The Bahá'í Faith in Mozambique begins after the mention of Africa in Bahá'í literature when `Abdu'l-Bahá suggested it as a place to take the religion to in 1916. The first know Bahá'í to enter the region was in 1951-52 at Beira when a British pioneer came through on the way to what was then Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. The Mozambique Bahá'í community participated in successive stages of regional organization across southern Africa from 1956 through the election of its first Mozambique Bahá'í Local Spiritual Assembly by 1963 and on to its own National Spiritual Assembly was elected in 1987. Since 1984 the Bahá'ís have begun to hold development projects. The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated just over 2,800 Bahá'ís in 2005.