"Tweeting and Reading Zimbabwe Today: A Conversation with Tinashe Mushakavanhu"

Join us for a conversation about contemporary politics and the arts in Zimbabwe with award-winning journalist Tinashe Mushakavanhu. In 2008, supporters of Zimbabwe's leading opposition party, the MDC, documented election results with cell phones, forcing the ruling party into a run-off and government of national unity. Since then, the role of electronic media has expanded, enabling new forms of civic engagement: a recent nation-wide general strike was successfully organized under the twitter hashtag #ThisFlag. As local print media wrestles with the rise of new media, Tinashe Mushakavanhu has been at the vanguard of a new generation of millennial writers leading and interpreting this transition. Through a rare window on the contemporary and future influence of "the word" in Zimbabwe, Mr. Mushakavanhu will discuss his on-line journalism and advocacy for richer reporting on Africa alongside his creative writing and editorial work with Professor Jaji (English), followed by an open discussion.

Tinashe Mushakavanhu is a writer and editor from Zimbabwe. If he is not reading books, or writing about books he is reading, he is busy tracking news about global politics, culture and technology on the social web. He was the first Online Editor to be appointed at Zimbabwe's oldest private newspaper, The Financial Gazette. He is currently a 2016 CNN Diversity Fellow. His ambition is to build the next big media company in Africa.