Cruelties Go Unchecked in Malawi

LATE in 1975, people around the world were shocked to hear of atrocities committed on a massive scale against Christians​—Jehovah’s Witnesses—​in the East African country of Malawi. Expressions of repugnance at the barbarism​—rapes, beatings, torture of men and women—​arose in place after place.

Have these cruelties stopped? Have the law-enforcement officials stepped in to put an end to the robbing of a small religious minority of the freedoms that the Malawi constitution guarantees them? Have the high officials of the land spoken out in condemnation of brutality as a means to advance political causes?

The answer is, No.

Consider what happened in mid-January 1976 to fourteen Christians, members of the Kalilombe Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, situated on the Malawi-Mozambique border. These three men and eleven women were seized by members of the Youth League (a branch of Malawi’s dominant Congress Party). They were viciously beaten behind closed doors for half a day. Nine of the women were then led away by the police for hospital treatment. The remaining Witnesses were held in protective custody. What was their state? Two of them​—Josiya A. Chambala and Tennison Joyabe—​had their legs and arms broken by the Youth Leaguers. The two women also had broken arms as a result of the beating. Their brutal attackers? They continue to walk about as free men with no finger lifted to bring them to justice, no tongue raised to condemn their cruelty.

Worse yet is what happened to two Christian men, Harry Kampango and Aizeki Zoyaya from Tembenu Village. Their village chief and the Malawi Congress Party chairman, Chintengo, denounced them before the area branch of the party at Jenara. Their crime? They had not purchased cards as members of Malawi’s controlling political party. The two Christians, who were peacefully occupied in cultivating their garden plots, were brought in and handed over to the party branch. The chairman of the Youth League, called Kachoka, bound their arms behind them and shut them in a bathhouse. For three days they were severely beaten and deprived of food and water. Then, on January 2, 1976, these two Witnesses were killed by being mutilated physically, their genitals being cut off. Their dead bodies were thrown into a deep pit.

In time, the police learned of the murders. On January 7 they came to take away the corpses, but were unable to retrieve them from the pit. They told the people to fill it in, burying the bodies. That same day, Mr. Makhumula Nkhoma, the Regional Minister for the South, came from Zomba to the village. He said nothing to the people in condemnation of the persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

True, the murderer, Kachoka, was imprisoned. When asked who killed the two men, his reply was: “I killed them myself. Because they were weak from hunger and had no strength, they did not give me any trouble.” But what has been done to assure that similar atrocities will not take place? What of those who had prepared the way for these murders? What public condemnation by press or radio has been made by government or party officials? Again the answer is, None.

If these were rare instances, the situation would not be so repugnant. Instead, this is but a sampling of a massive campaign to destroy a defenseless religious minority, a campaign that has been waged for over ten years now. If you find this hard to believe, consider the following.

The Reign of Terror Made Known World Wide

WHAT is happening to Jehovah’s Witnesses in Malawi is not being reported in Malawi’s newspapers. An effort is made to keep these atrocities from coming to light. The reason why is clearly expressed in these words of Christ Jesus:

“He that practices vile things hates the light and does not come to the light, in order that his works may not be reproved. But he that does what is true comes to the light, in order that his works may be made manifest as having been worked in harmony with God.”​—John 3:19-21.

Though the attempt is made to draw a curtain of silence around the country, the facts have become known. On January 6, 1976, The Japan Times stated: “Western newsmen are barred from both Malawi and Mozambique and so cannot confirm independently the sect’s reports of persecution there. But the reports reaching South Africa of maltreatment of Witnesses are numerous enough to give them credence.”

Earlier, on December 7, 1975, Colin Legum, writing in the Observer of London, said: “Reports of atrocities against Jehovah’s Witnesses, including savage beatings, rape, sexual abuse and torture, are beginning to filter out of dozens of villages in Malawi. . . . Detailed evidence of this new reign of terror rests on statements collected by the Witnesses’ Watchtower Society, but is also independently corroborated by reports coming out of the villages.”

Outside Malawi, voices have been raised in expressions of shocked disapproval. In the United States, for instance, the Public Employee Press of January 16, 1976, said this about the sufferings of Jehovah’s Witnesses under the headline “Nazi-Like Tactics in Central Africa”:

“‘Ufulu, ufulu! This shout rang out on July 6, 1964, in the Republic of Malawi, a land previously called Nyasaland, in Central Africa. This was its birth shout. It was now free of European domination. Translated, that shouted word means ‘freedom.’ The new name it took [Malawi] means ‘flaming waters.’ In 1975 there is, indeed, a flame in the land; yes, a fire that once again has taken ufulu away from a minority of Malawians. In its wake one sees rape, torture, unspeakable indignities, and destruction of property​—all against law-abiding citizens.”

A Decade of Terror

The history of these atrocities against peace-loving Christians is a long and sordid one. It was back in 1964 that the first wave of persecution came upon Jehovah’s Witnesses in Malawi. The reason then was the same as now. Jehovah’s Witnesses know Christ Jesus’ statement that ‘his kingdom was not of this world’ and that his followers would not be of this world. (John 18:36; 15:19) So, because of conscience and Bible-based principles Jehovah’s Witnesses​—not only in Malawi but world wide—​do not engage in politics or join political parties. For that reason and that reason alone, in 1964 some 1,081 of their homes and over a hundred of their Kingdom Halls, or meeting places, in Malawi were burned or otherwise ruined.

