealand, respectively. A
national Haziratu'l-Quds has been purchased in Kabul and one in
Johannesburg. Arrangements will soon be completed for the purchase of a
building costing over eighteen thousand dollars for a national
Haziratu'l-Quds in Tunis. Funds totalling over one hundred thousand
dollars have been initiated for the purchase of similar institutions in
Anchorage, Asuncion, Auckland, Bahrayn, Beirut, Bern, Bogota, Brussels,
Buenos Aires, Caracas, Ciudad Trujillo, Colombo, Copenhagen, Guatemala,
Havana, Helsingfors, Istanbul, Jakarta, Johannesburg, La Paz, Lima,
Lisbon, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Managua, Mexico City, Montevideo,
Oslo, Panama City, Port-au-Prince, Quito, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, San Jose,
Santiago, San Salvador, Stockholm, Suva, Tegucigalpa, The Hague, Tokyo,
and Vienna, as well as for the acquisition of the Garden of Ridvan in
Ba_gh_dad, the transfer of the remains of the wife of the Bab in _Sh_iraz
and for the purchase of the sites associated with Baha'u'llah's exile in
Istanbul and in Adrianople. The initiation of these Funds has been made
possible to a notable extent as a result of the successive contributions
made by the Hand of the Cause, Amelia Collins, outstanding benefactress of
the Faith, for the furtherance of some of the most vital objectives of the
Ten-Year Plan. Negotiations are now afoot aiming at the acquisition of the
fortress of _Ch_ihriq including its precincts involving the expenditure of
a sum of over two hundred thousand tumans. Preliminary documents have been
signed in connection with the purchase from the Development Authority of
the State of Israel of five houses, situated at the foot of Mt. Carmel and
adjoining the last terrace of the Bab's Shrine, for a sum of approximately
sixty thousand dollars.
The phenomenal progress of the African Campaign, alike in the teaching and
administrative spheres of Baha'i activity, has been maintained, most
conspicuously in the heart of that continent, as evidenced by the
ever-swelling number of African converts, now numbering over seven
hundred, three hundred and eighty of which have been added in the course
of a single year. The number of Baha'i centers now spread over the face of
this continent is a hundred and ninety-five. The number of African tribes
represented in the Faith in this same continent has reached eighty-five.
The African languages into which Baha'i literature has been translated now
number thirty-four, whilst the number of African local spiritual
assemblies has swelled to fifty.
I feel the hour is now ripe for the adoption of preliminary measures
designed to pave the way for the simultaneous erection during Ridvan of
1956 of three pillars of the future Universal House of Justice in the
North, the South and the very heart of this long dormant continent. The
first of these pillars will be designated the National Spiritual Assembly
of the Baha'is of Central and East Africa; the second the National
Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of South and West Africa; and the third
the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of North-West Africa.
Responsibility for the convocation of the three epoch-making conventions,
to be held in Kampala, Johannesburg and Tunis, preparatory to the
emergence of these three central administrative institutions of the
fast-evolving Administrative Order of the Faith of Baha'u'llah in the
African continent will devolve upon the British, the United States and the
Egyptian Spiritual Assemblies, respectively.
The jurisdiction of the first Assembly will embrace Uganda, Tanganyika,
Kenya, the Belgian Congo, Ruanda-Urundi, French Equatorial Africa,
Zanzibar, the Comoro Islands and the Seychelles. That of the second will
extend over the Union of South Africa, South-West Africa, Northern
Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, Mozambique, Angola, Bechuanaland, Basutoland,
Swaziland, Nyasaland, Zululand, Madagascar, Mauritius, Reunion Island and
St. Helena. That of the third will include Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco (Int.
Zone), Spanish Morocco, French Morocco, Spanish Sahara, Rio de Oro,
Spanish Guinea, Ashanti Protectorate, French Cameroons, British Cameroons,
Northern Territories Protectorate, French Togoland, British Togoland,
Gambia, Portuguese Guinea, French West Africa, the Gold Coast, Liberia,
Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Madeira, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands,
and St. Thomas Island.
Abyssinia, Libya, Eritrea, British, French and Italian Somaliland and
Socotra Island will, as of Ridvan of that same year, fall within the
administrative jurisdiction of the Egyptian National Spiritual Assembly
which will from then on be designated as the National Spiritual Assembly
of the Baha'is of North-East Africa. All African territories originally
allocated to the United States, the Persian, the Egyptian, the Indian, and
the British National Spiritual Assemblies will continue, in the course of
the Ten-Year Plan, to benefit from the advantages of sustained assistance
by these Assemblies--an assistance that will enable them to assume an
ever-increasing share in the steadily expanding activities of the nascent
National Spiritual Assemblies.
Only local spiritual assemblies duly constituted during Ridvan 1955 will
be qualified to elect delegates to these four historic conventions to be
convened during the succeeding year.
I call upon the Hand of the Cause, Musa Banani, to act as my
representative at each of the three Conventions destined to culminate in
the emergence of these three momentous institutions. I moreover invite the
Chairman of the United States, the British and the Egyptian National
Spiritual Assemblies to convene the aforementioned Conventions falling
within the respective jurisdiction of these Assemblies and urge as many
members of the African Auxiliary Board as possible to attend the sessions,
and lend their support to the deliberations, of these gatherings. I feel,
moreover, moved at this juncture to stress the urgent necessity for all
groups established throughout the African continent as well as in the
islands situated in its neighborhood--already four score in number--to seize
their present golden opportunity during the fast-fleeting months
separating them from next Ridvan, and exert every effort to attain
assembly status which will enable them to participate in the election of,
and contribute to the broadening of the foundations of the projected
National Spiritual Assemblies.
I earnestly appeal to all Baha'i communities, and in particular to their
national elected representatives in Latin America, Europe, Asia and
Australia to brace themselves and vie with one another in emulating the
example of their African sister communities ranking among the youngest in
the Baha'i world. I entreat them, through a greater dispersal and an
intensification of teaching activity, to lend an unprecedented impetus to
the multiplication of local spiritual assemblies in their respective
areas, accelerating thereby the dynamic process of the formation of
National Spiritual Assemblies--a process destined to usher in the third and
most brilliant phase, and constituting unquestionably the noblest
objective, of the most stupendous crusade ever launched in the course of
eleven decades of Baha'i history.
Share this message with the Hands of the Cause and the National Spiritual
Assemblies throughout the Baha'i World.
--Shoghi
[October 1, 1954]