UK University Condemns Conviction Of Its Staff Member In Zimbabwe
The University of East Anglia (UEA) has condemned the conviction of a staff member and award-winning Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga for protesting government corruption.
Tsitsi Dangarembga, an international chair of creative writing at the university, was found guilty of “inciting public violence and breaching the peace”.
The conviction has also been condemned by human rights groups and writers’ associations.
Dangarembga and fellow activist Julie Gabriel Barnes were arrested in the Zimbabwean capital Harare in July 2020 while walking with placards protesting corruption. The placards said:
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The arrest was part of crackdowns by the state on human rights campaigners, including award-winning journalist Hopewell Chin’ono.
The judgement on Dangarembga and Barnes’ case was delayed several times until finally, on September 29, when the pair was given a suspended sentence of six months over the next five years on the condition they do not commit a similar offence.
They were also fined ZW$70 000 which is approximately £172.
The magistrate, Barbara Mateko, said the state had proved beyond doubt that the two had staged a demonstration with the intent to incite violence.
Norwich Evening News quotes a UEA spokesman as saying:
The University of East Anglia condemns in the strongest possible terms the conviction of Tsitsi Dangarembga in Zimbabwe.
We stand in solidarity with Tsitsi Dangarembga’s right to peaceful protest.
Along with [writers’ association] English and International PEN and Amnesty International, we fervently hoped for her immediate acquittal.
The staff involved in the International Chair programme said:
We write out of concern for and in solidarity with Tsitsi Dangarembga and the right to peacefully protest.
Peaceful protest is a human right and a freedom, one of expression.
We condemn this decision by the Zimbabwean authorities to convict Dangarembga, one of the most important writers ever to emerge from the African continent and indeed one of the most significant writers in the world today.
The Creative Writing programme at UEA calls for the immediate reversal of Tsitsi Dangarembga’s charge of inciting public violence that has been brought against her in Zimbabwe.
They reiterated Dangarembga’s right to peaceful protest, right of assembly and free expression of her views, under the law of Zimbabwe and international law.
