Kampala’s Bahá'í Temple

I went to the Bahá'í Temple this weekend. I didn’t know much about the Bahá’í faith, but I’d heard from friends that the gardens were very beautiful and worth a trip.

We piled into a cab and drove about four miles (I think that’s about six hundred milliliters) outside of the city. It wouldn’t have taken very long except that the roads were unpaved and were in terrible shape. They were so bumpy that the taxi repeatedly bottomed out, and we had to come to almost a full stop and then creep forward to get through some of the potholes.

Eventually we made it through a large gate, the driver parked in the shade and we went into a strange squat building that didn’t look like a temple because it wasn’t -- it was the administrative center. A woman saw our confusion and walked with us over to the temple while she told us some of the basics of the Bahá’í faith.

The essential story is: In 1844, a twenty-four-year-old merchant in Shiraz, Persia named Siyyid Ali-Muhammed announced that he was the Mahdi, a messianic figure that some Muslims believe will appear shortly before the end of the world. He called himself the Báb (Persian for "gate") and began spreading new teachings, including that a new figure, the Messenger of God, would soon appear. The Islamic authorities arrested him, tried him for blasphemy and apostasy and sentenced him to death. The Bahá'í story is that after the smoke from the firing squad cleared, he was left standing unharmed; the bullets had only cut the ropes that held him. A second firing squad killed him.

Meanwhile, a man called Bahá’u’lláh became a follower of the Báb and began preaching its messages. He was imprisoned and tortured, and while in prison received a mystic vision that told him he was the Messenger of God that the Báb had prophesied. Under threat of exile he traveled around middle east and Turkey writing and preaching. In 1866, he wrote a series of letters to world leaders in which he proclaimed himself the promised one of all religions and asked them to renounce their possessions and join his quest for the betterment of humanity. Recipients included the Pope, Emperor Napoleon III, Czar Alexander II, and Emperor Franz-Josef. To my knowledge none agreed. Anyway, Bahá’u’lláh, not the Báb, is viewed as the founder of the faith. Since Bahá’u’lláh, a series of other leaders have led the religion, but in past decades it has been governed by an elected body.

Bahá'í believe that in equality of gender and of all races, and believe that everyone should share one language and one government (they’re big believers in the UN). They oppose all forms of gay rights. There are about five million Bahá'ís, but only eight temples in the world. The one outside Kampala is the only one in Africa.

The temple itself was very pleasant. They’re big on the number nine, so the temple had nine sides, nine doors, nine pillars, etc. It was beautiful on the inside, with the sun streaming through stained glass windows, but a man on the outside told us not to take any photos inside. A wedding party was there, apparently for photos. I'm told that the bridesmaid dresses were just as hideous as they typically are in the U.S.

The gardens were very peaceful, though I didn’t see much order to the way they were laid out. The trees were generally in lines, separating the fifty acre garden into fields. The temple must have been there for some time, because some of the non-native trees were very old. I don’t know much about trees but I recognized pine trees, which I’m pretty sure are not native here. Because the temple is on a high hill, there are wonderful views of Kampala and the surrounding region.

There were a number of couples that were sitting in the gardens, and a small group of older men talking in a circle. It would be a great place to sit and read if it weren't so hard to reach.