June 24. On this date in 1926, Enoch Olinga was born. A close associate of Ugandan President Idi Amin, Enoch Olinga was murdered on September 16, 1979, by unknown gunmen at a time when people affiliated with the Amin regime were being systematically targeted.

June 24.  On this date in 1926, Enoch Olinga was born.

Born to a Christian family of the Iteso ethnic group in Uganda, Enoch Olinga became a Bahá’í in Kampala in 1952. In 1953 he became the first pioneer to British Cameroon, and was given the title Knight of Bahá’u’lláh for that country. As the number of Bahá’ís grew in Cameroon new Bahá’ís left the immediate region to pioneer in other surrounding areas, each becoming a Knight of Bahá’u’lláh including Ghana, and Togo. Because of the successive waves of people becoming Knights of Bahá’u’lláh, Enoch Olinga was entitled "Abd'l-Futuh", a Persian name meaning "the father of victories" by Shoghi Effendi.

In October 1957 Shoghi Effendi appointed him as a Hand of the Cause of God. Olinga chaired the opening session of the first Bahá’í World Congress (in 1963) which announced the election of the first Universal House of Justice after which he travelled all over the world.

On September 16, 1979, Enoch Olinga was killed. A close associate of Ugandan President Idi Amin, who was deposed and exiled on April 11, 1979, Enoch Olinga, his wife, and three of his five children were murdered by unknown gunmen on September 16, 1979, during the administration of President Milton Obote when people affiliated with the Amin regime were being systematically targeted. Denis MacEoin touches on this topic in his 1979 Letter on Bahá'í attitudes towards politics and scholarship.

One day after his murder, on September 17, 1979, Amatu'l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum wrote a poem, "On Hearing of Enoch's Murder."

The sunlight is black
The sunlight is black
What raven wing
Covered my sun at noonday?
In my mouth is the salt of tears
I cannot swallow so much salt . . .
Blood is so beautiful
Blood is so pure
Why do the people let blood
Run in the street?
So long it took
To make this man
Noble and good
His mind and his soul
Expanded like sunlight
At noonday.
Why did you kill him?
Are you pleased at this riddled shell,
This mangle of bone and flesh?
Did you think your deed in the dark
Was a bright light?
Everything is pulsing,
Throbbing and throbbing!
There is no answer
And the sunlight is black.
Go Enoch go!
Go to Musa on the hill
Go to your Master
Go to your Guardian
Go to the Kingdom of Light!
But ask not of us
Nor of your people
Who have plucked a sin
Big enough and dark enough
To blot out the noonday sun!
Woe to Africa!
Weep as you have not wept before,
Weep on your knees,
Weep your eyes blind,
You have murdered Abu'l-Futœh,
The Father of Victories is dead
At your hand, at your hand!
Your jeweled crown
page laced by God on your head
Is rolled into the grave---
Weep, weep, weep your heart away.