Violetta Zein, Shoghi Effendi in Africa, Dec. 15

Shoghi Effendi never traveled farther east than Beirut, never traveled farther west than Sussex, never traveled farther north than Scotland, but he crossed Africa twice, from South Africa to Egypt, in 1929 and 1940.

This talk will cover both of Shoghi Effendi’s travels to Africa in the greatest detail, including original maps, and the names of ships he sailed on, and photographs of Shoghi Effendi himself in Africa, and other photographs he took during his 1929 solo trip.

Shoghi Effendi was the first Bahá’í to ever set foot in several African countries, which means these countries were opened to the Faith by the beloved Guardian.

The most notable among these countries is the Democratic Republic of Congo, which the Guardian and Rúḥíyyih Khánum crossed from Lubumbashi in the south to Kisangani in the northeast in 1940.

They were the first Bahá’ís in the history of the Faith to set foot in what was, at the time, the Belgian Congo, and this is why the Democratic Republic of Congo has no Knight of Bahá’u’lláh