KEMI SEBA BURNS FRENCH PASSPORT

Pan-Africanist Kémi Séba has burned his French passport after authorities threatened to revoke it. The French-born Beninese activist performed the stunt at a press conference at the weekend. He also aimed a fiery speech at the French state, claiming it treated Black people ‘like dogs.’

Séba's strong anti-imperialist views on Africa and the Caribbean have long been a source of irritation for Paris. He’s the founder of the international Pan-African organisation, Urgences Panafricanistes, and has travelled the world fighting French neo-colonialism. In 2018, he set fire to CFA franc banknotes in Senegal to protest the use of the French colonial currency.

Clearly, his activism got too much for French authorities, who recently sent him a letter stating: “A French person who actually behaves as a national of a foreign country may, if he has the nationality of that country, be declared to have lost French nationality by decree with the assent of the Conseil d'État.”

But should they make threats like this? Séba makes his views loud a clear. Give us yours.