African activist Kimi Seba burned his French passport near Paris in protest against French policies in Africa, accusing France of treating Black people "like dogs." During an event attended by many participants on Saturday evening in the suburbs of Paris, Seba, originally from Benin, set his French passport on fire. He addressed French President Emmanuel Macron: “Your passport is not a bone you throw at us as if Black people are dogs. I am a free Black man. I am a free African. I am a free Beninese.”
Local authorities had banned a conference Seba was supposed to hold in the city of Flouris-Merogis near Paris, before the Versailles court lifted the ban. The authorities began proceedings to revoke Seba's French citizenship, known for his criticism of French interests and policies in Africa. The authorities sent him a message stating that “a French individual who acts as a citizen in a foreign country may be declared to have lost French citizenship if they hold that country's citizenship, under a decree with the approval of the Council of State.” Paris justifies the decision to revoke Seba's citizenship due to his anti-France stance.
It is noteworthy that Seba is the founder of the international organization Urgences Panafricanistes and has traveled the world to fight against neo-colonialism. In 2018, he burned banknotes of the West African CFA franc in Senegal in protest against the use of the colonial French currency.
