Monotheistic Religion in Africa: The Example of the Swazi People

Abstract

Following the encouraging mass conversions in the Teso and Tilling areas of eastern Uganda in the 1950's, the failure of the Bahá'i Faith to penetrate very far into the majority of African cultures 40 years later gives us cause to ponder whether or not the message of Bahá'u'llah is being presented in a way that reaches the hearts of the masses. A brief reading of the literature available in Africa will leave little doubt that the Bahá'i Faith is taught through the channels of Christian and (in the north) Islamic scriptures and idioms. It is rather like trying to teach the Bahá'i Faith in Ireland entirely through the sayings attributed to the Buddha. There are, however, a great many corners of the continent where, despite outward appearances, the attachment to these religions is superficial and whose belief systems are only partially accepted. The traditional African world view or belief system is often deeply at odds with the modern tenets of these Faiths, and is, perhaps surprisingly, frequently more in line with Bahá'i teachings. Most foreign pioneers to Africa come from either a Christian or Islamic religious background. Both of these groups naturally believe that the Bahá'i teachings justify and confirm their previous belief system, symbolized by the nine doors leading into a Bahá'i Temple. Upon arrival in Africa they find at least three types of religious belief: traditional systems, Christian and Moslem ones. In a great many cases, the traditional belief systems are in open conflict with the other two. In the Bahá'i community there is a natural gravitation towards teaching through the two "mainline" religions and it is on these that Bahá'i instruction and literature have concentrated. If the Bahá'i teachers were to understand that the traditional belief systems so widely and firmly held in most African countries have a Divine origin, and are in fact the corrupted remnants of an earlier glorious Revelation, they might engender a far greater acceptance of the Bahá'i message by the masses. This paper attempts to describe the similarities between the recently revealed Bahá'i Faith and the ancient traditional beliefs of the Swazi people of Southern Africa. Its purpose is to raise an awareness in the reader of the remarkable similarities between many aspects of the two, and to raise the possibility that the Bahá'i Faith may be carried directly from the Pen of Bahá'u'llah into the hearts of the Africans without passing through the corrupted and degenerated interpretations of Christian and Islamic clerics. Until Africans feel truly free to accept the message of Bahá'u'llah without having to simultaneously accept a great number of questionable doctrines, they will remain only mildly attached to the Cause and live their lives firmly attached to the remnants of the cultures that have served them so well for so long.