In 1967, The Times of Malawi announced that the government had banned Jehovah’s Witnesses. This triggered a new countrywide assault. Burnings of Witness homes and Kingdom Halls were accompanied by beatings and jailings. Thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses fled to neighboring Zambia and Mozambique to find refuge until the violence subsided.

Five years later, the Malawi Congress Party went to the extreme of formally adopting a resolution calling for the dismissal of all Witnesses from their places of employment, the discouraging of their farming and business activities and their violent ouster from the very villages in which they had their homes. The savagery of the assaults this resolution provoked took on new proportions. Young girls were repeatedly raped, men were beaten to the point of unconsciousness and forms of torture were employed​—all in an effort to make Jehovah’s Witnesses abandon their religious convictions, violate their conscience and buy membership cards for the dominant political party. Their homes burned, their crops destroyed, their livestock stolen or killed, the Witnesses made a mass exodus from the country. In time, some 36,000, including children, had settled in ten different refugee camps set up in neighboring Mozambique.

Came 1975 and the majority of these camps were shut down by the new Mozambique government, forcing thousands of Witnesses back across the border into Malawi. The horrifying account of the depraved attacks they experienced following this forced repatriation has been made known in the December 8, 1975, issue of Awake! magazine, as well as in newspapers, magazines and radio and television reports around the world. A new element was added to the list of cruelties. Along with the usual beatings, rapings and torture, now detention camps were formed into which to herd the Witnesses.

Memories of Nazi Concentration Camps Evoked

By the third week of December 1975, over 3,000 male Witnesses had been confined in the Dzaleka detention camp near Dowa, north of Lilongwe. All had been charged, convicted and imprisoned for two years. Women members of the Witnesses were also put into such camps. Information received in January 1976 indicated that more than 5,000 Christian men and women were then imprisoned in Malawi, and arrests were continuing. In some of these places women had their small children with them. Perhaps the most pathetic part of the reports coming out of these camps is the number of small children who have died due to the lack of proper food and other hardships.

One of the imprisoned Witnesses wrote: “Prisoners being so many, there are only 400 plates. So, some have hot nshima [a customary Malawian food] put on one hand and relish on the other. Brothers often must put the hot nshima on the ground and eat it from there.”

Like the Nazis, the heads of these detention camps have employed the Witnesses as slave laborers. Officers are quoted as telling them: “As the government has arranged, we shall make you our tractors.” At the Dzaleka camp the Witnesses were shown a hill and told they would be made to dig it twelve inches deep by hand. The women Witnesses were first ordered to do this with the thought in the mind of those so ordering that they would soon give up and agree to violate their consciences. Instead they performed the laborious work and remained firm in their convictions. Witness men were made to cut and carry heavy logs. They also were compelled to carry large stones for distances up to two and a half miles. Those sick were still forced to work, while supervisors tauntingly told them, “Your God will help you.”

Political Figures Still Lead in Persecution

Not only have federal officials in Malawi refused to bring relief to Jehovah’s Witnesses. Some of them have continued to act as provokers of continued assaults.

In one area of Malawi, Mr. Katora Phiri, a member of parliament, went around addressing public gatherings and inciting local people to harass Jehovah’s Witnesses. He encouraged the people to eradicate the Witnesses from the area. As a result, four congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the area came under assault, with the Witness men being beaten.

On November 11, 1975, at Chiendausiku Village, another member of parliament, Mr. Muluzu, set fire to three houses belonging to Witnesses. On November 13, Mr. Muluzu, accompanied by the village headman, was responsible for the burning of four more of the humble homes of the Witnesses. And on November 15, 1975, two more Witness homes were burned at Mdala Village and Mgochi Village.

Malawian police have also not been free from guilt. In the Ncheu area, Christian men and women in several places were beaten badly by youths of the Malawi Congress Party. One of these women was so severely beaten that she had to be hospitalized. The hospital reported the case to the police. When the Witness was released the police came​—not to seek her cooperation in apprehending the attackers—​but to arrest her! At the Snape Valley police station, Christian women were raped throughout an entire night before being taken to prison.

Yes, unbelievable as it may seem, the Malawian government has not seen fit to put an end to the dismal repetition of brutal assaults on this religious minority. True, there has been some calmness in certain areas of the country. Some local officials have had the decency and compassion to allow Malawian Witnesses to live in their native villages unmolested and to cultivate their garden plots. These officials are a credit to the country. Unfortunately, they, too, are in the minority.

Attention was drawn to this problem of official inaction in The Nigerian Chronicle of December 26, 1975. It quoted the Kenya Daily Nation as saying that the African continent was “becoming increasingly notorious for double standards.” It explained this by adding: “When people are persecuted in America, Russia or South Africa, India and China, people rise in unison to condemn those responsible. When things like this happen to people in African states, not even official[s] of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) bother to comment.”

