The Baháʼí Faith in Botswana begins after ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, then leader of the Baháʼí Faith, wrote letters encouraging taking the religion to Africa in 1916. The first Baháʼí pioneers arrived in Botswana about October 1954, where they befriended many Africans. The first election of Botswana's Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly was in 1970. The 2001 national census counts approximately 700 Baháʼís. However, the Association of Religion Data Archives estimated some 16,500 Baháʼís in Botswana as of 2010.
Early Phase
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's Tablets of the Divine Plan ʻAbdu'l-Bahá wrote a series of letters, or tablets, to the followers of the religion in the United States in 1916–1917; these letters were compiled together in the book Tablets of the Divine Plan. The eighth and twelfth of the tablets mentioned Africa and were written on April 19, 1916 and February 15, 1917, respectively. Publication however was delayed in the United States until 1919—after the end of the First World War and the Spanish flu. The tablets were translated and presented by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab on April 4, 1919, and published in Star of the West magazine on December 12, 1919. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá mentions Baháʼís traveling "…especially from America to Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, and travel through Japan and China. Likewise, from Germany teachers and believers may travel to the continents of America, Africa, Japan and China; in brief, they may travel through all the continents and islands of the globe" and " …the anthem of the oneness of the world of humanity may confer a new life upon all the children of men, and the tabernacle of universal peace be pitched on the apex of America; thus Europe and Africa may become vivified with the breaths of the Holy Spirit, this world may become another world, the body politic may attain to a new exhilaration…."
Establishment of the community The religion arrived in the area during the end of the era of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, the predecessor colonial country, under the Union of South Africa. In 1953 Shoghi Effendi, head of the religion after the death of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, planned an international teaching plan termed the Ten Year Crusade. During the plan pioneers moved to many countries including Botswana from places. This was during a period of wide scale growth in the religion across Sub-Saharan Africa near the end of the period of Colonisation of Africa. The goal of establishing a Baháʼí presence in Bechuanaland was assigned to the National Assembly of Iran then still in operation. However, by November 1953 recent arrivals the Johnsons from America then in South Africa saw the arrival of John and Audrey Robarts and son Patrick and daughter Nina from Canada who were assisted in reaching Mafeking (then in Bechuanaland) as Baháʼí pioneers where they arrived by October 1954 and were recognized as the first Baháʼís to the country earning the title Knight of Baháʼu'lláh from the then head of the Faith, Shoghi Effendi. By 1963 there were two assemblies; seven groups, and one isolated member. The Robarts had joined the religion in 1938 and when the first National Spiritual Assembly of Canada was formed in 1948, John was elected chairman, a post he held until 1953 when they moved. In 1954 Hand of the Cause, Musa Banani appointed John as an Auxiliary Board Member and the family went on Baháʼí pilgrimage. In 2005 Lally Warren recalled that as a young child in Mafikeng it had been unusual to meet white people who were pleasant to her so she believed that all white people were bad. That changed when she met the Robarts family. "The Robarts didn't treat me like a black child, they treated me as a child," she said. She recalled when she was 10 and the Robarts family came to her house for meetings with her parents, James and Stella Moncho, the first local couple to become Baháʼís, "They could only do this at night, and as they came towards the house they would switch their [car] lights on and off to say, 'Is it ok, is it safe, can we come?'…There was no electricity in the black area during those days so my mother would take a lantern and stick it out through the window and wave it to say, 'OK, it's safe for you to come.'"
The Robarts family befriended Modiri Molema, a highly respected medical doctor and the only black man who was permitted to associate with whites. Dr. Molema invited his friends and family to hear about the religion, and he gave the Robarts family letters of introduction to the Kgosi (traditional chiefs) of the Bechuanaland Protectorate. Dr. Molema converted to the religion but his enrollment was not made public because of likely harassment due to his previous high-profile political involvement. In 1955 his relative, Stanlake Kukama, became the first native Tswana of Bechuanaland to become a publicly declared Baháʼí. In 2005 Kukama recalled he had been an anti-apartheid activist, and was a member of the South African political party, the African National Congress and had detested white people because of their attitude towards Africans but that changed when he heard about the Baháʼí Faith from the Robarts family: "In 1955 I heard of the Baháʼí Faith and [found] the principles of the Faith were the solution to [achieve] peace and harmony for mankind.… I realized that the white and the black were all blind. They did not see the truth, they did not have the eye of the soul. Hence, I became a Baháʼí, and renounced man-made solutions to peace." The African National Congress tried to woo back Mr. Kukama for many years without success. The police kept him under surveillance even after he became a Baháʼí because they did not believe that he had given up partisan politics. Mr. Kukama later served for many years both as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of Bophuthatswana and of South Africa.
In April 1956 the Baháʼí Faith was present in small numbers across 15 countries of southern Africa. To administer these communities a regional National Spiritual Assembly was elected in South West Africa to cover them. In 1956 John Robarts was elected to it.
