The Tanzanian Nobel Prize winner for literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah, has strongly condemned the sentencing of the award-winning Zimbabwean writer Tsitsi Dangarembga.

"It's another example of authoritarian governments trying to bully strong voices," Gurnah said Friday ahead of the opening of the Macondo Literary Festival in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

Dangarembga was sentenced to six months probation, suspended for five years, by a Zimbabwean court on Thursday. Two years ago, the author, who was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 2021, took part in protests critical of the government. Many observers of the trial see the court's verdict as an attempt to silence Dangarembga for five years.