NJ ‘revolutionary’
Suburban gal now a symbol in Zimbabwe
Martha O’Donovan is an unlikely African revolutionary.
The New Jersey native grew up in the comfortable suburb of Bridgewater, went on to New York University and became a Fulbright scholar, focusing on how young men and women express themselves through music.
Three years ago, as part of the prestigious program, she set off to Africa, first for Zambia, then South Africa and, last year, Zimbabwe’s capital city, Harare, where she worked for a satirical news organization and managed a bar called Mars.
Along her journey, O’Donovan, now 25, developed a taste for activism and, like many brassy Americans, let her political thoughts be known via Twitter.
“We are being led by a selfish and sick man,” she is accused of tweeting from the Twitter account @matigary, referring to then-dictator Robert Mugabe. She’s also accused of retweeting a post calling Mugabe a “goblin.”
For that, O’Donovan was accused of “undermining authority or insulting” Mugabe — and faces up to 20 years in the slammer.
She was thrown in Chikurubi women’s prison — called the country’s worst penitentiary by Zimbabwe Today — and released this month on $1,000 bail.
Now, fellow activists have taken up her cause, arguing that expanded human rights in Zimbabwe hangs on the outcome of her case, and others like it.
“Martha became a symbol for free expression in Zimbabwe,” said Samm Farai Monro, an activist and creative director at Magamba Network, where O’Donovan worked as a project manager.
As protests reached a fever pitch against Mugabe and the country’s economy crumbled, Monro and fellow activists adopted the hashtag #freemartha and demanded her release.
After the inauguration of Emmerson Mnanagagwa as the country’s new president on Friday, activists are cautiously optimistic that draconian laws against freedom of expression will be lifted.
“When Martha was arrested, you suddenly had thousands of people coming out to protest and to demand her release,” said activist Evan Mawarire. “It really showed how desperate the Mugabe regime had become, cracking down on even the hint of opposition on social media.”
Mawarire, an evangelical pastor who spent time in a maximum-security prison and months in exile in the US before returning to Zimbabwe earlier this year, is being tried under the same treason law as O’Donovan, Section 33 of the Criminal Law Act.
He, too, is accused of insulting the president and attempting to overthrow the government, after sparking national protests last year when he decried government corruption and human rights abuses under the hashtag #ThisFlag.
Mawarire is due back in court on Wednesday, and legal analysts are closely watching his case, in part because it may determine what happens to O’Donovan when she returns to court on Dec. 8.
“The law is unconstitutional,” lawyer Roselyn Hanzi told The Post, adding that the Zimbabwean constitution allows for protest and dissent but the criminal code forbids it when it comes to the office of the president.
Hanzi is executive director of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, a nonprofit that is supporting both Mawarire and O’Donovan in their legal battles.
Hanzi refused comment on O’Donovan’s case, but said that of the 150 cases tried under Section 33 since 2002, none have been successful.
“So far all of the cases tried under that law have been withdrawn,” she said. “But we don’t know what is going to happen now.”
Zimbabwe’s new leader, who was also its former vice president, is known as “the Crocodile” and was the chief enabler of many of the human-rights abuses committed under Mugabe’s 37-year regime.
O’Donovan has described the charges against her as “baseless and malicious,” and her family and friends have refused comment, pending the outcome of her case.
A federal official told The Post that the State Department is working to help her.