Harvard Graduate Acquitted in Malawi

Two months after being arrested in his native Malawi for blowing his car horn in public protest of the African nation’s government, Danga K. Mughogho ’94 was acquitted of traffic charges Thursday.

Mughogho attributed his acquittal to the international attention the case received and to a recent Malawi high court decision that upheld the right to hold peaceful demonstrations.

On campus, the Harvard African Student Alumni Network (HASAN) and the Harvard African Student Association (HASA) led the efforts to clear Mughogho of the charges against him.

HASAN, along with many of Mughogho’s former classmates, organized petitions and a teach-in to raise awareness about his case. They also asked alumni around the world to petition in their respective countries.

“Having so much international attention focused on the case made it more difficult for them to circumvent the rule of law,” said Derrick N. Ashong ’97, a first-year graduate student and the coordinator of the HASAN Political Action Group. “The government had no case but if no one is paying any attention, governments railroad people all the time.”

HASA contacted news agencies to publicize the case, distributed fliers detailing the case and spoke, along with representatives of the Black Students Association, to University President Lawrence H. Summers.

“Danga’s case shows that a little action can go a long way concerning cases in Africa,” said HASA Co-President Uzodinma C. Iweala ’04. “A lot of people on campus didn’t know about Danga’s situation or the political unrest in Malawi. A lot of people don’t even know where Malawi is.”

Mughogho, a former Mather House resident who is now northern regional chair of the Malawi Forum for Unity and Development, joked that the power of the “H-bomb” had been decisive in his case.

“That’s what Harvard people do,” he said. “They become influential people.”

Mughogho said he estimates about 80 percent of e-mails and letters on his behalf received by the U.S. Embassy and by the public prosecutor’s office in Malawi came from people associated with Harvard.

Two months ago, Mughogho was arrested in the northern Malawi city of Mzuzu while loudly blowing his car horn in traffic. Mughogho said he meant to protest President Bakili Muluzi’s violations of the constitution, which he said include banning demonstrations and trying to run for a third term.

Police interrogated and jailed Mughogho for two days on charges of public demonstration and traffic violations. The charges were then reduced to a traffic violation, for which Mughogho was brought to court on Thursday.

Mughogho said he was surprised by the sympathy of the judge in his case.

“[The judge] said because my character was not under question and because I had no prior conviction, he saw no reason to convict me on this charge,” Mughogho said.

The magistrate not only acquitted Mughogho but also criticized the behavior of the police who arrested him.

“Tacitly, he was saying ‘You were demonstrating, and I recognize that,’” Mughogho said.

At the trial, Mughogho testified in his own defense, admitting that he had blown his horn loudly and describing his “issues with the current Malawi government,” including its control of public broadcasts, its failure to reform education and health care and its sale of much-needed food stores to pay off debts.

“I described my opinion, which is basically that the government is doing a bad job in basically every area,” he said.

Mughogho’s lawyers also called a second witness, Lenard Njikho, who testified that he was fined but not arrested when he committed a traffic violation.

Though his actual horn-blowing garnered little attention, Mughogho’s subsequent arrest became a point of international controversy.

“The demonstration wasn’t even that successful...yet out of it I have gotten all this mileage,” Mughogho said. “They really did feel this international pressure.”

Mughogho said he was able to “personalize” the issue of government abuses in Malawi for the rest of the world.

“These kind of causes appeal to people who are well-educated and liberal,” he said, “but it needs to be made personal.”

And his case has taught citizens in Malawi—who, he said, are used to the one-party state system which existed there until six years ago—that they can affect government policies, Mughogho said.

“A lot of people in Malawi have been sensitized to the pressures they can bring to bear,” he said.

He said he thinks that there will be more protests and increased civic participation in his country in the future but that there is much work to be done before there is effective multi-party democracy.

“All the politicians are still old-school. They learned all the politics in the one-party state days,” Mughogho said. “It’s a learning process.”