VIt was clear from the start that Tsitsi Dangarembga would face a show trial. During a trip to Europe by the Peace Prize winner in June this year, the judge issued an arrest warrant against her. But instead of staying in Germany with her children who live there, Tsitsi Dangarembga, supported by her husband, returned to her home country Zimbabwe to face the case personally.
She and fellow campaigner Julie Barnes were subpoenaed multiple times – only to find that the prosecutor could not be found or the judge was on vacation. Witnesses for the prosecution got bogged down in cross-examination and had to admit that evidence had been tampered with. In this way, the trial against Dangarembga demonstrates exactly the allegations she is making in her committed protest against the regime: the institutions are a farce. Occasionally, the semblance of a legal process is created when, following the British example, judges, prosecutors and the accused sit in one room. That’s it!
Advocate for an enlightened Africa
Yes, Tsitsi Dangarembga could have escaped. However, leaving Zimbabwe was out of the question for her. My impression after a long and moving conversation with her in Harare is that rarely has an advocate of an enlightened Africa fought with more passion for the cause. And is so persistent and fearless. Her artistic and intellectual ties to her home country of Zimbabwe are not only evident in her work. In her novel Auffallen, which partly contains biographical references, Dangarembga shows the traditional role of women in Zimbabwe. Hardly any access to education or work, no self-determination in lifestyle – what does it mean to break out of such structures? Tumbudzai Sigauke, the protagonist in “Breaking Out”, experiences violence, oppression and family alienation. Today’s Zimbabwe is also about shattered hopes.
The process, one gets the impression, is intended to set an example to discourage government critics from “anti-state” activities similar to those of Dangarembga. The allegation against Tsitsi Dangarembga is absurd. She just carried a placard calling for reforms in Zimbabwe. A poster for a better Zimbabwe is a free expression of opinion, which is also covered by the Zimbabwean Constitution and the African Human Rights Convention. In no constitutional state in the world would there have been a criminal trial for this. A conviction would be bizarre. In addition, the proceedings in Harare are being conducted before the Anti-Corruption Court. This reports directly to the President of Zimbabwe. There should still be someone talking about the independence of the judiciary.
There are plenty of reasons for protests in Zimbabwe
Many people inside and outside of Zimbabwe see the writer, filmmaker and peace prize winner as the torchbearer of the decades-long struggle against oppression and corruption. Since 2020, she has not only accused the disintegration of the social, political and economic order in a peaceful and broad-based manner, but also provided ideas for institutional reforms and strengthening freedom of expression.
There are plenty of reasons for protesting, since the Zimbabwean economic situation has been desolate for years, the state is corrupt and poverty is high. For a few years after the collapse of the Smith regime in 1979, former President Robert Mugabe was regarded as a beacon of hope for democratization and allowed himself to be celebrated as an anti-colonial freedom hero. But in order to stay in power, he exploited his country, massacred thousands and undermined Zimbabwe’s fledgling constitutional system. Large-scale expropriations of private land led to the collapse of Africa’s former breadbasket. After Mugabe’s death in 2019, the country continued to suffer from hyperinflation, poverty and clientelism under his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The regime feels challenged
Dangarembga’s core message, ‘A better and fairer Zimbabwe for all’, is not a call for revolution. However, the Zimbabwean regime seems to feel severely challenged by this. Two years and 29 tedious days of trial later, one thing is certain: not only was she resented for the 2020 demonstration, but the public prosecutor’s office accuses her of agitation for violence, breach of the peace and, moreover, “bigotry”. Although there is no evidence, the anti-corruption court appears to be aiming for a prison sentence.
The regime in Harare appears unperturbed by the international outrage over this process and the way it has gone. Dangarembga is a thorn in Mnangagwa’s side because she is not only Zimbabwe’s most famous writer, but a loud voice in the struggle for democracy and peace, freedom and human rights. She stands for all the persecuted and accused, for the oppressed and imprisoned, and once again freedom in Zimbabwe is in the dock.
For two years, hopes of an acquittal were repeatedly dashed by the changing judges, most recently on August 4th when the application to close the proceedings was rejected. The increasing length of the trial and the attrition tactics of the “anti-corruption court” may leave their mark, but Tsitsi Dangarembga remains unyielding. She will appear in the courtroom again in Harare on September 29th.
Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrennbergerformer Federal Minister of Justice and current member of the Bavarian Constitutional Court, observed the trial against the Peace Prize winner Tsitsi Dangarembga for the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.