Brown James Mpinganjira, popularly known as BJ is a Malawian Politician who used his 1986 detention to fight the injustices of the then one party state. He worked with others in prison and used their time to devise ways on how to change the direction of Malawi's political state. Mpinganjira was detained in 1986 and was released in 1991 due to international pressure. He began working for British council upon his release and received support from international community to form a pressure group and lobby for a referendum to decide whether Malawi was still to remain a one party state or become a multi party democracy. In the 1993 referendum, history was made at the polls when Malawians voted for multi party democracy. In the first multi party elections, Mpinganjira contested as Member of Parliament in his home town Mulanje. He won the parliamentary seat in 1994 and served as an MP for Mulanje Central for 15years. In the 15 years that he was in parliament, Mpinganjira had a colourful political career and is one of the best political masterminds in Malawi. He has contested once as a presidential candidate for National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 2004 and as a running mate in the Mgwirizano Coalition (MCP & UDF) in 2009. Early life Brown James Mpinganjira was born on 7 November 1950 to Dr James Mpinganjira and his wife Ella Mankhokwe Mpinganjira, a nurse, in Mulanje district, Southern Region of Malawi. Brown is the first born in a family of 9 children. He did his primary education at Chisitu Primary School and proceeded to do his secondary school at Blantyre Secondary School. He then trained as a journalist in Cologne, Germany and attained his Masters Degree in Mass Journalism from University of Leicester, England. Career Brown has worked at the state owned Malawi Broadcasting Corporation before becoming the Principle Information Officer in the Malawi Government Information Services Department in 1982. In 1985 he was promoted to Deputy Chief Information officer where he served for a year before being arrested and detained without charges. Detainee BJ was detained under the Kamuzu Banda regime when he was the Deputy Chief Information Officer in 1986 and spent time at Mikuyu Prison in Zomba until his release in 1991. While in prison Mpinganjira, together with other detainees began operations by seeking international intervention to end the one party system (And. After his release in