The Knights of Baha'u'llah

CONTENTS Acknowledgements Introduction

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North Africa Morocco, International Zone 15 Manouchehr Hezari and Hormoz Zendeh – Muhammad-Ali Jalali – Hussein and Nosrat Ardekani – ‘Alí-Akbar, Sháyistih and ‘Abbás Rafí’í – Elsie Austin – Richard and Mary Suhm – Evelyn and Richard Walters Spanish Morocco 35 Fawzi and Bahia Zein – Luella McKay, John and Earleta Fleming, and Alyce Janssen Rio de Oro (now Spanish Sahara) 39 Amín Battah – Muhammad Mustafa Soliman French West Africa (includes parts of what are now Ivory Coast, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Mauritania) 43 Labib and Habíb Esfahaní The Gambia 44 Fariburz Rúzbihyán Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau) 47 José Xavier Rodrigues and Hilda Summers Italian Somaliland (now part of Somalia) 48 Suhayl Samandarí, Ursula and Mihdi Samandarí French Somaliland (now Djibouti) 50 Fred Schechter – Sabrí and Fahíma (Raissa) Elias Hadhramaut (now part of Yemen) 62 Adíb Radí and Vahídih Baghdádí, and Husayn Halabi Southern Africa British Cameroon (now part of Cameroon) Enoch Olinga

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French Equatorial Africa (now Congo) 63 Max Kanyerezi French Togoland (now Togo) 68 David Tanyi – Vivian Wesson and Mavis Nymon French Cameroon (now part of Cameroon) 69 Samuel Njiki Njenji and Meherangiz Munsiff British Togoland (now part of Ghana) 75 Edward Tabe and Albert Buapiah Ashanti Protectorate (now part of Ghana) 78 Benedict Eballa Northwest Territories Protectorate (now part of Ghana) 80 Julius Edwards – Martin Manga St Thomas Island (now Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe) and Spanish Guinea (now Equatorial Guinea) 81 Elise Schreiber Ruanda-Urundi (now Rwanda and Burundi) 84 Mary and Rex Collison – Dunduzu Kaluli Chisiza Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) 91 Ezzatu’llah Zahra’i –‘Aynu’d-Dín and Tahireh ‘Alá’í – Claire Gung – Kenneth and Roberta Christian South West Africa (now Namibia) 97 Edward Cardell Bechuanaland (now Botswana) 106 John, Audrey and Patrick Robarts Swaziland 112 Bula Mott Stewart, John and Valera Allen Basutoland (now Lesotho) 114 Elizabeth and Frederick Laws Indian Ocean Kuria Muria (Oman) Munír Vakíl Socotra Islands Kamálí Sarvístání Seychelles Kámil ‘Abbás – ‘Abdu’l Rahman Zarqani Comoros Islands Mehraban Sohaili vi

117 119 122 125

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Mauritius Ottilie Rhein Reunion Island Opal and Leland Jensen Chagos Islands Pouva Murday Andaman Islands Khodadad M. Fozdar Nicobar Islands Jeanne Frankel and Margaret Bates Cocos Islands Frank Wyss

127 129 130 135 136 140

India and the Himalayas Diu Island 143 Gulnar Aftábí, Kaykhusraw Dahamobedi and Bahíyyih Rawhání Daman 146 Ghulám-‘Alí Karlawala Goa 148 Roshan Aftábí and Firoozeh Yeganegi Mahé 150 Lionel Peraji – Qudratullah Rowhani and Khodarahm Mojgani Pondicherry 155 Sa’íd and Shawkat Nahví – Shyam Beharilal Bhargava Karikal 158 Shírín Núrání and Salisa Kirmání Sikkim and Tibet 160 Udaya Narayan Singh Bhutan 165 Shapoor Aspandiar Rowhani and Ardishir Furúdí China, Indonesia and Malaysia Macao Frances Heller – Carl and Loretta Scherer Hainan Island John Chang Brunei Charles Duncan and Harry Clark – John Fozdar vii

