Bahá'í Faith in Cameroon

The Bahá'í Faith in Cameroon was established when the country was separated into two colonies - British and French Cameroon. The first Bahá'í in Cameroon was Enoch Olinga, who had left his homeland of Uganda to bring the religion to British Cameroon in 1953. Meherangiz Munsiff, a young Indian woman who had moved from Britain, arrived in French Cameroon April 1954 - both Olinga and Munsiff were honoured with the title Knight of Bahá'u'lláh. In 2003 Bahá'ís estimated there were 40,000 adherents of the religion in the country. The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated about 50800 Bahá'ís in 2005.

In 1953, Shoghi Effendi, the head of the Bahá'í Faith, planned an international teaching plan termed the Ten Year Crusade. This was during a period of wide scale growth in the religion across Sub-Saharan Africa near the end of the period of the Colonisation of Africa. During the plan Ali Nakhjavani and his wife drove by car with two African pioneers from Uganda where the religion was growing very quickly to open new countries to the religion. The first pioneer in the region was Max Kinyerezi October 6 who settled in what was then French Equatorial Africa, and then Enoch Olinga to British Cameroon on October 15. In Limbe (then called Victoria), through the efforts of Olinga, Jacob Tabot Awo converted to the religion becoming the first Cameroonian Bahá'í. During the following year there were many converts to the religion, many of whom were from the Basel Mission system of Protestant Christians. Meherangiz Munsiff, a young Indian woman, arrived in French Cameroon in April 1954 in Douala after helping to found the Bahá'í Faith in Madagascar. A letter from Olinga describes the advancement of the religion into 6 towns and translation work into the Duala language had begun of a pamphlet.

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