Prominent author denies inciting violence

Award-winning Zimbabwean novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga has denied charges of inciting violence at the opening of her trial in Harare over a 2020 protests. News24 reports that the author and filmmaker took the stand after a Harare magistrate dismissed her request to be allowed more time to prepare her defence. ‘We did not stop anybody or force anybody to engage in anything that we were doing,’ Dangarembga told the court. She staged the protest with a neighbour in the empty streets of the affluent Harare suburb of Borrowdale during the coronavirus lockdown. They were stopped while holding signs reading ‘We want better, reform our institutions’ and calling for the release of detained journalist Hopewell Chin'ono. Dangarembga is the author of three international award-winning novels, whose accolades include this year's Windham-Campbell Prizes.