An interview with a prominent black nationalist will not be aired on French TV due to the pro-Russian views of its interviewee, Le Monde reports. Kémi Séba, a vocal advocate of pan-africanism and opponent of French foreign policy in Africa, will not be broadcast on France’s The Parliamentary Channel (LCP), which had intended to release a programme on contemporary African politics Sunday, March 12th.
His deplatforming came after a public campaign by government MP Thomas Gassilloud, who accused Séba of being a Russian media asset. Séba has praised the Kremlin’s presence in Ukraine and Russia’s geopolitical struggle against France in Africa, which he labelled anti-imperialist. Séba has spent most of 2022 liaising with Russian officials and African leaders about the potential for a post-imperial Africa in the event of a total Western withdrawal.
Black nationalists have lauded Russia for forcing a French withdrawal from multiple African countries in the past year, including Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic. Séba has accused France of neocolonialism for its maintenance of the economic Françafrique bloc of post-colonial African nations.
Séba responded to his deplatforming by promising to share the interview he recorded on his social media and thanked his censors for the publicity. He also accused French TV of hypocrisy for interviewing Éric Zemmour and speakers linked to jihadist groups.
A French-born black separatist of Beninese heritage, Séba moved to Senegal in 2011 to champion the cause of anti-colonialism with his NGO Urgences Panafricanistes. Other events from his past implicate him as a ‘Russian sympathiser.’ He was named by the U.S. State Department in a statement last year as a pro-Russian proxy with ties to the Wagner mercenary group. In 2017, Séba spoke in Moscow alongside the Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin.
Russia has been accused of backing black nationalists on social media to ferment anti-French political dissent in Africa.
A Nation of Islam practitioner before converting to African neopaganism, Séba has previously expressed solidarity with Neo-Nazi groups and Hezbollah and has been charged multiple times for hate speech.
