Need Inspiration? Here's where to look...

The Bahá’í Faith in Cameroon is growing in leaps and bounds!!!!

Need Inspiration? Here’s where to look ~
I have been planning for some time now to write something about the growth of our Faith – the Bahá’í Faith – in my home country, Cameroon. So much has been going on there, especially duing the Five Year Plans, so many good things, that I often have a strong feeling of nostalgia and wish I were there partaking of these great successes. The Bahá’í community is small when compared to the other two main religious groups in the country - Christians and Muslims. There are only some 40,000 Bahá’ís on paper, and yet this band of friends is a group of very determined and hardworking Bahá’ís who throw in their lot for the growth of the Faith in that country. Their achievements are remarkable indeed, and I won’t go into all the growth in the institute process that the friends are currently realizing. I just wanted to concentrate on a number of recent successes, the more obvious and arduous ones, such as the building of houses of worship and centers of activity.

A National Bahá’í Center has been the dream – the wish – of the Bahá’í friends and administration for a long time. I remember talks of it when I was a Bahá’í in my late teens and we thought it would never come to pass in our lifetimes. The community, however, made its plans and prepared for the inevitable task of moving our National Center from its old (and increasingly unaccommodating) location in Limbe to a bigger and more all-encompassing location in Yaounde, the capital city of Cameroon. We were soon receiving the first of many bulletins, “From Dream to Reality”, a well-written bulletin that detailed news of the progress towards the building of the National Center. Since October of 2006, it's been a little over a year; with the devoted efforts of the friends, the wisdom and experience of the National Spiritual Assembly, the support of the local assemblies, and the love and support of the international Bahá’í community, this dream has now been realized. As you’ll see from the pictures, a plaque is already designed to grace the entrance to the building and inauguration is planned for November 23rd of this year. This is indeed a dream come to reality.

I have included pictures of the National Convention that held in Limbe at the former National Center, with all its greenery and beauty. See all the friends gathered there!!! I tell you, the Limbe Center will always hold great memories for many of us who grew up to witness many a great national, local and regional event held there.

Limbe too has built a beautiful Bahá’í Center of Learning. It is incredible. I cannot tell you, who is not of that part of the world, what a sacrifice, what concerted effort, is needed to undertake and complete such mighty projects. I am so proud of the Bahá’í community.

In Buea, there's the Buea Information Center. I remember when that piece of land was first acquired. Buea, because of its mountain and historic volcanic eruptions, has a rocky terrain. At that time, the land was full of stones, rocks, big and small. We spent weeks manually gathering the rocks on the property. I have to find that picture and upload it as well. Then I was at the university of Buea, that is some 7 years ago, with Sahar, Martha, Simon, and many of the other friends. Today, that piece of land is transformed to a beautiful, beautiful center where activities are held almost every day, and non-Bahá’ís come and go frequently. I can tell you, it tugs at my heart’s strings just to think about it.

I’ll write something below some of the picture just to give you an idea of what they are. But I thought that this little prologue will help you understand why these buildings and these people mean so much. I wish I could…I’d have uploaded so much more. By the way, I have to thank my dearest friend, Sahar, for a good number of these pictures. Her family sends them to her and so I benefit!!!:-) Her brother, Sahba, has a more elaborate coverage of these events at his website http://buea.blogspot.com.

Buea Information center - Naw-ruz (Baha'i New Year)

The pre-youth and youth act skits as part of the program.

The youth choir ~ [Mona Frooghi and Dibo Teku] are amongst those in the front row.
You can learn more about Buea Baha'i singers and the activities in Cameroon from Sahba Frooghi's website at www.myspace.com/bahaisingers

The new National Center in Yaounde ~

Construction in progress

The roadside fence.

A completed view- Front door.

A side view Limbe ~
During the convention this past April at the former National Center in Limbe
Delegates to the Convention

Ah, our women.
All the friends who came for the convention

There's a youth (and my good friend), Alain Djoulde, coordinating a portion of the program.
Adults performed as well!! Mr. Akuri and Pa Awoh.
The youth sang tooA group song

The new Baha'i Center of Learning in Limbe~

My spiritual parents~

I thought I'd add some pictures of some of our great Baha'i pioneers to Cameroon. Through the sacrifices of these wonderful souls, who left their home towns in Iran and the United States to come and settle in Cameroon to teach the Faith, e.g. the consistent Baha'i children and youth classes, were very instrumental in my building a solid spiritual foundation from very early on. This same people thought us to carry on the teaching work, that the future of our Faith in Cameroon lay in our hands.

Dear Auntie Fariba and Uncle Kamran Frooghi have been in Cameroon for almost 30 years now. I attended children's classes with their daughter, Sahar. When we grew up, we, in turn, taught moral instruction classes which their younger children and my younger siblings attended. They are a gem to our home community. Uncle Kamran is a constructor and has been invaluable behind the construction of several Baha'i infrastructure in Cameroon. He is indeed a man of the people and has been given a traditional name in every locality he's lived in, because he interacts so closely with the indigenes. Auntie Manal [extreme left] and her dear husband, Uncle David Gillett, have been in Cameroon too for about just as long. Auntie Manal came once a week to our home, when I was very young, to teach moral instruction and virtue classes to the children in our neighborhood. We always had candy when we behaved well. Unfortunately, I don't have Uncle David in these pictures.
Manal Gillett, Sima Bushrui, and Fariba Frooghi.
Auntie Sima and Uncle Niaz Bushrui ~

Another wonderful Baha'i couple. Niaz Bushrui is a treasure. He was a member of the Continental Board of Counselors in Africa and inspired many, many friends in the Faith. A very humble, intelligent and kind person, he often made me weep when he addressed the friends and spurred us on before an intensive teaching trip. In fact, I composed a Baha'i song once after being "set on fire" by one of his addresses. We sang that song at many Baha'i events [I'm not bragging!!:-) ] He was also very good at telling Baha'i jokes. Now Niaz B. is a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Cameroon. Dr. Mehdi Samandari ~

Ah, a veritable gem. He and his late wife, Ursula, are knights of Baha'u'llah. He is also the son of late Hand of the Cause, Tarazullah Samandari. I was privilegded to serve on my first LSA with him and I learned many, many things from him during my 3-year stay in Buea, S.Western Cameroon. Below, he's holding, Naseem, Dibo & Gabby Teku's baby, during a celebration of the Birth of the Bab at his home. The following two pictures (below this one) are at the same celebration in his home in Bukwango, Buea.

John & Malaknaz Johnson ~ Niaz (in the center) is their son.

This is another amazing couple. They are the spiritual parents of many of the youth in Limbe, including Aaron. Malak is the most warm, selfless, and giving person you ever saw. John is a very gentle person and very knowledgeable. It was always a bounty spending time with them. They are now pioneering in Botswana. Niaz is studying here in the U.S.

Paysans ~

I couldn't resist adding in this picture, taken just this last month, at an african friend's wedding. The groom is at the bottom extreme right corner. He's Nigerian though, and I don't know him personally, but it is just good to look at this picture and see the faces of so many Cameroonian Baha'i friends.
Some things I miss. I'm including these pictures because they remind me of how we the Baha'i youth would get together to have some really good times. This activity occurred after I'd left though; my sister, Claudine, is in the pictures.