Court Date for Zimbabwean Author Tsitsi Dangarembga

Required to appear in court on Friday, award-winning and renowned Zimbabwean author, Tsitsi Dangarembga — facing charges for disturbing the peace and inciting violence following her arrest at anti-government Harare-based prohibited protests in June. The arrest took place days after her latest novel, 'This Mournable Body,' was included in the long list of nominees for the Booker Prize. 

The Cambridge-educated writer, who was released on bail July 1st and is the only female writer from Zimbabwe to have won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, has been recently using her word-weaving talents to call for government reform in the country.

Two years after coming into power, President Emmerson Mnangagwa is accused of using the Covid-19 pandemic to repress political opposition and free speech in the media, as over 60 people have been arrested for staging demonstrations to call out corruption and national economic stagnation.

Among others, two notable arrests in recent months were of prominent journalist Hopewell Chin'ono and Fadzayi Mahere, an advocate for the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance, Zimbabwe's main opposition party.