Tsitsi Dangarembga received the Norwegian Authors’ Union Freedom of Expression Award 2023 in Oslo, Norway on March 18, 2023.
The Norwegian Authors’ Union (Norwegian: Den norske Forfatterforening) is an association of Norwegian authors established to promote Norwegian literature and protect Norwegian authors’ professional and economic interests in 1893. It also works in solidarity with persecuted writers internationally.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary, the Norwegian Writers’ Association received an annual gift from the Ministry of Culture in the form of a Freedom of Expression Award. It was to be awarded annually to a Norwegian or foreign author who has distinguished themselves in their work for freedom of expression and tolerance in the broadest sense. Some of its previous winners have been Wole Soyinka (Nigeria), Izzat Ghazzawi (Palestine), and Dawit Isaak (Eritrea).
On March 13, the Norwegian Authors’ Union announced this year’s winner of the Freedom of Expression Award for 2022 to be Zimbabwean author, playwright, film director, and activist Tsitsi Dangarembga.
“We congratulate Tsitsi Dangarembga with the Freedom of Speech Prize 2022. The prize will be awarded at the Writers Association’s annual meeting on March 18. By giving the award to Dangarembga, [we] want to draw attention to the African continent and one of the countries (Zimbabwe) where freedom of expression is currently under great pressure. Zimbabwe has long been a country characterised by violence and political unrest. Dangarembga is a brave voice who deserves support for her civil courage and her work. She is a keen storyteller who has enriched the novel tradition with extremely lifelike and very present characters and a musical and effective no-nonsense language. It is an authorship that deserves many readers, also in this country,” they said. Read the whole statement by clicking here.
The Zimbabwean filmmaker and writer made her way to Oslo to receive the award this past Saturday. On receiving her award, she gave an address to the audience part of which stated,
“Good day everybody. I’m standing here to say thank you to the Norwegian Author’s Association for inviting me to their Annual General Meeting for the purpose of bestowing on me the Association’s 2022 Freedom of Expression Award.
Clearly, there would be no such award if there were no Association to present it. Therefore, I also thank all the Association’s members, for their engagement. I had occasion to look at the website, and saw the vast amount of work that the Association undertakes, including industry statistics, surveys and analysis; agreements and frameworks as well as member services – all to fulfil the Association’s core tasks of political influence in Norway and the world. As we know, effective action requires leadership. Therefore my thanks also go to Ms Heidi Marie Kriznik for the leadership that she provides to the Association. I would also like to acknowledge Ingvild Holvik’s generous spirit in nominating a very slow writer such as myself for this prestigious award.”
Read her full acceptance speech by clicking here.
The prize comes with a 200,000 Norwegian Kroner cash prize.
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