167 171 171

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Dutch New Guinea (now part of Indonesia) Elly Becking and Lex Meerburg Mentawai Islands (part of Indonesia) Rah. matu’lláh and Írán Muhájir Portuguese Timor (now East Timor) Harold and Florence Fitzner and José Marques (Moucho) The Pacific Islands Mariana Islands Robert Powers and Cynthia Olson Caroline Islands Virginia Breaks Admiralty Islands Violet Hoehnke Solomon Islands Gertrude and Alvin Blum New Hebrides Bertha Dobbins Loyalty Islands Daniel Haumont Marshall Islands Marcia Stewart Gilbert and Ellice Islands (now Kiribati) Roy and Elena Fernie Samoa Lilian Wyss Tonga Stanley Bolton – Dudley and Elsa (Judy) Blakely Cook Islands Edith Danielsen – Dulcie Dive Society Islands Gretta Stevens Lamprill and Gladys Parke Tuamotu Archipelago Jean Sevin Marquesas Islands Gretta Jankko Galapagos Islands Gayle Woolson and Haik Kevorkian viii

177 179 182

185 191 193 194 197 199 199 201 205 212 215 220 221 222 224

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Juan Fernandez Islands, Chile Adela and Salvador Tormo Chiloe Island, Chile Zunilda Gonzales Jara de Palacios and Louise Groger Alaska Kodiak Island Jack Huffman and Rose Perkal – Ben Guhrke Aleutian Islands Jenabe and Elaine Caldwell – Elinore Putney Baranof Island Helen Robinson – Grace Bahovec – Gail Avery Canada Yukon Joan and Ted Anderson Keewatin Dick Stanton Franklin Jameson and Gale Bond Labrador Howard Gilliland and Bruce Matthew Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia Edythe MacArthur Gulf Islands, British Columbia Catherine and Cliff Huxtable Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick Doris Richardson Magdalen Islands, New Brunswick Kathleen Weston – Kay Zinky Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia Irving and Grace Geary – Frederick and Jeanne Allen St Pierre and Miquelon Islands, near Newfoundland Ola Pawlowska Anticosti Island, Quebec Mary Zabolotny

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225 226

233 241 251

255 263 264 268 272 273 276 278 280 282 284

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The Caribbean, and Central and South America Key West, Florida 286 Arthur and Ethel Crane – Howard Snider The Bahamas 289 Ethel and Maurice Holmes – Gail and Gerald Curwin – Andrew and Nina Matthisen Windward Islands 293 Esther Evans and Lillian Middlemast Leeward Islands 296 Earle Render – Ben and Gladys Weeden – David Schreiber – Charles and Mary Dayton Dutch West Indies 301 Matthew Bullock – John and Marjorie Kellberg Margarita Island 304 Katharine Meyer British Honduras (now Belize) 305 Shirley Warde and Cora Oliver Dutch Guiana (now Suriname) 310 Elinor and Robert Wolff British Guiana (now Guyana) 314 Malcolm King French Guiana 315 Eberhart Friedland Europe Spitsbergen Paul Adams Lofoten Islands Loyce Lawrence – Mildred Clark Faroe Islands Eskil Ljungberg Orkney Islands Charles Dunning Shetland Islands Brigitte Hasselblatt The Hebrides Geraldine Craney

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Frisian Islands 328 Elsa Maria Grossmann – Ursula von Brunn – Geertrui Ankersmit Channel Islands 334 Evelyn Baxter and Diá’u’lláh A s gharzádih . .

Liechtenstein 335 Amír Húshmand Manúchehrí San Marino 337 Tabandeh and Sohrab Payman Monaco 341 Nellie French – Shamsí and ‘Azízu’lláh Navídí – Olivia Kelsey and Florence Ullrich Andorra 346 William Danjon Balearic Islands 347 Virginia Orbison – Tove and Jean Deleuran – Charles Ioas Sardinia 353 Marie Ciocca Sicily 354 Emma Rice – Florence, Stanley, Gerrold, Carol and Susan Bagley Malta 359 Una Townshend, Olga Mills and John Mitchell Greece 361 Sheila and Amin Banani – Dwight and Carole Allen Rhodes 369 Elizabeth Bevan Crete 371 Rolf Haug Cyprus 374 Abbas and Semire Vekil – Hugh and Violet McKinley The Atlantic Ocean Azores 382 Richard and Lois Nolen Madeira 384 Elizabeth Hopper, Ada Schott, Ella Duffield and Sara Kenny Canary Islands 385 George and Marguerite (Peggy) True – Gertrude Eisenberg – Shoghi-Riaz Rouhani xi

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Cape Verde Islands JoAnne and Howard Menking St Helena Elizabeth Stamp Falkland Islands John Leonard

