August 17. On this date in 1969, during her tour of Africa, Amatu'l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum was interviewed on a Kenyan television program called “Today’s Guests” and spoke for seven minutes.

 

August 17. On this date in 1969, during her tour of Africa, Amatu'l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum was interviewed on a Kenyan television program called “Today’s Guests” and spoke for seven minutes.

As documented in Violette Nakhjavani's The Great Safari of Hand of the Cause Rúhíyyih Khánum...

On August 5, the wheels of our plane touched down at Entebbe Airport, Kampala, Uganda — at last the long-promised visit of ‘Amatu’l-Bahá to the believers of Africa was commencing. In 1961, at the time when she dedicated the Mother Temple of Africa for public worship, Rúḥíyyih Khánum promised the friends to come back and really visit them, touring as many Centers as possible. After nine years, this has now been fulfilled.

During her ten-day stay in Kampala she was able to attend a reception given in her honor and that of two visiting members of the Universal House of Justice, Hushmand Fatheázam, and my husband, ‘Alí Nakhjavání; to deliver a public lecture in the hall of the National Theater; and to be interviewed for a full half hour on Radio Uganda on the “Guest of the Week” program. Originally the introducer and the interviewer had contemplated ten to fifteen minutes devoted to the Bahá’í guest, but the discussion became so animated, and the two young men and Rúḥíyyih Khánum got so interested in the very diverse questions on the Faith, that after the half hour was over the conversation continued for some time in the studio.

Hands Unite in Prayer

Rúḥíyyih Khánum’s happiest moment came when she was able to attend a service in the Mother Temple of Africa, sitting between Hands of the Cause Músá Banání and Enoch Olinga. It is very seldom that Mr. Banání can leave his home these days, but he was able to be present at the marriage of his granddaughter Bahíyyih Nakhjavání to Paul Adams of England; and so three of the Hands could unite in prayer in the heart of the African Continent prior to the very long African safari of ‘Amatu’l-Bahá.

Rúḥíyyih Khánum had purchased a large Land Rover — three and a half tons when loaded! — which was awaiting her arrival in Nairobi, Kenya; her plan was to reach the Bahá’ís in the villages, who so seldom have any opportunity to meet their brothers and sisters from other places, how much less other nations and continents; a Land Rover, or similar four-wheeled drive vehicle, is the only method of doing this, as it will go through sand, mud, shrubs, and treacherous wasteland — certainly not comfortably, but it will go.

The plan was to have a few days much needed rest near Mombasa, then visit the coast of Kenya and Tanzania, inland centers of Tanzania, return to Nairobi, visit some areas in Kisii, leave by air for a month to Ethiopia, and then complete the Kenya visit by a ten-day tour of Western Nyanza before proceeding to Kampala.

Although the official Bahá’í reception and public address of ‘Amatu’l-Bahá were scheduled to take place towards the end of her Kenya visit, she was nevertheless interviewed on Kenya television on August 17,1969, on a program called “Today’s Guests,” and spoke for seven minutes. Prior to her departure for Addis Ababa, she was invited to the home of Vice-President Moi and his wife, where in a most cordial and intimate atmosphere, with tea and refreshments, the subject of the Faith and other things of a topical nature were discussed for about an hour.