Zaire

Until 1960 Congo was part of the large Belgian Congo. Marthe Molitor returned to Rwanda c. 1947 having become a Bahá'í in Belgium. Assisted in forming first LSA in Brazzaville. (See a Brief Obituary in Bahá'í World 1994-95, 315). Between 1956-64 the Congo Bahá'í Community was part of the Central and East African NSA. The NSA of the Congo was established in 1970. In 1971 it was renamed the NSA of Zaire, and existed until the Bahá'í community was among religious groups banned in the Congo in 1981. In the early 1980s the religions made an application to allow general freedom of religion, and in a message of 26 November 1991 the Universal House of Justice announced the reestablishment of the NSA of the Congo Republic "after a lapse of more than a decade due to political conditions".

Bibliography

Lagergren, David, Mission and State in the Congo: A Study of the Relations between Protestant missions and the Congo Independent State Authorities with special reference to the Equator district 1885-1903, Lund: Gleerup 1970, 366pp. Studia Missionalia Upsaliensia.