Immigration Problem for Zimbabwaean Writer - threatens to pull out of Edinburgh festival

The headline is "African poet to pull out of book festival" and it tells of Chenjerai Hove, a Zimbabwaen poet turned away from the UK by immigration officials. His leverage was to threaten to pull out of Edinburgh Festival, later in the year, to which he has also been invited. The Festival is supporting him in his appeal:

Hove is billed as one of the major speakers at August’s Edinburgh International Book Festival and organisers have expressed concern over his possible decision to pull out.

Festival director Catherine Lockerbie said: “We invited Chenjerai to talk as part of the Imprisoned Writers series firstly because he is a writer of great merit and secondly because he is a perfect example of someone who has been persecuted by the state because of words.

“If he were prevented from coming it would be an extraordinary irony because the series, and indeed the whole of the festival, is about promoting freedom of expression and of the imagination.”