Bahá’í World/Volume 20/Hamuel Hoahania
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HAMUEL HOAHANIA
???~1986
Harnuel Hoahania was born in the AreAre district of Malaita in the Solomon Islands. He was a traditional chief and owner of all land near Hau Hui on Malaita. When the Solomon Islands were under the British, he had a reputation as being one of the most cooperative cocoa producers in the Protectorate.
As a young man he worked for the South Sea Evangelical Mission, the major Christian mission in his area, but he became very disillusioned with the church. Despite the Christian teaching of brotherly love, European missionaries did not socialise with Islanders. When Hamual heard of a European family living in Honiara who allowed Islanders into their home, and even ate with them, he did not at first believe the story, and decided to investigate for himself.
Harnuel’s work as a government medical dresser allowed him to travel to different parts of the Solomon Islands, and when next in the capital, in about July 1956, he approached the home of the Knights of Bahá’u’lláh Alvin and Gertrude Blum, and their daughter, Keithie. Alvin invited Hamuel in and offered him some refreshments. Hamuel asked the Blums for books about the
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Bahá’í Faith, and invited them to Hau Hui to ‘start a mission’.
Hamuel’s conversion precipitated the first mass entry of Solomon Islanders into the Faith. Gertrude Blum Visited Hamuel’s clan, and a large number of them decided to become Bahá’ís. A Local Assembly was soon established at Hau Hui with Hamuel as a member. The rapid emergence of Bahá’í communities on Malaita provoked opposition from a number of missions, and the new Bahá’ís faced a variety of forms of harrassment and ridicule. They pers evered, however, and established more Local Assemblies, and a primary school at Tawaimare, on land donated by the clan to the Faith.
In 1959, the Regional National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the South Pacific was established. Island Teaching Committees were appointed to co-ordinate the activities of the Bahá’í community in each island group and liaise with the Regional Spiritual Assembly, and in 1961 Hamuel was asked to serve on the Solomon Islands Teaching Committee.
Hamuel was elected as a delegate to the convention of the South Pacific Regional Assembly in 1962 and several subsequent years. During this time he also assisted in implementing a large-scale teaching project on Malaita Which included Bahá’ís visiting most of the Villages in the AreAre and Koio regions. By Riḍván 1963 there was an Assembly at Hau Hui, nine other localities on the island, and some 800 Malaitan Bahá’ís. By 1986 there were 59 Local Assemblies on Malaita.
In 1964, the Solomon Islands became part of the South West Pacific Ocean Regional National Spiritual Assembly, and Hamuel served on that Assembly for a number of years. He also attended the Intercontinental Conference held in Sydney, Australia, in October 1967—one of six gatherings held to celebrate the centenary of Bahá’u’lláh’s proclamation to the kings and rulers of the world. During the Conference Hamuel ‘enacted the story of his people and his
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Hamuel Hoahania
acceptance of the Faith with a sparkling Vivacity and humor’.
The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the Solomon Islands was established in 1971, Hamuel was elected to that institution in 1978. He attended the 1978 International Convention in Haifa, Israelthe first Solomon Islander to do so. On his way home from the Convention, he travelled to Train and Visited the House of the Báb. Later that year he was appointed an Auxiliary Board member.
When Hamuel passed away on 15 October 1986, he left behind his wife and their 16 children, many of whom were actively serving the Faith.
GRAHAM HASSALL