Ahmadiyyat - The Renaissance of Islam — Page 341
THE RENAISSANCE OF ISLAM 341 announced very early: 'Truth will be victorious and Islam will again experience the day of light and freshness which it had experienced early in its history, and the sun will rise again in its perfection as it had risen before. ' In those early days a beginning had been made of the advance of Islam inEast Africa. Hazrat Khalifatul Masih I had announced during his last illness: 'God Almighty has pro- mised me that half a million Christians would accept Islam in Africa'; and had added: 'Education will spread in West Africa. ' On 18 February 1945 Hazrat Khalifatul Masih II said, in the course of an address: God has reserved these African countries for Ahmadiyyat and they have a close relationship with the progress of Islam. Our future is bound up with Africa. . . . God Almighty diverted my attention to these countries in good time and then of His grace He opened the door of extraordinary progress in those countries. . . . If our younger men do not proceed quickly to these countries and do not make an attempt to win the whole of that region for Islam in the shortest possible time, no chance will be left for us to make further progress. . . . If we make even a small effort we will be supreme in those countries, not only because we are established on the truth, but also because the African temperament will support us. We shall be at an advantage against our rivals for they seek to succeed through power and force, and we shall have the support of the truth. Thus those people will, in any case, turn to us and will not turn to them. . . . This is a time of great tact and alertness for us. This is a time for great speed and swiftness for us. We must spread all over Africa in a matter of days and months and we must establish the Kingdom of the One God in those countries in place of the Trinity. In April and May 1970 Khalifatul Masih III visited Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Gambia and Sierra Leone, in that order, to check up on the activities of the Missions of the Movement in those countries and to make an appraisal of the opportunities of further progress. At the end of his visit to those countries of West Africa he arrived in