The country’s High Court has cleared renowned Zimbabwean novelist and filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga of organising an anti-government protest in 2020, for which she had previously been given a six-month suspended prison sentence and a fine.
“I can confirm that she has been acquitted,” her lawyer Harrison Nkomo said after her acquittal on Monday. “As her lawyers, we are grateful because she had not committed any offence in the first place.”
A lower court found Dangarembga guilty of violating COVID-19 guidelines by attending a public event with the purpose to provoke public violence in 2022. Julie Barnes, a friend and fellow demonstrator, who was also convicted guilty, was also on trial with her.
This came following a protest in July 2020 that criticised the government’s initiatives to combat corruption and a faltering economy. At the time, dozens of political activists were detained.
Nkomo claimed that the High Court judges delayed in providing the acquittal’s justifications.
The 64-year-old Dangarembga is a staunch opponent of President Emmerson Mnangagwa‘s administration. She has been battling against corruption and calling for reforms for many years. Throughout the trial, she argued that Zimbabweans have the right to demonstrate.
Not all demonstrators have received favourable treatment. Before this year’s general elections, Zimbabwean courts imposed a wave of harsh sentences on political activists. Additionally, activists and leaders of the opposition claim that the police are cracking down on dissenters.
On allegations of inciting violence, opposition leader Jacob Ngarivhume, who was detained concurrently with Dangarembga for organising protests, received a four-year prison sentence last week.
Nervous Conditions, Dangarembga’s debut book, took first place in the African category of the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1989. She was the first Black woman from Zimbabwe to publish an English-language novel. In 2020, her book This Mournable Body was considered for the Booker Prize.