Every Country and Land... Except Oman (page 2)

darkspilver

JWs were reported in Saudi Arabia? Seriously?!

Yes, and Iran and Kuwait....

LoveUniHateExams

^^^ yeah, Iran - 1; Saudi Arabia - 2 ^^^

Poor bastards.

They probably had the longevity of a snowflake on a hot stove.

But, they were listed individually back then - I suspect that was due to a mix of changing attitudes and views in the countries and a bit of naivety on the part of WT - but still, counted and listed separately as shown above.

Also remember the Iranian Revolution (and the downfall of the Shah) took place 'relatively' recently in 1979.

Presumably those countries are now combined in the 'other countries' total at the end of each annual report.

It's also why I've said previously that it's an interesting geo-political exercise - remember ILoveTTATT2 is going back to 1926....

Saudi Arabia was only founded in 1932.

Alaska and Hawaii only joined the United States in 1959.

Then there's all the colonies getting independance with major changes of government and often names.

The 1950s were a very interesting time in the 'Eastern Block' - the Berlin Wall only went up in 1961.

And then the 1990s with the dividing up of USSR, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia etc

blondie

Singapore?

darkspilver

Singapore?

Yes, listed on my data dump on my earlier post (approximately the 21st country listed - as it wasn't alphabetical back then)...

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6580967776976896/_post/5556505736642560

And if any one thinks what about North Korea? - remember Korea was partitioned in 1948 - and Korea, as a whole, was listed individually in the annual report prior to this.

Heaven

Amazon rainforest?

Vidiot

Actually, in retrospect, Saudia Arabia doesn't sound too far-fetched.

Christians are allowed to preach to other Christians under most versions of Islamic law, and the WTS has a long, proud history of poaching members from other churches... :smirk:

ILoveTTATT2

Assuming that pre 1959, "Korea" meant both North and South, then yes, even North Korea at one point was "unbanned".

Only Oman has never been "unbanned" and reported on a yearbook. Every other country in the "30 other lands", at one point was "unbanned" and reported.

I now have the capability of (relatively quickly) doing world maps of the countries that reported each year. I plan to make a time-lapse of these countries from 1926 to now.

darkspilver

Assuming that pre 1959, "Korea" meant both North and South, then yes, even North Korea at one point was "unbanned".

'Korea' was being listed in the Annual Report during the early 1930s when the Proclaimers Book reported:

Proclaimers Book, page 433

In the Far East too, pressure was building up. There were arrests of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Japan. Large quantities of their Bible literature were destroyed by officials in Seoul (in what is now the Republic of Korea) and Pyongyang (in what is now the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea).

The history of the JWs in Korea was featured in the 1988 Yearbook - when again Pyongyang is referenced - also the following:

Yearbook 1988, pages 142-143

Brother Lee, who is presently serving as an elder in a Seoul congregation, traveled the length and breadth of the land, reaching into what is now North Korea and even into Manchuria. He would order literature from the Seoul office and have it sent ahead to the next village or town. This was his life for three years until 1933 when the witnessing work came under difficulty.

Thus I would reasonably expect the 'pre-partition' (1948) Annual Report for Korea during the early 1930s to include the preaching work that was being done in what is today known as North Korea.

steve2

Has Afghanistan ever been blessed with the presence of JWs?

Every Country and Land... Except Oman

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