Orton Chirwa

Orton Chirwa (30 January 1919 – 20 October 1992) was a lawyer and political leader in colonial Nyasaland and after independence became Malawi's Minister of Justice and Attorney General.

After a dispute with Malawi's autocratic President Hastings Kamuzu Banda, he and his wife Vera were exiled.

After being kidnapped abroad they were tried in Malawi on charges of treason and sentenced to death.

Amnesty International named the couple prisoners of conscience.

In 1951 he wrote a long memorandum arguing against federation with Southern Rhodesia which was presented to Colonial Secretary James Griffiths and Commonwealth Relations Secretary Patrick Gordon-Walker during their visit to Nyasaland, in August and September 1951, to Gauge Africans' sentiments on this subject.

During the Lancaster House Conference convened in 1952 to discuss federation, wearing academic robes he "captivated crowds with his carefully argued attacks on the federal plan at village markets and meeting halls."

He had by this time already been in correspondence for four years with Hastings Banda, who was to become the president of the country after independence.

Despite widespread opposition, Nyasaland was integrated into the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1953.

In 1954, Chirwa joined with Charles Matinga and Andrew Mponda in forming the short-lived Nyasaland Progressive Association, dedicated to working within the new reality of the federation.

During 1954 - 1956, approximately, Chirwa was an instructor at Domasi Teacher Training College, where, along with David Rubadiri and Alec Nyasulu, he reportedly was active in infusing his students with nationalist political consciousness.

In 1959, the British Colonial Government banned the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) and arrested most of the political party's leaders, including Orton Chirwa and Banda in a mass swoop known as Operation Sunrise.

Orton Chirwa was detained in Khami Jail near Bulawayo in Southern Rhodesia for a short time before, on 1 August 1959, being released.

He became the first president of the Malawi Congress Party(MCP), a successor-party to the NAC formed on 30 September 1959.

There was some opposition to this appointment, notably from Kanyama Chiume, who considered him tainted by his previous association with the Federation-tolerant Nyasaland Progressive Association.

It has been suggested that the British government might have harbored hopes of Chirwa taking the leadership reins as a moderate nationalist, but it soon became clear that he was merely "keeping the seat warm" for Banda.

In November 1959 when he visited Iain Macleod, the Colonial Secretary in the Conservative government under Harold Macmillan, he made clear that MCP would only negotiate independence with Banda as its head.

Three days after Banda was released from Gwelo Prison on 2 April 1960, Orton Chirwa together with other NAC leaders invited him to stand for President of the MCP.

Harold Macmillan visited Nyasaland in 1960, and Chirwa organized a protest on 25 January in Blantyre which was noted in the British newspapers for its rowdiness.

During the run-up to elections in 1962 and again in 1963, he was vocal in his condemnation of attempts by other Africans to form political parties in opposition to the MCP, with himself and David Rubadira by this time openly advocating totalitarian rule by the MCP.

Orton Chirwa was named Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, (a position slightly short of Minister) in Dr. Banda's interim administration which took office in 1962.

Ironically, the Chirwas were tried by a "traditional" court of the kind whose introduction Orton himself had championed in 1962.

Both lawyers, they conducted their own defence as traditional courts did not allow defence lawyers in a trial lasting two months in front of judges appointed by Dr. Banda.

This case demonstrated the deficiencies in the system.

In 1963, he threatened to bring charges against the Nyasaland Times under the Sedition Act because of that newspaper's reporting on opposition political parties.

Chirwa stood down and Dr. Banda took over the leadership of the Malawi Congress Party which subsequently led Malawi to independence in 1964.

In the run-up to the 1964 National Assembly elections, he was active in promoting the use of "traditional courts" as an alternative to the existing judiciary, a controversial move in that these courts were subject to significant political influence, and was heavily criticised by the Chief Justice for this and by the Governor, Glyn Jones, for failing to investigate and prosecute hundreds of cases of politically motivated intimidation, in the form of assaults, murders, arson and crop destruction, as well as cases of intimation against Jehovah's Witnesses.

He became independent Malawi's Minister of Justice and Attorney General in 1964, but resigned after a short time along with other ministers in the Cabinet Crisis of 1964.

Attempting a reconciliation with Banda in the aftermath, he was badly beaten up by Banda's bodyguard after a meeting with Banda at Government House.

On 23 October 1964, sub-Chief Timbiri from Chirwa's Nkahata Bay constituency, was murdered in Zomba.

Police said they had evidence Chirwa was involved.

He fled to Dar es Salaam early in November, together with his wife, Vera Chirwa.

Forced by Banda's authoritarian policies to leave Malawi, the Chirwas settled in Tanzania where Orton taught and practised law.

He formed a new political party, the Malawi Freedom Movement, which appears to have had little active support inside Malawi, a one-party state with Banda its president for life.

During a visit to Zambia with their youngest son, Fumbani, the Chirwas were kidnapped and arrested on Christmas Eve 1981 in eastern Zambia by Malawi security forces and taken back to Malawi on charges of high treason, although it was alleged they were trying to enter Malawi.

At their trial, the Chirwas claimed that they had been abducted from Zambia in December 1981.

This, and the charge that they had conspired to overthrow the government outside Malawi, should have meant that the traditional courts had no jurisdiction.

At the end of their appeal in 1983, the minority of the appellate judges that had legal training opposed the guilty verdict, but it was over-ruled by the majority composed of traditional chiefs.

After spending nearly eleven years on death row in Malawi, Orton Chirwa died in prison on 20 October 1992.

The early life of Orton Edgar Ching'oli Chirwa is sparsely documented.

He was educated at Fort Hare University in South Africa.