The áʼíBaháʼí Faith in Equatorial Guinea begins after ʻAbdu'l-Bahá wrote letters encouraging taking the religion to Africa in 1916. The first pioneer to Spanish Guinea was Elise Lynelle (then Elise Schreiber) who arrived in Bata, Spanish Guinea (as it was called then), on 17 May 1954, and was recognized as a Knight of Baha'u'llah. In 1968 the first Local Spiritual Assembly of Equatorial Guinea was elected in Santa Isabel, (later renamed Malabo). The community has elected a National Spiritual Assembly since 1984. The community celebrated its golden jubilee in 2004. The Association of Religion Data Archives estimated some 3,500 Baháʼís in 2005.
Beginnings
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's Tablets of the Divine Plan
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá wrote a series of letters, or tablets, to the followers of the religion in the United States in 1916–1917; these letters were compiled together in the book Tablets of the Divine Plan. The eighth and twelfth of the tablets mentionedAfrica and were written on 19 April 1916 and 15 February 1917, respectively. Publication however was delayed in the United States until 1919—after the end of the First World War and the Spanish flu. The tablets were translated and presented by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab on 4 April 1919, and published in Star of the West magazine on 12 December 1919. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá mentions Baháʼís traveling "...especially from America to Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, and travel through Japan and China. Likewise, from Germany teachers and believers may travel to the continents of America, Africa, Japan and China; in brief, they may travel through all the continents and islands of the globe" and " ...the anthem of the oneness of the world of humanity may confer a new life upon all the children of men, and the tabernacle of universal peace be pitched on the apex of America; thus Europe and Africa may become vivified with the breaths of the Holy Spirit, this world may become another world, the body politic may attain to a new exhilaration...."
Establishment of the community
After the initiation of the Ten Year Crusade, initiated by Shoghi Effendi, head of the religion after the death of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, coordinated efforts to expand the religion across Africa. The first pioneer to Spanish Guinea was Elise Lynelle (then Elise Schreiber) who arrived in Bata, Spanish Guinea (as it was called then), on 17 May 1954, and was recognized as a Knight of Baha'u'llah. Because of legal segregation she was unable to meet black Africans. Instead she was able to introduce the teachings of the religion, to a Spaniard, Jose Ramos Espinosa, who accepted the religion. With his assistance she was able to stay in the country longer and in June she sailed to the island of Corisco as part of her new job. Here she met the elderly King of the island, Santiago Uganda Mdelo and his nephew, Edward Robinson, both of whom readily accepted the religion. King Uganda told Lynelle that he had had a premonition about someone who would come to him with a message.
The Baháʼí Community in Equatorial Guinea came under the responsibility of the regional National Spiritual Assembly of North West Africa in 1956. In 1964 the constituent Baháʼí communities were reorganized as the regional assembly of the Baháʼís of West Central Africa, with its seat in Victoria, comprising the Baháʼís in the countries and places of Cameroon, Spanish Guinea, St. Thomas Island, Fernando Po Island, Corisco Island, Nigeria, Niger, Dahomey, Togo, and Ghana. Then in 1967 the National Spiritual Assembly of Cameroon Republic was elected with its seat in Victoria and oversaw the neighboring regions of Spanish Guinea, Fernando Po, Corisco, and São Tomé and Príncipe Islands. This was during a period of wide scale growth in the religion across Sub-Saharan Africa near the end of the period of Colonisation of Africa. Pioneers continued to arrive like Joseph Enonguene and Johanna Ngompex, who came from the Baháʼí community in Cameroon in the 1960s.
In 1967 in Santa Isabel (later renamed Malabo), pioneer Hassey Ime lived and helped a community in Fernando Poo island (later renamedBioko) and reported an estimated community of at least twenty there. In 1968 the first Local Spiritual Assembly of Equatorial Guinea was elected there. American pioneers Mr. and Mrs. George Karch were also members of the community. In June 1969 a local pioneer, Hans Ayukangu, moved to Biapa on Fernando Poo island where there was a group of four Baháʼís.