By early 1957 the Baháʼí community numbered between 10 and 20 individuals and became part of the regional national assembly of South and West Africa. By 1963 there were two assemblies; seven groups, and one isolated member. The assemblies were in Lobatse, and Mahalapye and groups in Gaborone, Ghanzi, Kopong, Mafeking, Molepolole, Morwa, Serowe, and a lone Baháʼí in Moeng (which is near the Tswapong Hills).
National development Following the death of Shoghi Effendi, the elected Universal House of Justice was head of the religion and began to re-organized the Baháʼí communities of Africa, including Botswana, by splitting off national communities to form their own National Assemblies from 1964 though the 1990s. In 1967 the newly elected regional assembly of South Central Africa, then comprised the countries of Botswana, Malawi and Rhodesia. Its members were: Willard Mahtunge, Florence Fat'he-Aazam, Esther Moncho, Esther Glauder, Brian Eames, Enayat Sohaili, Leonard Chiposi, Helen A. Hope, and John D. Sargent Sr. There were ten delegates, sixty additional visitors for the fourth annual convention, held in Salisbury, Rhodesia.
In 1970 the first National Youth School in Botswana was attended by over thirty youth, adults and teachers. Following the classes the youth visited three villages previously arranged by the national assembly with the approval of the local chiefs where they presented a well received speech especially prepared for them. Because of the reception of the speech they were invited to a further six villages by the chiefs of those villages ultimately presenting the religion to almost 700 attendees of the presentations. Coverage of the tour was also done on local radio. Later the first Baháʼís from the Bushmen and the Kgalagadi had joined the religion.
The time came for the election of Botswana's Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly elected in 1970. Its members in the 1971 re-election were: Stanley Matenge, Esther Moncho, Isaac Kgang, Dennis Makiwa, Maureen Gruber, Robert Sarracino, Bogatlu Pheto, Jeffrey Gruber, and Broer Oageng.
In August 1971 the first public talks on the religion in Gaborone were undertaken and was broadcast over Radio Botswana on the topic of "African Traditional Beliefs and the Unity of the World Religions". A review of the community then noted that the national assembly and five local assemblies had incorporated and registered with the government. The national assembly then became legal owners of the national Baháʼí center. Sixty-seven localities had been introduced to the religion and translations of some Baháʼí scripture had been accomplished. Some forty chiefs at various levels had been sent messages by the national assembly about the religion. Fifty-seven villages had been visited with mass meetings resulting. There were only four pioneers present then. The village of Boneapitse was noted as being a majority of Baháʼís.
An all-Bushman local assembly was first elected in Tshasane in 1972. When it was re-elected in 1973 its members were: Ci-!Gau, !'ea, Titi, Diolo, Kaka, Mashipa, N!!g''ae-!Nobo, Baberi, Mpalo.
The first national summer school happened Dec 29 to Jan 4 1979-1980 and was followed by a regional conference on the promulgation on the religion with participation of Lobatse, Jwaneng, and Kanye in addition to members of the national assembly and auxiliary board members in February. In August 1981 Botswana's first international conference was attended by 150 adults and children from seven countries.
In 1984 the Baháʼís of Gaborone held a few public meetings - one highlighted UN Day at which several city officials attended, another was with visiting Counsellor Hooper Dunbar which was also covered by television and radio news. In 1985 the Baháʼís were invited to a seminar on religions at the University of Batswana. More than 100 youth met for an international youth conference in August that was opened by the then vice-president of Botswana - Peter Mmusi. That year was also the one when the Universal House of Justice's The Promise of World Peace was delivered to Botswana's then president, Quett Masire as well as translated in Tswana as part of the overall observance of the UN's International Year of Peace. A survey of international standings of the religion in 1987 found that while Botswana had national and local assemblies recognized legally the Baháʼí Holy Days, marriages and tax exemption as a religion were not recognized.
Visits of Hands of the Cause
Hands of the Cause are a select group of Baháʼís, appointed for life, whose main function was to propagate and protect the religion. In May 1971 Hand of the Cause Adelbert Mühlschlegel was the first to tour Botswana.
In November 1971 Hand of the Cause Enoch Olinga toured the country and visited three of the then newest and most active Baháʼí communities in Botswana - Ratholo and Bonwapitse (both in the Tswapong Hills area), and Palla Road ( Dinokwe) He reviewed understanding the religion in a non-literalist way, elaborated on the principals of the religion like of unity of humanity, progressive revelation, and that the religion was present in many countries beyond their lands despite the fact that school books did not mention the religion. Later he gave a public talk entitled "The Baháʼí Faith and the Social Order" and a radio interview in Gaborone where he addressed wide-ranging topics from the definition of the word "Baháʼí", the history of the religion, its relationship with Christianity and the difficulties with social norms in South Africa.