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MAX KANYEREZI
Knight of Baha’u’llah 1918—1991
When Max Kanyerezi was 16 years old and a student at Kings College in Budo, Uganda, he had a striking dream which repeated itself twice in the same night:
A large figure stretches up and starts to roll up the earth, as one would roll up a newspaper. People are running in panic. Three officiaIs sit on a hill where people are to register in the Book of Life. Young Max approaches the table where they are
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Max Kanyerezi
inscribing the names. The eldest tells him, ‘Go and learn to register your friends, thereafter you will also be registered’.
Max had that dream in 1934, and he saw in it a divine calling. At first he thought that perhaps he should become a Christian minister like his father, who was one of the first seven ordained Christian clergy in Uganda. When that did not work out he went to the Farmers Institute at Namutamba for two years to become a trained farmer. He had difficulties as a farmer and went to Kampala, where he found a job as a clerk in the Uganda Company. Though happy with his work, the Vividness of his dream had not worn off and he remained puzzled as to its true meaning.
One morning in 1952, a junior staff member in the office told him about a new Faith which accepted the teachings ofall other religions. Eventually he learned that one of his distant relatives, C. Kajubi, knew this Faith and, by chance, he came across Kajubi who introduced him to a man who was to become “his spiritual guide and father”, Mr. ‘Ali Nagavani.
In his diary account of this meeting, Max wrote:
There [he was] standing with his penetrating eyes together with a wonderful smile and overflowing warm kindness toward a stranger, a welcome and friendly way of treatment very rare to find.... ‘Ali greeted me in that way which remained in my mind and will remain forever.
Max was enthralled with the love and the character of the Na__khjavanis, the Bananis, and the small group of other devoted pioneers. So great was his joy among them that the days between the weekly meetings “seemed like eternity”, and he earnestly wished that he “had the powers to shorten the days”. During one particular meeting which lasted from 9:00 one morning until 3:00 of the next morning, Max had all of his questions answered to his satisfaction. When writing to the British Bahá’í T caching Committee for Africa to become Africa’s seventh believer, Max only had one secret worry—w how his father would accept the fact that he had become a Bahá’í. But Max left that problem to Bahá’u’lláh. This reliance and acceptance of Bahá’u’lláh’s unfailing support and love was to become like a flourishing tree within Max’s heart.
One day not long after he embraced the Faith, Max’s father sent word to him to come. Upon arrival, his worry about his father soon turned into joy as his father described to Max a Vivid dream Which he felt only Max could understand. In this dream the Lord Christ had announced to him that He had “returned” in Uganda and that all the tribes should be informed. This gave Max the opportunity to explain the meaning of this dream to his father who then immediately accepted Baha’u’llah. Although he never formally joined the Bahá’í community, he was a Bahá’í at heart.
In February 1953, soon after Max and his wife Florence became Bahá’ís, the first International Bahá’í Teaching Conference in Africa was held under a tent erected on
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IN MEMORIAM
the grounds of the Kampala Bahá’í Centre. The spirit and enthusiasm prevailing at this conference, Which sounded the call to pioneer, was indescribable for Max. He found himself “overcoming the mountains within him” and taking up the divine call to bring the Faith to Brazzaville, the capital of French Equatorial Africa (later to become the capital of the Congo). This step was to confer upon Max the title of Knight of Bahá’u’lláh, but equally important to him was to see the fulfilment of his cherished dream.
On 30 August 1953, Max joined ‘Ali and Violette Naklijavani, Enoch Olinga, and Samson Mungono as they set off on their historic journey to West Africa. The results of their efforts went beyond anything they could have imagined. Max, Without any knowledge of French or the local languages, touched the hearts of the people there through his unfailing prayers and reliance on Baha’u’llah. A Local Assembly was established in Brazzaville.
Time passed, and in 1955 Max returned to Uganda. He began teaching the Faith throughout East Africa, often travelling for months and enduring many hardships. His service deepened him and prepared him to become one of the first members of the new National Spiritual Assembly for Central and East Africa. Soon thereafter, he also became one of the first Auxiliary Board members.
Max Kanyerezi passed away on 16 June 1991. His love, his steadfastness and his humbleness bore rich testimony to his deep attachment to his Lord throughout many years of service, and the sweetness of his presence still lingers in the hearts of all those who were touched by his life. His love for teaching never diminished. He remained tine to his dream; that divine call to “go and learn to register your friends”.
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