The WT description of events at the time. There were a lot of articles around this time ;-
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w73 5/1 pp. 264-266 Malawi’s Citizens Face a Vital Decision ***
"CHRISTIANS throughout the entire world have been deeply stirred by the violent persecution that has recently raged against Jehovah’s Christian witnesses in the southeast African nation of Malawi.
Every citizen of this country, which is about the size of New York state, is affected. For at least one person out of every 194 of the population of 4,530,000 is among those persecuted.
The question therefore confronting each citizen is, Will I stand for what is right and against oppression? Will I be one of those Christ spoke of, saying: "Whoever gives one of these little ones [a Christian disciple] only a cup of cold water to drink because he is a disciple, I tell you truly, he will by no means lose his reward"?—Matt. 10:42.
Jehovah’s witnesses are well known as peace-loving people, obedient to the laws of the nation in which they live. Nevertheless, in Malawi they have been beaten, tortured and some of them killed. Thousands were driven out of the country in peril of their lives, leaving all their possessions behind. More than 20,000 fled the country, 19,000 of them to Zambia on Malawi’s western border, where they were placed in camps as unwanted visitors. Because of the hardships, 350 persons, many of them children, died.
But this was not enough to satisfy their persecutors. Under false representations that they were being moved to healthier camps in Zambia, the refugees were loaded into buses and trucks and taken back into Malawi, where they were met by Malawian armed forces and dispersed to their villages. Twenty-one of the presiding overseers of congregations were imprisoned immediately after being sent back to Malawi; three more Witnesses were later jailed in the Rumphi district.
Some had nails driven through their hands; others were jabbed with sewing needles. One group of four Witnesses were taken to twelve different branch offices of the Malawi Congress Party, being forced to walk a distance of forty miles and not being given any food for four days.
Now many of them have been forced to flee again, the majority southward to Mozambique, where more than 34,000 are now living in twelve refugee camps.
Why this hatred and violent treatment of Christians in a country whose Life President, Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda, is a religious man, an elder of the Presbyterian Church?
The pretext used for the persecution is the fact that the Witnesses refuse to buy political party cards. But, as Guy Wright points out in the San Francisco Examiner, in its issue of October 17, 1972:
"A religious war is being fought between the Jehovah’s Witnesses and a small African country called Malawi.
"It’s a very one-sided war, pitting force against faith. . . . You might regard them [the Witnesses] as model citizens. They pay taxes diligently, tend the sick, battle illiteracy."
That the basic reason behind the persecution is religious, note the report of Life President Banda’s speech at the 1972 Malawi Congress Party Annual Convention, held September 10-16, 1972—at what place? The Catholic Secondary School at Zomba. Calling Jehovah’s witnesses the "Devil’s Witnesses," Banda "questioned why they do not go to the Church and ask for help from God when in trouble."—Malawi News, September 19, 1972.
Why do Jehovah’s witnesses refuse to buy the party cards? It is not because of any political leanings on their part, for they are absolutely neutral toward all political movements. With them it is solely a matter of conscience and God’s law. Because of their exclusive devotion to Jehovah God and his kingdom they refrain from taking sides with worldly factions, as Jesus said of his followers:"
