- 1951-01-25 —
Claire Gung arrived in Tanganyika aboard the Warwick Castle and obtained employment as a matron in a boys' boarding school in Lushoto. She was the second Bahá'í pioneer to the country. [CG160; CBN No 18 Mar 1951 p10]
- She later pioneered to Uganda and Southern Rhodesia during the Ten Year Crusade.
- An additional group of early arrivals in East Africa settled in Tanganyika in 1951. They
included Hassan and Isobel Sabri who came from Egypt, and Jalal Nakhjavání and his family
from Iran. By 1954, a Local Spiritual Assembly had been elected in Dar es Salaam including
three native believers. Among them was Denis Dudley-Smith Kutendele, the first to accept the
Faith in Tanzania. [A Brief Account of the Bahá'í Faith in Africa Since 1953 by Nance Ororo-Robarts and Selam Ahderrom p2]
History of the Bahá'í Faith in Tanzania said that the first local spiritual assembly was elected in Dar es Salaam in 1952 and that it received civic registration later under Tanganyika's Trustee's Incorporation Ordinance. - 1951-07-00 — Mr P. K. Gopalakrishnan Nayer, an Indian, became a Bahá'í in Dar-es-Salaam, the first person to accept the Faith in Tanganyika. [BW12:53]
- 1964-04-21 —
- 1969-08-05 —
The itinerary for the first leg of the Great African Safari was as follows:
- Aug 4 - 14, 1969, Uganda
- Aug 15 - Sept 1,1969, Kenya
- Sept 2 - 26, 1969, Tanzania (and Mafia Island)
- Sept 28 - Oct 14, 1969, Kenya
- Oct 15 - Nov 17, 1969, Ethiopia. See BW15p186-187 where it is reported that over a thousand new Bahá'ís joined the ranks.
- Nov 17 - Dec 2, 1969, Kenya
- Dec 3, 1969 - Jan 2,1970, Uganda
- Jan 3 - 12, 1970, Zaire (now Central African Republic)
- Jan 13 - 24, 1970, Zaire (now Central African Republic)
- Jan 25 - Feb 7, 1970, Chad
- Feb 8 - 10, 1970, Nigeria
- Feb 11 - 18, 1970, Niger
- Feb 19 - 26, 1970, Dahomey (now Benin)
- Feb 27 - Mar 1, 1970, Togo
- Mar 2 - 11, 1970, Ghana [BW15p606]
- 1972-05-11 —
- 1985-02-06 —
The passing of Claire Gung (b. 3 November, 1904, Gladbeck, Ruhrgebeit, Germany, d. Kampala, Uganda). She was buried in The National Bahá'í Cemetery of Uganda. [BW19p653-657]
- She had worked as a children's nurse or housekeeper in Germany, switzerland, Austria, the Italian tyrol, Belgium, Holland and finally settled in England in 1930. She became a Bahá'í in Torquay and after a time in Eastleigh, Dovon, later joined the small Bahá'í group in Cheltenham in 1940. She moved to the Manchester area and later pioneered to Northampton in November 1946 to become member of the first Spiritual Assembly there. In 1948 she again pioneered to help form the first Spiritual Assembly in the "Pivotal Centre" of Cardiff then to Brighton and to Belfast. In 1947 she became a naturalized British subject. In 1950, during the "Year of Respite", Claire became the first pioneer to actually move from the British community to settle in Africa when Shoghi Effendi called for Bahá'ís to open Africa. She sailed on the "Warwick Castle" on 4 (or 25) January, 1951 and landed in Tanzania where she obtained a post as assistant matron in a school in Lushoto,150 miles from Dar-es-Salaam. [CG158-159]
-
She became a "Knight" for Rhodesia. Mr. Zahrai was actually the first Bahá'í to come to Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) during a Ten Year Crusade. He was followed soon after by Claire Gung, Eyneddin and Tahirih Ala'i, Kenneth and Roberta Christian and Joan Powis. All seven received the accolade of Knight of Baha'u'llah from Shoghi Effendi. Subsequently the Guardian gave her the title, "Mother of Africa".
- Later she moved to Uganda where she started a Kindergarten school. She was affectionately known as "Auntie Claire".
- After being in the country since 1957 Auntie Claire was granted he certificate of residence for life from the Republic of Uganda date the 11th of May, 1978. [CG118]
[BWNS275; Wikipedia; Wikipedia; Historical Dictionary of the Bahá'í Faith p.209; UD211, 482]
- Also see Claire Gung Mother of Africa by Adrienne Morgan and published by the National Spiritual Assembly of Baha'is of South Africa; (1997).
- 1986-00-00 —
The founding of the Ruaha Secondary School in southwestern rural Tanzania near Iringa, about 500 km from Dar-es-salaam. The school was operated under the auspices of the National Spiritual Assembly. [The Mona Project (information on the Iringa School no longer available on this web site), One Country]
- By 1988 the school had 300 pupils and taught classes in English, geography, Swahili, history, chemistry, agriculture, physics, political science, mathematics, biology, and religion – Christian, Bahá'i, and Islamic studies were covered by representatives of other religions –all part of the Ministry-determined curriculum. Each student participated in service projects. [BW14p96; History of the Bahá'í Faith in Tanzania]
- In 2001 the school received a grant to build a girls dormitory. [BWNS145]
- The Mona Foundation provided funding for the building of a boys' dormitory with the capacity of 120 beds. [History of the Bahá'í Faith in Tanzania]
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