The 42-year-old pan-Africanist activist Kemi Seba, real name Stellio Gilles Robert Capo Chichi, has been jailed in France many times for inciting racial hatred. The reason for the arrest on Monday was not immediately clear.
Seba, a radical black power activist born in France to Beninese parents, has been accused of anti-Semitism on numerous occasions. He lost his French nationality in July.
In March, the Essonne prefecture attempted to prohibit Seba from holding a conference.
In the immediate aftermath, Kemi Seba posted a video online in which he burnt what he identified as his French passport, according to the daily L’Essor de la gendarmerie.
How did Kemi Seba Incite racial hatred?
Seba was the former leader of the Tribu Ka, a small group that claimed to be anti-Semitic and pushed for the separation of blacks and whites until being disbanded by the French government in 2006.
He currently leads the Urgences Panafricanistes group and has a significant social media presence.
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Seba has openly expressed support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying “he doesn’t have the blood of slavery and colonization on his hands”.
Since the beginning of August, he has carried a diplomatic passport given to him by Niger’s junta.
Seba announced on Facebook that the passport had been issued “in light of the fight I have been waging for Africa for 25 years, at the risk of my life.”
Kemi Seba has organized or participated in various demonstrations against the Financial Community of Africa (CFA franc) in recent years, during which he has been frequently arrested, expelled, or sent back.
Seba has also had run-ins with the law in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, and Guinea over perceived slights to their leaders.
Last year, MP Thomas Gassilloud, then chairman of the National Assembly’s defense committee, accused the activist of being a conduit for Russian propaganda” and supporting a foreign power that fuels anti-French sentiment.
