Chakufwa Chihana

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Chakufwa Chihana (b. 23 April 1939 - d. 12 June 2006) was a Malawian trade unionist and politician. He was born in Kawiluwilu, Malawi, on 23 April 1939 and died in Johannesburg, South Africa on 12 June 2006.

Chihana was a dissident during the rule of President Hastings Banda and consequently spent much of the 1970s and 1980s either in detention or in exile. He was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award in 1992.

He was instrumental in Banda's agreement to a referendum (on 17 June 1993) in which one-party rule was decisively rejected. In the ensuing general election Banda's party (MCP, Malawi Congress Party) lost power to Bakili Muluzi's United Democratic Front (UDF), with Chihana's new political party, the Alliance for Democracy (AFORD), placed third.

Chihana served two terms as vice-president (from 1994-6 and in 2003-4) to President Muluzi.

[edit] External links

• Nation obituary
• Guardian obituary
• Scotsman obituary