16 Facts About Orton Chirwa

Orton Chirwa was a lawyer and political leader in colonial Nyasaland and after independence became Malawi's Minister of Justice and Attorney General.

Orton Chirwa was educated at Fort Hare University in South Africa.

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.

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

Orton Chirwa became the first president of the Malawi Congress Party, a successor-party to the NAC formed on 30 September 1959.

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

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

Orton Chirwa was named Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, in Dr Banda's interim administration which took office in 1962.

Orton Chirwa 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.

Orton Chirwa 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.

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

An unsigned statement said to have been made by Orton Chirwa, but repudiated by him, and a transcript said to have been made of a taped interview he had given were admitted as evidence.

The death sentences were commuted, but Orton Chirwa later died in prison.

Vera Orton Chirwa was released from prison in 1993 after over 11 years in prison, mostly in solitary confinement.

In Zomba Prison Orton Chirwa was held in solitary confinement and not allowed any outside contact.

Orton Chirwa died in his cell 3 weeks later at the age of 73.