Founding President of Malawi Congress Party, Orton Chirwa.
1. XMASS EVE OF 1963
A leader of an opposition coalition against MCP called Mbadwa Party Gilbert Pondeponde is brutally murdered by MCP hoodlums on Christmas eve of 1963 at his home in Chileka ahead of April 1964 elections whose registration period opened barely six days later.
On Christmas day of 1963, the sad news continued to spread across the nation engulfed in shock and grief about the assassination of the opposition leader.
2. XMASS EVE OF 1981
Orton Chirwa, his wife and son are abducted along the Zambia/Malawi border in Chipata and detained in Lilongwe.
The then Secretary General of MCP Bakili Muluzi announced on the radio MBC that the arrest of Orton Chirwa was a special Xmas present for the Life President Dr.Kamuzu Banda.
3. XMASS OF 1991
It had been barely two months since one party state demised in neighbouring Zambia after almost three decades ushering in multiparty democracy with Fredrick Chiluba as new head of state replacing Kenneth Kaunda.
By mid-December 1991, employees in various workplaces in Blantyre had received Christmas/New Year cards from anonymous sources written:
_Wishing you a happy Christmas and New Year full of joys of multiparty democracy._
Most of the recipients handed over such cards to their superiors who surrendered them to police as they were tantamount to be deemed seditious materials that would land recipients and superiors into jail without trial if they opted not to report this.
Barely three months after this, the catholic bishops issued a pastoral letter critical of a one-party state that was read in catholic churches across Malawi on 8 March 1992.
10 months later on 18 October 1992, Dr. Kamuzu Banda announced the date for a referendum.
Was the message on these Christmas/New Year cards a prophecy that came to pass or merely wishful thinking?
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