TSITSI DANGAREMBGA

World-renowned author Tsitsi Dangarembga has been found guilty of promoting public violence in her home country of Zimbabwe for participating in a largely peaceful anti-government protest in 2020.

The Berlin International Film Festival is opening with a new movie from French director Francois Ozon and a pared-down format designed to bring audiences back but reduce COVID-19 infection risks.

Zimbabwean writer and filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga has been awarded a prestigious German prize in honor of a body of work that has made her a prominent African literary voice.

LONDON – Scottish writer Douglas Stuart won the Booker Prize for fiction Thursday for “Shuggie Bain,” a novel about a boy’s turbulent coming of age in hardscrabble 1980s Glasgow that was turned down by 32 publishers before being picked up. Stuart, 44, won the prestigious 50,000 pound ($66,000) award for his first published novel, the product of a decade of work. Stuart dedicated the book to own mother, who died when he was 16. Though there have been many British winners of the Booker Prize, most of them English, Stuart is the first Scottish victor since James Kelman took the 1994 prize with “How Late it Was, How Late” — a book Stuart has called an inspiration. Mantel won the Booker for both its predecessors, “Wolf Hall” and “Bring up the Bodies,” and had been widely tipped for the hat trick.

Recent arrests and alleged assaults against women by state agents in Zimbabwe have again brought international attention to the country’s long history of violence against women. On July 31, award-winning Zimbabwean novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga and her friend Julie Barnes participated in a demonstration against government corruption, bad governance, human rights abuses and a worsening economic crisis. He is on bail for allegedly burning a car belonging to the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party. On July 24, UN human rights office spokesperson Liz Throssell expressed concern about Zimbabwean authorities using the COVID-19 crisis to crack down on freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. The post Critics: Zimbabwe Stepping Up Arrests and Assaults Against Female Protesters appeared first on Zenger News.

FILE - In this July 22, 2020, file photo, Zimbabwean writer Tsitsi Dangarembga demonstrates for the release of Zimbabwe Journalist Hopewell Chin'ono in Harare. Dangarembga who was arrested during anti-government protests is among six finalists announced Tuesday, Sept, 15, 2020 for the Booker Prize for fiction. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi, File)LONDON – A Zimbabwean writer who was arrested during anti-government protests is among six finalists announced Tuesday on a diverse list of contenders for the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction. Founded in 1969, the prize is open to English-language authors from around the world, but until 2014 only British, Irish and Commonwealth writers were eligible. Mantel won the Booker for both its predecessors, “Wolf Hall” and “Bring up the Bodies” and had been widely tipped for a third victory.

Zimbabwe journalist Hopewell Chin'ono appears at the magistrates courts while handcuffed in Harare, Wednesday, July, 22, 2020. More than 60 people have been arrested so far in the continuing clampdown, said Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, which is providing lawyers for the arrested people. Zimbabwes main opposition party, the MDC Alliance, says dozens of its officials have been arrested or have gone into hiding. Human rights groups accuse President Emmerson Mnangagwas administration of clamping down on dissent under the guise of enforcing anti-COVID-19 lockdown rules. The ongoing arrests are worrying, said Dewa Mavhinga, Human Rights Watch director for Southern Africa.

HARARE An internationally known Zimbabwean author and several other people have been released on bail on Saturday, after spending a night in police cells for protesting against the government. The activists included writer Tsitsi Dangarembga and Fadzayi Mahere, the spokeswoman of the main opposition MDC Alliance party. Mnangagwas government is accused of using COVID-19 as a cover to clamp down on dissent. Police and government spokespeople have dismissed the allegations, even as a prominent journalist and a politician behind the protest have spent close to two weeks in detention. In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city, the High Court on Saturday ordered the police to produce within 72 hours Tawanda Muchehiwa, the nephew of investigative journalist Mduduzi Mathuthu.

(AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)HARARE Scores of people were arrested Friday in Zimbabwe as hundreds of military troops as well as police attempted to thwart an anti-government protest, with streets empty and many people hiding indoors. Organizers said demonstrators originally planned to protest alleged government corruption but instead targeted the ruling political party, using the hashtag #ZANUPFmustgo.Tensions are rising in Zimbabwe as the economy implodes. Police arrested scores of people who tried to hold low-key protests, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said. The normally teeming downtown capital, Harare, was deserted as soldiers and police patrolled and manned checkpoints. I have never seen these security people so effective, and the people so compliant, even during those days of the complete lockdown."