Branch Letter

Dear Kingdom Publishers:

Our brothers in Malawi are now experiencing another Siberia, another Nazi concentration camp, another Roman arena. “Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda, a staunch elder in Malawi’s Presbyterian Church of Central Africa,” as he was described in Time magazine of December 8, 1972, has again shown his hatred for Jehovah’s witnesses. Why? Because these Christians refuse to carry political party cards, with Banda’s picture and signature on them. It is a showdown! Banda insists they be his followers; Jehovah’s witnesses are determined to stand uncompromisingly for God’s kingdom!

The Witnesses from Malawi who were residing in Mozambique now have been driven out of that country because they refuse to shout ‘Viva Frelimo,’ in favor of the new dictator government there. Forced back into Malawi, about 4,800 of them fled to Zambia again. But on October 22, we learned, these brothers were repatriated to Malawi a second time.

So upward of 30,000 are now back in Malawi. They have been harassed and brutally persecuted. Hundreds have been stripped naked, severely beaten and have had itching beans rubbed into their wounds. Our sisters have been fiendishly raped. What atrocities!

The latest development: The police are rounding up Jehovah’s witnesses and putting them in detention camps. Another Siberia! Another Nazi concentration camp! Children are being separated from their mothers, the persecutors thinking that they can train them to be followers of a man rather than followers of Christ Jesus.

This is information that should go to the world! We have not read anything about it in the newspapers of America as yet, but the December 8 issue of Awake! will carry the whole story.

What can you do? The elders in each congregation are requested to select five capable brothers who have business letterheads, if possible, to write “His Excellency the Life President of Malawi Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda, Central Government Offices, Private Bag 301, Capital City, Lilongwe 3, Malawi, Central Africa,” and ask him a few questions as to his viewpoint of Christianity and why he treats humans the way he does. Let him know that you have heard about what is happening in Malawi.

It would be good if one or two of the five writers selected could get an airmail letter off to Banda right away. The others may want to wait until after they have read the December 8 Awake!

Another thing, try to have your newspaper publish an article about what is going on in Malawi. You can write a news release based on the Awake! material. The Society has given the United Press and other news agencies details, and we hope the facts will get into newspapers world wide.

What more can we do? Give it publicity by distributing the Awake! magazine; also keep it before Jehovah God in prayer as our early Christian brothers must have done when their brothers were thrown to the lions in the arena in Rome. Let us all be courageous and continue to preach the good news of the Kingdom until God’s government brings relief to his servants on the earth.

Your brothers,

BROOKLYN BRANCH OFFICE