Zimbabwe author Tsitsi Dangarembga has conviction for protest overturned

Tsitsi Dangarembga said she fell foul of the ruling party’s ‘apparent project of hijacking all political power in Zimbabwe’. Photograph: Daniel Roland/AFP/Getty Images

Zimbabwean author and activist Tsitsi Dangarembga has had her conviction for inciting violence by staging a peaceful protest overturned.

The critically acclaimed writer was given a six-month suspended sentence and fined 70,000 Zimbabwean dollars (£170) in September 2022 for staging a protest calling for political reform. During the 2020 protest, alongside fellow activist Julie Barnes, Dangarembga held a placard inscribed: “We want better. Reform our institutions.”