3 Kitante Rd

I know I know! I haven’t been updating my blog as regularly as I had been! But guess what? I’ve been here two months and I’m not feeling like a tourist anymore! I don’t feel the need to grab my camera and snap a picture of everything I see as I was doing in the first few weeks. Every day is an adventure, and I’m still always learning new things and meeting new people and making new friends, but now I’m also settled into my work and my whole life is pretty much serving the Bahá’í community here. So finding time to write new and interesting things is becoming a bit problematic. But never fear, I’m sure more new experiences and adventures await and you’ll be hearing all about them. Now, however, I’m going to share some of the history I’m learning about the Bahá’í Faith in Uganda. In fact, I have offered to the NSA, and they have happily accepted, for me to begin researching, organizing, and writing the definitive history of the Ugandan Bahá’í community. There are bits and pieces here and there, but to date no one has put a complete volume of work together on Uganda. And as the earlier believers are beginning to age, time is of the essence to start recording these histories. I think this is why I am really here. I’ll be sharing a lot of what I learn through the blog, so you can learn along with me.

The most historic spot in Kampala in terms of Bahá’í history is the house that sits at 3 Kitante Road. It’s actually a compound, as many homes are, where there is a wall that surrounds the property to shield the house from the road, and gates that have to be opened for anyone to enter. Kitante Road is situated in the part of Kampala which is now primarily an “expatriate” neighborhood where the Americans, Europeans, and Australians who come to Uganda for business reasons end up living. However, I doubt this was an ex-pat haven in 1951 when the first pioneer families to Uganda arrived.



The first Local Spiritual Assembly of Kampala. Mr. and Mrs. Banani

and Violette Nakhjavani are seated. Standing from left is Phillip

Hainsworth, third from left is Enoch Olinga and next to him is Ali

Nakhjavani. This is in the yard at 3 Kitante Rd.



In 1950-51, the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, Shoghi Effendi, launched a campaign to encourage Bahá’ís to come to Africa and begin teaching the Faith here. Immediately heeding his call were a number of European, American and Iranian Bahá’ís. An intrepid band of six souls headed for Kampala. Among them were Musa Banani (who would later be appointed as a Hand of the Cause of God) and his wife Samiyyih, their daughter Violette Nakhjavani, her husband Ali, and their daughter Bahiyyih. Along with these five was Phillip Hainsworth, a Britishman, who resigned his position on the National Spiritual Assembly of    Great Britain in order to go to Uganda.

After the group was settled in Kampala, the Bananis purchased the house at 3 Kitante Road, and they, along with the Nakhjavanis moved in. In this home the first Bahá’í firesides in Kampala were held and the first native Ugandans were confirmed as Bahá’ís. Among these first Bahá’ís was a young civil servant, a man who liked to drink and gamble and live the good life. But somewhere along the way he met Mr. Nakhjavani, and he ended up going to 3 Kitante Rd. After some weeks, Enoch Olinga knew that he had no choice but to also declare himself a Bahá’í.

Enoch Olinga

Olinga was immediately a confirmed Bahá’í and desired to serve the Cause to the fullest extent possible. He would soon relocate to Cameroon to open that country to the Bahá’í Faith and it wasn’t long before he was a well-respected and natural leader in the African Bahá’í community. He eventually returned to Uganda where he settled with his family. And again at 3 Kitante Road, he was told by Mr. Banani in October 1957 that he had been named by Shoghi Effendi as a Hand of the Cause of God.

Upon hearing the news, the Nakhjavanis later related, Mr. Olinga immediately prostrated himself flat on the floor the way the ancient Ugandans would prostrate themselves before the kabaka (king), showing his abject humility before God for having been appointed to such an elevated station.

The Bananis continued living at 3 Kitante Road, ceaselessly serving the Bahá’í community in Kampala, being a witness to the growth of the community and the erection of the Mother Temple of Africa, until Mr. Banani died in 1971. He is now buried in the Bahá’í cemetery on Kikaaya Hill near the Temple.

Mr. Olinga continued serving the Ugandan Bahá’ís and indeed all of the Bahá’ís of the world, as he traveled everywhere to encourage the Bahá’ís the world round (in fact, he was even in Nashville!)

But the mid-seventies became a turbulent and dangerous time in Uganda and even the Bahá’ís were in danger. The Faith was banned for a while and all Bahá’í activities had to be stopped and the Temple closed. But Mr. Olinga stayed alone on the hill to make sure that the Temple grounds were kept safe during these troubles.

The beautiful gravestone

over Mr. Olinga's grave

(Courtesy of Barbie Mundt)

After Mr. Banani’s death, his wife went to live with their daughter Violette and Ali Nakhjavani, in Haifa, where Mr. Nakhjavani had been elected to the first Universal House of Justice in 1963. While Olinga’s ancestral home was in the Teso region of Uganda (where I traveled recently), northeast of Kampala and where he maintained a home, after the Bananis left,  he and his wife Elizabeth, and their younger children moved into 3 Kitante Road. After Idi Amin’s rule was over and he left in exile, there was still quite a bit of lawlessness and danger in Uganda as the people didn’t know where to turn and it was a time for those with evil intentions to take advantage of the innocents. So it was, that on September 16, 1979, armed men forced their way into the compound at 3 Kitante Road and brutally murdered Mr. Olinga, his wife Elizabeth, and their three youngest children, Badi, Tahirih, and Lennie. No one was ever caught and charged with the murder, and it was never determined whether it was a random act of violence or whether Mr. Olinga and his family were specifically targeted. I remember when the Bahá’í world was first told of this tragedy and how horrified and shocked we all were.

My visit to 3 Kitante Road with Carolyn Wade and

 our hosts Shahram and Nafha Ebrahimi.

(Courtesy of Barbie Mundt)

When I was given the opportunity to visit the house at 3 Kitante Road just a few weeks ago, I was a bit nervous about how the spirit of the house might feel given the violence that had taken place there. But I found a serene house and a beautiful couple, Nafha and Shahram Ebrahimi, who have lived there for the last 15 plus years. It was obvious that the historical positive events that occurred in that modest home far outweighed the tragedy and the spirit of the Ugandan Bahá’í community was palpable. In 2001 when the Ugandan Bahá’í Community was celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the opening of Uganda to the Bahá’í Faith, Mr. and Mrs. Ali Nakhjavani returned to Kampala, and Nafha and Shahram insisted they stay in their old home at 3 Kitante Road. While there, the Nakhjavanis shared even more stories with them about the house. For example, for the period of time that the Bananis lived there, every living Hand of the Cause of God was in that house at one time or another. The luscious green lawn so full of beautiful flowering bushes, was the site of many community gatherings as well.

I can’t do justice here to a more detailed recounting of the early years of the Faith in Uganda – there are too many stories, and I haven’t heard all of them yet. But this gives you an idea of what a rich history there is here, both beautiful and tragic, and the story isn’t over yet.