Bahá'í Faith in Zambia

The number of followers of the Bahá'í Faith in Zambia was estimated at 162,443 in 2000, or 1.70% of the total population, according to Adherents.com.[1] The site ranks this as the sixteenth-highest national proportion of Bahá'ís in the world.[1] It also ranks Zambia's as the tenth-largest national Bahá'í community in the world in absolute terms, and the fourth-largest in Africa.[1] The Association of Religion Data Archives gives a Bahá'í population of 224,215 in 2005, or 1.7% of Zambia's population.[2] Based on its estimates (which differ to some extent from Adherents.com's), this represents the fifth-highest proportion of Bahá'ís of any country.[2] Both these sources rely on World Christian Encyclopedia, with data from the respective years.[1][2]

In 1952 Eric Manton became the first Bahá'í pioneer to Zambia (then part of the British-administered Central African Federation) as well as the first to southern Africa when he arrived from Britain in along with his twelve-year-old son.[3] He was joined by Ethna Archibald of New Zealand in 1955.[3]

The William Mmutle Masetlha Foundation (WMMF), an organization founded in 1995 and run by the Zambian Bahá'í community, specializes in providing vocational training and education.[4] The Maseltha Institute, its parent organization, was founded in 1983, and is particularly active in areas such as literacy and primary health care.[4][5] The WMMF operates the Banani International Secondary School, a residential school for girls focused on agriculture and science, which was listed as one of Africa's top one hundred secondary schools in 2003.[4] The Zambian Bahá'í community is working with FUNDAEC, an organization operated by the Colombian Bahá'í community, to create a vocational and educational program for youth in rural areas.[4]

Further reading

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Adherents.com. "The Largest Baha'i Communities". Retrieved 2007-10-29.
  2. 1 2 3 "Most Baha'i Nations (2005)". Association for Religion Data Archives. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  3. 1 2 Mwanza, Beard H. "Towards a History of the Bahai Faith in Zambia" (PDF). Retrieved 11 February 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "William Mmutle Masetlha Foundation". Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. Georgetown University. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  5. ↑ DL Publicaciones. "About DLP". Retrieved 2007-10-29.

External links

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