390 392 393

After the Ten Year Crusade, 1968–1990 Romania Fereydoun Khazrá’í Moldova Annemarie Krüger-Brauns White Russia (now Belarus) Helmut Winkelbach Mongolia Sean Hinton Sakhalin Island ‘Abbás and Rezvánieh Katirai Appendix I: Knights of Bahá’u’lláh by Goal Area Appendix II: Knights of Bahá’u’lláh by Name Bibliography Notes and References Index

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395 397 400 402 405 407 413 421 431 465

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Swaziland Bula Mott Stewart, John and Valera Allen Bula Mott Stewart (later known as Heather Harmon) (1908−2007) was the first Bahá’í to reach Swaziland during the Ten Year Crusade, arriving on 11 April 1954. Bula became a Bahá’í in the 1940s and became known for her firesides and public speaking. In 1952, she was appointed to the Regional Teaching Committee of Eastern Pennsylvania. When the Ten Year Crusade was announced, and thinking that her knowledge of parasitology would make it possible to find work, she chose Swaziland and, for a time, ran a medical laboratory for Albert Schweitzer. In 1955, however, Shoghi Effendi asked her to move to South Africa where she successfully taught the Faith in spite of the racist laws. She later served in Hong Kong and the Pacific.115 John Allen (1907−1980) learned about the Bahá’í Faith when he married Valera (1902−1993) in 1925. In 1954, they decided to fill one of Shoghi Effendi’s goals in Africa. They were worried at first about their children, since the youngest two were still at university. The Guardian replied that their pioneering would be an inspiration to their children. Shoghi Effendi’s comment proved correct because all three of their sons became pioneers: Dwight and his wife Carole were Knights of Bahá’u’lláh to Greece and also pioneered in Africa; Dale and his wife Irma pioneered to Swaziland; and Kenton with his wife Mary were the first Bahá’ís to settle in Savannah, Georgia, United States, and also pioneered to Africa.116 The Allens arrived in Swaziland on 19 April 1954 in a Volkswagen Beetle they got in Mozambique that was loaded with camping equipment because they did not know what to expect. They initially stayed at the Swazi Inn, then rented a house for a year while they built their own home next to the Inn. Valera’s mother, Maude Fisher, who was 82 years old, had planned to go with John and Valera, but was delayed by her health, thus did not gain the title of Knight of Bahá’u’lláh. Maude arrived in late summer with two of the Allens’ sons, Dale and Kenton.

The two lads attended the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg for about six months before returning to the United States to complete their education. Maude’s age and poor health didn’t slow her down. She made travel teaching trips to Mozambique, Southern and 112

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Northern Rhodesia and South Africa and she was soon known as a grandmother to many. She died at her post in 1957, the first pioneer to do so in Swaziland.117 The Allens immediately began teaching and their efforts were soon quite successful. Isaiah Phala and his wife, Jemima, were among the first local people to accept the Bahá’í Faith. Several members of the royal family also became Bahá’ís. In 1955 it was possible to form the first Local Spiritual Assembly of Mbabane.118 Roads in those days were mostly dirt and rough, and John wore out two trucks building local centres in Hlatikulu and Pigg’s Peak. He was appointed an Auxiliary Board member by Hand of the Cause Músá Banání with responsibility over Northern and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Nyasaland (now Malawi) and Mozambique, an area over 1.3 million square kilometres. John travelled extensively, usually with a full set of spare tyres on the roof of his car.119 John also used his knowledge of cars to get around the restrictions on interactions between whites and blacks, by helping whoever was having car problems. One day he stopped to help a man who, unknowingly, had simply run out of petrol. Pulling out a container of fuel he always carried, he became friends with the man, who turned out to be Prince Manzini, the son of King Sobhuza II. This chance encounter led to the Allens giving slide shows at the Prince’s school, an introduction to the King, the enrolment of several members of the royal family into the Faith and the official recognition of the Faith by the Government.120 In addition to raising up a Bahá’í community, the Allens were very active in promoting economic activities: John was a first class entrepreneur. He owned a successful new car business when he left California, and always encouraged people to start businesses . . . John had the attitude that pioneers should make things that would help the indigenous friends to become independent. He asked his sons, Dale and Kenton, to help revive the pineapple canning business in Swaziland. In 1960 Dale arrived with [his wife] Irma and started planting many pineapples. Six months later, Kenton arrived with [his wife] Mary and their son Andy. Kenton helped remodel the cannery processing equipment and was able to stay four years. Dale and John sold the cannery in 1968. John liked the project because it created hundreds of jobs.

