Christians Flee Cruel Persecution in Malawi
THOUSANDS of Christian men, women and children have fled the East African country of Malawi in recent weeks.
Nearly 11,600 flooded into neighboring Mozambique. A dispatch from Zambia to the London Daily Telegraph reported 8,925 had sought refuge in Zambia by the middle of October, with more continuing to arrive daily. Some had walked as much as 350 miles with only the possessions they could carry. The Times of Zambia said the country was faced with a “refugee crisis.” Still others had fled to Rhodesia.
Why this mass exodus of Christians from Malawi?
Confirmed reports by thousands of eye-witnesses gave a horrifying account of brutal persecution in that land, one seldom equaled in modern history. Among the thousands now living in the hastily constructed refugee camps, many showed the effects of vicious beatings and torture.
The United Nations High Commission for refugees sent representative Dr. Hugo Idoyaga to the Zambia-Malawi border. He reported “that many of the refugees bore cuts and gashes apparently inflicted by pangas, the huge knives common to East Africa.”—New York Times, October 22, 1972.
All these refugees were Jehovah’s witnesses. They formed the vast majority of some 23,000 African witnesses of Jehovah for whom Malawi had been home.
Suffering was not new to many of them. In 1967 an earlier wave of persecution had brought them intense hardships. Thousands of their homes, stores and places of worship were destroyed and looted, a number of the Witnesses were murdered, hundreds of their women were raped, some repeatedly. Their Christian activity, their Bible literature and meetings for worship were all placed under official ban.
Now, five years later, savage persecution has raged on an even larger scale than before. A countrywide effort has been made to destroy Jehovah’s witnesses as a united Christian group in Malawi, depriving them of all employment and the very means of feeding and housing themselves. Estimates of those killed run from ten known dead to as high as sixty.
Incredible as this may seem in this twentieth century, it is true. Read for yourself the eyewitness accounts of the sickening violence that has been taking place in Malawi. Then, consider whether this aggression can possibly be justified or not. We believe you will agree that a tragic crime against humanity has been committed there, one that cries for quick relief.
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News headlines in many places tell of Malawi’s persecution of Witnesses