#ZimbabweanLivesMatter: People stage solo social media protests against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe

The south African country of Zimbabwe is seeing country-wide solo protests on social media by Zimbabwean people against the human rights abuses in the country. Calling the Zimbabwean people to come out in support of movement #ZimbabweanLivesMatter, award winning filmmaker and author Tsitsi Dangarembga shared a picture on her Twitter handle with a post on how to make a placard with the hashtag slogan. The instructions also said the people to carry Zimbabwe national flag and post the picture online to spread awareness about the protests.

The latest surge of online solo protests is against the police brutality and opposition crackdown spreading in the country. The solo social media that started on Thursday was participated by a large number of Zimbabweans. Many protestors amid fear of attack by the Zimbabwe government covered their faces with masks to hide identity while many posted through different social media accounts. Human rights lawyer Doug Coltart, for instance posted a solo demonstration picture of a girl through his account. It said, “Show some love for this courageous lady who sent me her Solo Demo pic and asked me to post it for her. Yes, fear is real. But she didn’t let it stop her from taking action.”

The protests are gaining momentum in Zimbabwe against corruption, police brutality, economic meltdown, unemployment and human rights abuses in the country. Many celebrities have joined the movement #ZimbabweanLivesMatter, which include rappers, AKA, Ice Cube, actresses Pearl Thusi, and Thandie Newton. They have called for ending human rights abuses in the country. Former President of Botswana, Ian Khama has also joined the protests. In a Facebook post he called for people to pray for Zimbabwe as “the situation is deteriorating every day”.