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Later John worked with the Swaziland government to have Swazis get land cleared and plant pineapples.121

John later served as chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly of Swaziland when it formed in 1971. The Allens helped many pioneers settle into Africa and built, and largely financed, schools and local centres.122 They initially opened a Bahá’í pre-school and then added a grade school and high school at the Bahá’í temple site on Malagwane Hill.123 John passed away in 1980 and Valera remained at her pioneer post until her passing in 1993.124

Basutoland (now Lesotho) Elizabeth and Frederick Laws Frederick Laws (1913−1987) embraced the Bahá’í Faith in May 1936.

Eleven weeks later, he brought Elizabeth (1888−1978) into the Faith and in 1939, they were married. They tried to pioneer to Chile in 1940, but were refused visas, so pioneered to San Diego, California, instead.125 When Shoghi Effendi called for pioneers in 1952, Elizabeth and Frederick Laws arose and left America on 23 January 1953 for Nairobi, Kenya, including a car and trailer in their luggage. Arriving in Nairobi to find a thriving Bahá’í community, they looked elsewhere to settle.

Shoghi Effendi, in a cable of 28 May, said that all Bahá’í communities with more than 15 Bahá’ís should disperse, and offered those who arose and went to virgin areas the title of Knight of Bahá’u’lláh. The Laws built a ‘little house’ on their trailer chassis, then drove 4,000 kilometres to Basutoland, arriving on 13 October 1953.126 On the way, their car broke down four times.

During the first nine months living in hotels, they accomplished little, but then they decided to do something different. One day in 1954, Elizabeth and Frederick drove down a dirt road pulling their little house trailer and stopped in front of the ‘tree-shaded’ home of Mary and Chadwich Mohapi. It was a momentous event for the Mohapis: One day in the afternoon . . . my wife and I were sitting outside in the sun when we saw a strange car . . . people of European descent came from the car. We then sent our first son, Selai, to find out 114

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where they came from: he came to us with them . . . they asked us if they could be permitted to have the use of one wall over which they could put a canvas for the day (for shelter). We asked them who they were, where they had come from . . . we wanted to know their intentions. They told us they had come from a far-off land, that they were looking for people to whom they could teach the Word of God. Clowningly, I said ‘You can come and live with us in this rondoval (round hut) over here!’ They said they would be grateful to do that.

We asked them, ‘How are you going to live with black people? Don’t you know that we do not love white people? We have never stayed with white people before.’ They said that did not matter to them, they could live with us. I said to my wife, ‘Let us try this out and see whether these people are genuine . . . We were puzzled because we had been joking and they had, in innocence, taken us seriously. We were now surprised and also frightened,’ Mr Mohapi recalled.

That very evening they invited us to dinner in the rondoval with them. We were afraid of going in there with them, but we saw what beautiful faces they had . . . they served us with meals instead of us serving them with meals. The following morning they invited us for breakfast and through the great love they showed they made friends with our young children by the end of the second day. We still asked ourselves what these Europeans wanted living amongst us. The eve of the third day they invited us not for a meal, but for prayers. We were greatly surprised. It appeared to us that we had come by a bone that had a very nice marrow in it. Then they stayed and they became our real friends. We gave them new names − the man, Lerato (Love), and the lady, Malerato (Mother of Love).127

Only after making friends of the Mohapis did Elizabeth and Frederick begin to teach Mary and Chadwick the Faith. Then one day both Mary and Chadwick fell ill. The Laws took the children into their own rondoval and cared for their parents. Over time, the actions and the words of the Laws made a deep impression on their hosts. Other Africans began to come to see white people and black people living together and soon the Mohapi home became a centre from which the Faith spread to other parts of the country.128 By April 1955, there were about 70 Bahá’ís in Basutoland and the Laws were adopted as honorary Basutos.129 After two and a half years, with the Bahá’í Faith growing well in 115

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Basutoland, the Laws went south and spent six weeks with pioneers Bill and Marguerite Sears near Johannesburg, then after consultation with Hands of the Cause Músá Banání and Paul Haney, they pioneered on to The Gambia and Liberia where they stayed until 1957, when they returned to the United States. In 1976, they pioneered for eight months in Tanzania and on their return pioneered to Wapato, Washington, on the Yakima Indian Reservation. It was there in 1978 that Elizabeth passed away.130

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