During the 1960s and 70s Jehovah’s Witnesses in the African nation of Malawi suffered horrible persecution—including rape and murder—at the hands of radical elements associated with the national political party known as the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) under the Kamuzu Banda Regime.
During this period the Malawi Constitution made the nation a single-party state, and the MCP constitution explicitly stated that the MCP was the government of the country.[1-3] That is to say, the Malawi Congress Party and the Malawi government were one and the same.[3]
During Banda's era the highest authority of the MCP was the Annual Convention. The chair of this Convention was the leader of the MCP, who was also the President of the Republic of Malawi. This Convention acted as an electoral college to select the presidential candidate.[3] Additionally, under then Malawian law the Government’s Cabinet was comprised of the MCP’s 12-member National Executive Committee. Hence the uppermost levels of authority of the Malawian Government were one and the same with the uppermost levels of authority of the MCP. The MCP was “the Government”.[4]
As all citizens of a country are ‘members of that state’[5], in Malawi “[e]very citizen of Malawi was deemed a member of MCP.”[6] Accordingly it was considered the duty of each citizen to recognize allegiance to the national government of Malawi by the act of giving money for an MCP card on an annual basis. The cost was minimal at about fifty cents. There was no central registry of MCP members as a result of giving money for an MCP card. In fact the cards were handed out and individuals were left to complete them on their own as they saw fit, if they filled them in at all.[6-7]
MCP Membership
Membership in the MCP was not determined by giving money for an MCP card. “Every Malawian was a member of the MCP by virtue of birth.”[8] Because of this, during the annual fee-based distribution of MCP cards to Malawians they were also issued to mothers for their newborns, and in some cases to expectant mothers for their unborn child. Accordingly, it is a fabrication to say paying the fee to be handed a blank MCP card was joining the MCP as a member. If a person was born to a native Malawian in Malawi that person was by virtue of birth a member of the MCP.
The persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses living in Malawi at the time was a direct result of them refusing to give money for these MCP cards when they were presented. According to the Watchtower organization, the reason for that refusal was that “they can give their allegiance only to Jehovah God and his kingdom”.[9] This is what Watchtower had taught them.[10]
Betrayal? Let readers decide
In effect Jehovah’s Witnesses suffered rape and murder in Malawi because they were led to believe it sinful to pledge allegiance to their national government. Watchtower taught those Witnesses to believe that way.
During the very period Malawians were suffering for refusing to “give their allegiance” to anyone other than “to Jehovah,” Watchtower’s top leadership were all pledging allegiance to the Government of the United States.[10]
Marvin Shilmer
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References:
1. Malawi Constitution.
2. “In 1974 the party constitution stated unequivocally that the MCP was the government of the country.”—(Area Handbook for Malawi, by Harold D. Nelson et al., 1974, p. 158.)
3. “In Dr Banda’s Malawi the party and government were one and the same, and the separation between the ruling party and government is still not fully recognized in Malawi.”—(At the Crossroads — Freedom of Expression in Malawi, The Final Report of the 1999 ARTICLE 19 Malawi Election Media Monitoring Project by Dr. Diana Cammack, International Centre Against Censorship, March 2000, p. 47.)
4. “The MCP constitutes the Government”.—(Malawi at the Crossroads: The Post-colonial Political Economy, by Guy C. Z. Mhone edito, Sapes Books, Harare, 1992, p. 69-70.)
5: "citizen... 2. A member of a state, an enfranchised inhabitant of a country, as opposed to an alien; in U.S., a person, native or naturalized, who has the privilege of voting for public offices, and is entitled to full protection in the exercise of private rights."—(Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition 1989)
6. See: Malawi Congress Party—structure, membership and party card distribution during the Presidency of Kamuzu Banda by Boniface Thawapo, Mzuzu, Malawi, 2010, p. 4.
7. See: Malawi Congress Party Card
8. Chinsinga, B., The Interface between Tradition and Modernity, Civilisations, Vol., 54. No. 1, p. 263.
9. The Watchtower, February 1, 1968, p. 73.
10. See: Jehovah's Witnesses and National Oaths of Allegiance
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