Eduardo Duarte Vieira - (First African Martyr: 1921-1966)

Eduardo Duarte Vieira - (First African Martyr: 1921-1966)

Tonia! Tonia! This was the way of destiny. All is ended now.

Love your fellowmen and raise our seven children with divine love.

Love everybody. Forgive all the wrongs I have done.

Be able to face life with naturalness.

Good-bye, and I wish you a long life.

~

Chorus: Eduar~do! You won the victory of all victories for love. (repeat)

~

Dear children! Dear children! Always be friendly toward all people.

Do not have hate towards anyone. Life is eternal and it never ends.

It finishes one cycle, as another has begun.

Forgive all the wrongs of your father.

May God protect you.

Trust in Baha'u'llah and His Covenant to always guide you, guide you! (Chorus)

~

Reference:

EDUARDO DURANTE VIEIRA - First African Martyr (1921-1966)

Eduardo Durante Vieira was born in Portuguese Guinea, West Africa. He was well educated, charming, liberal-minded and profoundly spiritual. His noble qualities made him a popular figure among his people. He held a prominent position in the government of the colony and was often called upon to tender an address of welcome to important visitors to Bissau, the capital of Portuguese Guinea, on behalf of the government. He served as a member of the church council in Bissau.

Mr. Vieira learned of the Bahá'i Faith while on a brief visit to Lisbon during the course of the Ten Year Crusade and became an eager student of the Writings of Baha'u'lláh. Quickly he embraced the Cause and became an enthusiastic, staunch and knowledgeable believer. The friends in Lisbon warmly remember the pleasure and stimulation he brought to the meetings.

On his return to Bissau, Mr. Vieira severed his affiliation with the church and proceeded with courage and vigor to promote the Bahâ'i Teachings among his countrymen. The first to embrace the Faith was his wife who recognized the truth of the Message of Bahã'u'llãh after a period of keen study and meditation. Soon a Bahá'i community of fifteen members was established in Bissau and a Bahá'i center in one of its suburbs.

A Bahá'i friend in Lisbon records: "In those days we used to receive magnificent letters from Mr. Vieira. They were highly inspiring and instructive. Whenever his letters arrived I would share them with the friends who also drew much pleasure and enlightenment from them. However, as time went on, his letters grew more infrequent and fitful and eventually stopped altogether. He had often made some passing reference to the hardships and obstacles he encountered in his own work, and spoke of himself as being in a distressing position; but we in Portugal could hardly grasp the gravity of the situation, and when his letters stopped altogether, we grew very anxious about him..."

Although urged by the clergy to do so, Mr. Vieira refused to apostatize his Faith. A brief, harsh interval followed. He was summarily dismissed from his post and deprived of all the benefits and privileges he had hitherto enjoyed. Faced with the need of providing for his wife and seven children, one of them a victim of paralysis, Mr. Vieira established a travel agency and offered his services as legal advisor to the native population of his home town. He sustained a crushing disappointment when his application for a visa to enable him to attend the World Congress in London in 1963 was curtly rejected. His Bahá'i teaching activity continued unabated. The clergy instigated the authorities to take severe repressive measures: his house was raided, his Bahá'i books and literature were confiscated, and he was forbidden to hold meetings in his home. Moreover, a strict censorship was imposed on all his correspondence. Eventually all his letters were intercepted. On several occasions Mr. Vieira was arrested by the police on frivolous pretexts, was detained, maltreated and brutally beaten. This mounting tide of trials served only to increase the tenacity of his loyalty to the Cause of Bahá'u'llah and to give fresh impetus to his heroic spirit.

Mr. Vieira's final arrest, on a charge of subversive political activity, took place on March 11, 1966, following a period of increasing pressure and harassment. A cloud of obscurity surrounds the uncertain circumstances of his death in prison on March 31, 1966, the first African Bahá'i to lay down his life as a martyr for the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh, his sublime heroism thus immortalizing his name in the annals of the Faith.

An account of the tragic events of this period was recorded by Mrs. Vieira: "At about 4a.m. on March l1 the police suddenly broke into the house and ordered my husband to keep quiet and not to move. After a thorough search of the house they permitted him to change his clothes and they took him away. We could not have contact with him. Even when we were permitted to take him some food through the help of the prison physician, we were not allowed to see him. About ten days later the police brought him home to obtain the key to his office. It was one o'clock in the morning. This was the last time he saw the children. His office was entered and the papers and books confiscated. One day when I took food to him the doctor informed me that he would be taken to another room and I could glimpse my husband passing by. That was the last time I saw him. The officials ordered me to leave. After his death, through the intervention of the doctor, I was permitted to prepare his body for Bahá'i burial. While washing we found his body full of the signs of tortures, especially on his head. But we had a Bahá'i funeral and prayers...

Final messages for his wife and children were found crudely scratched with a sharp instrument on the metal biscuit box in which Mrs. Vieira had transported food to the prison:

"Tonia: This was the way of destiny. All is terminated. Love your fellowman and raise your children with love. Love everybody. Forgive all the wrongs I have done. Be able to face life with naturalness. Goodbye, and I wish you a long life, Durante 29-3-1966"

"Dear children: Always be friendly towards all people. Do not have hate towards anyone. Life is eternal and it never ends; it finishes one cycle and begins another. Forgive all the wrongs of your father. May God protect you, Durante 29-3-1966"

"Whither can a lover go but to the land of his beloved? and what seeker findeth rest away from his heart's desire? To the true lover reunion is life, and separation is death. His breast is void of patience and his heart hath no peace. A myriad lives he would forsake to hasten to the abode of his beloved." - Bahá'u'lláh

Reference: The Baha'i World, Volume XIV, page 389.

Correction of the spelling of his name in The Baha'i World, Volume XVI, page 568.

Eduardo is pronounced E-doo-ar-do.