Yes, once more, official inaction or even complicity in persecution has caused Jehovah’s Witnesses in Malawi to seek refuge outside their country’s borders. Some who could do so entered the Milange refugee camp in Mozambique. According to one report received in January 1976, there were then some 12,000 Malawian Christians in the camp, along with about 10,000 of their fellow believers of Mozambique who are undergoing somewhat similar trials.

If this cruel reign of terror continues, will the resistance of Jehovah’s Witnesses finally collapse so that they will break integrity to Jehovah God? Or will Malawi officials finally call off their persecution of these Christian men and women? These are questions discussed in the next article.

When Will These Cruelties Stop?

WHETHER in refugee camps or concentration camps, the message heard from the Malawian Witnesses is one of steadfast courage and faith. Even in the prison camps, they keep up a program of regular Bible discussion and congregational meetings so as to maintain their Christian spirituality. They find encouragement and consolation in words such as those of the apostle Peter:

“Beloved ones, do not be puzzled at the burning among you, which is happening to you for a trial, as though a strange thing were befalling you. On the contrary, go on rejoicing forasmuch as you are sharers in the sufferings of the Christ.”​—1 Pet. 4:12, 13.

Jehovah’s Witnesses in Malawi are not some unusual “splinter group” with a separate set of standards or views, different from those held by Jehovah’s Christian witnesses world wide. Like Jehovah’s Witnesses everywhere they seek to be exemplary in payment of taxes and obedience to laws. They accept without question the instructions of the apostle Paul at Romans 13:7: “Render to all their dues, to him who calls for the tax, the tax; to him who calls for the tribute, the tribute.” The attacks on them stem from no failure on their part in such civic duties. Nor do they stem from any subversive activities hostile to the State. Like Jehovah’s Witnesses around the earth, they are peaceable and peace-loving persons. Thus, a report on “Jehovah’s Witnesses in Africa” by Ernie Regehr in The Christian Century says that they are “universally praised as hard-working and morally upright citizens.”

Those who try to force and intimidate these Christians to purchase cards as members of their political party are the violators of Malawian law. The card is not an identification document for all citizens; it has nothing to do with taxation. It is, as it plainly states, a political party card, As far back as October 6, 1969, Malawi’s Life President, Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda, publicly stated that no one in the country should be forced to buy a political card. But his words have never been backed up by governmental protection against pressure tactics or open violence upon those not buying the cards.

Whether you agree with the stand of political neutrality or not, do you believe that those who take that stand should be persecuted, imprisoned, beaten, maimed or even killed? Yet that is what is happening in the republic of Malawi. If you are appalled at this unjustified persecution of Christians in Malawi, what can you do? You may choose to express your sentiments by letter, writing to officials of the Malawian government whose names and addresses are here provided.

Not only people throughout the world have taken note of these atrocities. Such cruelties are not ignored by Jehovah God whom these Christian Witnesses serve. He has clearly granted them “power beyond what is normal” and they have endured. Before the world at large, they are establishing a remarkable record of integrity and faithfulness.​—2 Cor. 4:7-9.

The spotlight of truth is on Malawi. Acts of brutality against peace-loving, law-abiding, morally upright Christian witnesses of Jehovah in that land are not shrouded in darkness and hidden from public view. They have become known earth wide. What will Malawi’s public officials do to bring an end to the cruelties? Lovers of freedom and justice are waiting to see.

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OFFICIALS TO WHOM TO WRITE

His Excellency the Life President of Malawi

Ngwazi Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda

Central Government Offices

Private Bag 301

Capital City

LILONGWE 3

Malawi, Central Africa

The Honourable R. A. Banda, S.C., M.P.

Minister of Justice and Attorney General and Minister of Local Government

Private Bag 333

LILONGWE

Malawi, Central Africa

The Honourable P. L. Makhumula Nkhoma, M.P.

Minister of Health

P.O. Box 351

BLANTYRE

Malawi, Central Africa

The Honourable D. Kainja Nthara, M.P.

Minister of Community Development and Social Welfare

P.O. Box 5700

LIMBE

Malawi, Central Africa

The Honourable R. T. C. Munyenyembe, M.P.

Minister of Education

Private Bag 328

Capital City

LILONGWE 3

Malawi, Central Africa

The Honourable N.P.W. Khonje, M.P.

Speaker of the Parliament of Malawi

P.O. Box 80

ZOMBA

Malawi, Central Africa

The Honourable D. T. Matenje, M.P.

Minister of Finance, Trade, Industry and Tourism

P.O. Box 30049

Capital City

LILONGWE 3

Malawi, Central Africa

The Honourable R. B. Chidzanja Nkhoma, M.P.

Minister of Organization of African Unity Affairs

P.O. Box 211

LILONGWE

Malawi, Central Africa

The Honourable A. A. Muwalo Nqumayo, M.P.

Minister of State in the President’s Office

P.O. Box 5250

LIMBE

Malawi, Central Africa

Mr. Aleke K. Banda

Deputy Chairman/​Managing Director

Press (Holdings) Limited

P.O. Box 1227

BLANTYRE

Malawi, Central Africa

Mr. Richard Katengeza

P.O. Box 5144

LIMBE

Malawi, Central Africa