Underground Movement in a Missionary Church: The Baha'i Faith in British Cameroons, 1952–19621

Abstract

Today about one million Baha'is live in Africa. The Baha'i Faith was introduced to the British Cameroons in the early 1950s and spread as a new movement within the networks of the Basel Mission, a Swiss Presbyterian missionary society. Enoch Olinga, an educated African convert from Uganda, was able to act at the centre of the movement without outside supervision and invent new forms of Baha'i identity. His successes are examined, as well as the responses of European missionaries and lay African Christians. African traditional religious practices may have also contributed to rapid Baha'i conversions.