“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.”