{"id":19369,"date":"2021-10-12T18:13:46","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T18:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=19369"},"modified":"2021-10-12T16:18:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T16:18:00","slug":"kakwenza-named-this-years-international-writer-of-courage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/kakwenza-named-this-years-international-writer-of-courage","title":{"rendered":"Kakwenza named this year\u2019s International Writer of Courage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Uganda<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Ugandan novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija has been named this year\u2019s International Writer of Courage by Tsitsi Dangarembga.<\/p>\n

The award is part of the PEN Pinter prize, which goes to an author deemed to have fulfilled Harold Pinter\u2019s aspiration to \u201cdefine the real truth of our lives and our societies\u201d.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s PEN Pinter winner, the Zimbabwean writer and activist Dangarembga, chose Rukirabashaija as the International Writer of Courage, an award for an author who has been persecuted for speaking out about their beliefs, with whom she will share her prize, The Guardian reports.<\/p>\n

Rukirabashaija is the author of the novel The Greedy Barbarian, which takes on themes of high-level corruption in a fictional country. He was arrested on April 13, 2020 in Uganda, and held for seven days, during which time he was interrogated about his fiction and allegedly subjected to torture. Rukirabashaija details this treatment, which PEN described as \u201cinhumane and degrading\u201d, in his latest work Banana Republic: Where Writing is Treasonous.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Africa, when you write fiction, especially political fiction, such as the political allegory Animal Farm by George Orwell, the leaders will always think that one is writing about them. Of course, every dictator will suspect that the writer meant to embarrass him,\u201d Rukirabashaija writes. \u201cYoweri Museveni, the president of Uganda, felt that it was him that I had written about and so he sent his hoodlums to arrest and torture me in order to hamper my creativity. The idea was to completely stop me from being creative.\u201d<\/p>\n

On 20 April last year Rukirabashaija was charged with \u201can act likely to spread the infection of disease [Covid-19], contrary to Section 171 of the Penal Code Act, Cap 120\u201d, and remanded in custody to Busesa government prison. After his discharge, he was arrested again on 18 September, and released on 21 September 2020 on police bond, pending investigation for the offence of \u201cinciting violence and promoting sectarianism\u201d, charges PEN said are believed to relate to his writings. He remains on police bond, and is required to report to the police on a fortnightly basis.<\/p>\n

PEN said it was \u201cgravely concerned\u201d about the physical safety and welfare of Rukirabashaija, adding that the writer has informed his lawyers that he is still undergoing treatment for injuries he suffered during his detention in April 2020. \u201cHe has also reported that he and his family are constant targets of extrajudicial surveillance by individuals believed to be state security agents,\u201d said the free speech organisation. \u201cPEN condemns the unlawful arrest, detention and ongoing harassment of Kakwenza Rukirabashaija.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rukirabashaija congratulated Dangarembga on her win, and thanked her \u201cwholeheartedly\u201d for choosing to share the prize with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it weren\u2019t for PEN, I would still be somewhere in prison \u2013 perhaps forgotten,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was hanging on chains in the dungeons, I swore to my tormentors that I would never write again if they gave me a chance to live \u2013 as if they were some deities or God. Truth is, I survived death. I appreciate PEN for advocating for my freedom of expression and the different centres all over the world that sent in lovely messages of courage. I received the messages with smiles even though I was in horrendous pain.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. Ugandan novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija has been named this year\u2019s International Writer of Courage by Tsitsi Dangarembga. The award is part of the PEN Pinter prize, which goes to an author deemed to have fulfilled Harold Pinter\u2019s aspiration to \u201cdefine the real truth of our lives and our societies\u201d. This year\u2019s PEN Pinter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":19368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,8],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-19369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-culture-and-art","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nKakwenza named this year\u2019s International Writer of Courage - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ugandan novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija has been named this year\u2019s International Writer of Courage by Tsitsi Dangarembg ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/kakwenza-named-this-years-international-writer-of-courage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kakwenza named this year\u2019s International Writer of Courage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ugandan novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija has been named this year\u2019s International Writer of Courage by Tsitsi Dangarembg ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/kakwenza-named-this-years-international-writer-of-courage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-10-12T18:13:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/10\/img-6165b51f7f7fe.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/kakwenza-named-this-years-international-writer-of-courage#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/kakwenza-named-this-years-international-writer-of-courage\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Kakwenza named this year\u2019s International Writer of Courage\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-12T18:13:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/kakwenza-named-this-years-international-writer-of-courage\"},\"wordCount\":543,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/kakwenza-named-this-years-international-writer-of-courage#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/10\/img-6165b51f7f7fe.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"culture and art\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/kakwenza-named-this-years-international-writer-of-courage#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/kakwenza-named-this-years-international-writer-of-courage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/kakwenza-named-this-years-international-writer-of-courage\",\"name\":\"Kakwenza named this year\u2019s International Writer of Courage - 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