Promoting Falun Dafa in Tanzania

(Clearwisdom.net) From mid to late August 2004, I spent ten days in the city of Arusha, which lies in the northern part of the African country of Tanzania.

Before heading over there I was gathering materials to take with me and thinking about how to promote Falun Dafa and clarify the truth of the persecution to the local government, the media and the general public. This was my first trip to any African nation, and I didn't have any clear plan of how to do it.

Meeting with the mayor of Arusha

On the afternoon of my arrival, I talked to some people on the streets regarding Falun Gong, and then I headed over to the city hall. I went to the mayor's office, told an employee that I wished to see the mayor, and he took me to see him.

I told the mayor that I was from Canada, and I was there to promote Falun Dafa. He was very interested, so I began by describing what Falun Gong was, then on to how Jiang's regime was persecuting Falun Gong. He seemed very attentive and was shocked when he saw the photos of practitioners who had been tortured. Before leaving, I gave him a set of materials that clearly told the true situation. The mayor gave me his card and said that I would be welcome to return and visit him anytime.

Clarifying the truth to the public

I was thinking that I had to let more Tanzanians know about the truth of the persecution, so after buying some things at a general store, I began talking to a group of people about Falun Gong. They listened intently, and I concluded by giving them each a copy of the VCD, "I Came Here for You." One local insisted on taking another copy for a friend of his.

Clarifying the truth to Chinese people

I noticed some Chinese folks in a restaurant and struck up a conversation with them. I told them that I had not been back to China for five years and also the reason why I could not return right now. I started telling them my experiences; that I practice Falun Gong and, because of that, the Chinese Embassy had refused to extend my passport. Consequently, I had been stopped at the gate and denied entry into China. I further related to them the nature of Falun Gong, why Jiang persecutes Falun Gong, and what the practitioners in China have had to endure. I told them about the staged self-immolation in Tiananmen Square and the truth of what has been going on in this persecution. An hour or so seemed to pass very quickly.

Meeting with a predestined person

While I was clarifying the truth to a group of soldiers on the street, a young man called Namadan was listening very quietly. When I moved to begin talking to another group, he stopped me, saying that he really wanted to practice Falun Gong and asking where he could learn it. I realized that he must have been predestined to practice Falun Gong and that I must teach him, so I took him and another individual to a nearby park and taught them the five exercises.

They were very serious about learning, and Namadan was intently focused on every action and movement. Afterwards, I treated them to dinner. While we were eating, Namadan said that he had been searching for a cultivation method like Falun Gong for a long time, so he had been elated to see my Falun Gong materials earlier that day.

After dinner I told him that he still needed further instruction on the movements, and that I had some more materials for him. I asked him to return to the same park again the following morning at six o'clock, and he agreed.

The next morning, I was very touched when he arrived because he had just run six kilometers from his house in order to get there. We practiced until seven. Afterwards he said that he had felt great after practicing the previous day, and that he was enjoying the time spent with me. He said he would like to set up a local practice site and teach Falun Gong to more people.

We studied Zhuan Falun together. I played the VCD to let him know about Jiang's regime's lies, such as the staged self-immolation in Tiananmen Square, as well as the fabrication of 1,400 death cases.

We spent four days practicing and exchanging. On the last day, he put on the yellow T-shirt that I had given him. The contrast of his dark skin against the bright yellow fabric made a very noticeable combination, and the words "Falun Dafa" on the shirt were quite obvious, especially in the sunlight. He said that he would wear it whenever he practiced. By the time I was about to leave Arusha, he knew all the movements fairly well and had gained a certain degree of understanding of Falun Dafa.

Meeting with a second predestined person

There is a criminal court in Arusha that was established by the United Nations in order to try the former Rwandan officials who had committed genocide during the Rwanda massacres of 1994. The day before leaving Arusha, I paid a visit to the court. The guard led me to the library, where I explained briefly to the librarian why I was there. She gave me some information on how the court was set up and operated and then introduced me to the public relations official. When the official learned that I practiced Falun Gong, he treated me to some tea and brought in three more officials to listen as I clarified the truth to them.

He told me that he had heard of Falun Gong and had always wanted to know more about it. These four officials were all from Rwanda, and each performed a different function at the court. I told them everything about Falun Gong, from how it benefits people and is practiced throughout the world, to how Jiang's regime is persecuting the practitioners. More specifically, I elaborated on the cruel persecution of practitioners, including torture, the crimes against humanity and genocide. They were shocked but said that they could comprehend this because something similar had happened in their own country. Immediately after our discussion, he asked me to teach him the Falun Gong exercises before leaving Arusha.

At six o'clock that evening, he came to my hotel, and I spent an hour and a half teaching him the five sets of movements, after which he said that he felt very good, and that he would download both Zhuan Falun for the teachings and The Great Consummation Way of Falun Dafa for the detailed exercise instruction.

He later wrote in an email that after learning the movements, he had slept very comfortably, "like a baby," that night and that Falun Gong was wonderful. He also wrote that his three co-workers had mentioned wanting to learn the movements from him.

In summary, I discovered that Africans are very friendly and that very few people there have ever heard of Falun Gong. Having underestimated the desire of the locals to learn the truth of Falun Gong, I hadn't taken enough materials with me, especially materials for promoting the practice itself.