Across South Africa, billboards depicting nine harrowing real stories about life in Zimbabwe can be seen. The billboards are part of a campaign by TBWA Hunt Lascaris in Johannesburg, conceptualised for The Zimbabwean newspaper to draw attention to the plight of the people in that country.
Titled “Give a voice to the voiceless”, the campaign aims to highlight the newspaper’s role in giving freedom of speech to the people of Zimbabwe. Featuring nine different images taken by photojournalists, the campaign directs viewers to The Zimbabwean’s website where the photographers tell of the conditions surrounding these photographs.
The campaign was conceived in response to a recent event in Zimbabwe where 46 people were arrested, detained and tortured for gathering to watch footage of political uprisings in North Africa. “Give a voice to the voiceless” is about telling the stories of ordinary Zimbabweans while also campaigning for the protection of the right to freedom of speech. The billboards are also a means of ensuring that the atrocities committed in Zimbabwe, and the hard realities of life there, remain topical.
The Zimbabwean is published in South Africa and the UK by exiled journalists from Zimbabwe. With more than a million Zimbabwean refugees living in South Africa and abroad, the newspaper aims to take an independent stance on current affairs in the Southern African country.
