When a crackdown prevented protests, a hashtag gave them a voice
Aug 17, 2020
4 minutes
When Zimbabwean activists began planning mass protests against corruption in mid-July, the country’s authorities turned to a familiar playbook to shut down their opposition.
They began rounding up government critics and arrested a prominent journalist, Hopewell Chin’ono, who had exposed a corruption scandal around the government’s purchase of personal protective equipment for health care workers. A new curfew – allegedly to prevent the spread of coronavirus – slid into place, preventing movement after 6 p.m. And on July 30, a day before the proposed marches, the police warned that participants would “be regarded as terrorists.”
The next morning, the streets were empty.
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