Kémi Séba (French-language version of Egyptian for "black star"),«On me traite de nazi noir», Le Nouvel Observateur, 30 October 2008. born Stellio Gilles Robert Capo Chichi (9 December 1981), is a French-born Beninese politician, pan-Africanist leader, activist, writer and journalist, known for his opposition to Françafrique and imperialism in the 21st century. Since August 2024 he serves as advisor to Abdourahamane Tiani, the leader of the incumbent military junta in Niger.
Séba initially gained prominence as the leader of the black power, Afrocentric, Black nationalist, and antisemitic group Ka tribe, which was dissolved by the French government in 2006. He was then arrested and sentenced several times on related charges and continued antisemitic comments, being released from prison in 2008. After this, he converted to Islam and took on leadership positions in the anti-Zionist MDI and the US-based New Black Panther Party.Tribu Ka: un an de prison avec sursis pour reconstitution de ligue dissoute Kemi Seba nommé par le New Black Panther Party, basé à Washington, Ministre francophone Official website of MDI
In 2011, Séba moved to Senegal. From 2013 onwards, he became a geopolitical analyst on several West African televisions, and also a speaker on Pan-Africanism in African universities. In 2015, he founded the NGO Urgences Panafricanistes and became a prominent figure in the opposition to the economic influence of France in African countries, seen as a neocolonial phenomenon. He initiated the demonstrations against the CFA franc which took place in January 2017 in several French-speaking African countries.Jonas Dunkel et Marion Roussey, « Le franc CFA, "vestige du colonialisme" ? », arte.tv, 6 avril 2017. Although he is considered highly controversial in the Western hemisphere, he is a popular figure in Francophone Africa.
In December 2025, he supported an attempted coup d'état aimed at overthrowing Beninese President Patrice Talon. The attempt failed, and the Beninese authorities issued an international arrest warrant for him. He fled to South Africa, where he was later arrested and imprisoned in April 2026 while attempting to flee to Zimbabwe. The Beninese authorities are seeking his extradition to Benin so that he can be tried there.
Early and personal life Capo Chichi was born in Strasbourg to immigrant parents from Benin.Another source says that Capo Chichi's parents were from the Ivory Coast and Haiti. Reiss, "Laugh Riots", The New Yorker, 2007 (see below.) He joined the US-based Nation of Islam (NOI) as an eighteen-year-old, and later formulated his own ideology while visiting Egypt in his twenties.Andrew Hussey, "The Paris Intifada" , Granta, vol. 104, subscribers only As a result of this process, he took the nom de guerre Kémi Séba and became the spokesperson of the (Kemite Party), which was founded in 2002 and inspired by Khalid Abdul Muhammad.Stephen Smith and Géraldine Faes, Noir et Français, 2006"Kémi Séba, la Tribu KA et le kémitisme" , Le Racisme anti-blanc
Educational Séba is known for having an atypical educational background. In high school, Séba was a student in the science section before starting to skip classes to hang around the streets of the suburbs of Paris, in the Afro-ghettos, to the great displeasure of his parents. He resumed evening classes at the Faculty of Law of the university of Paris X Nanterre from 2000 to 2002, obtaining his diploma in capacity in law with honors. He was top of his class, being 1st out of 200 students in the first year. He then left the university to devote himself strictly to his ideological training through political activism. It was not until 2011 that he resumed university studies, this time in political philosophy and research methodology, followed by accelerated training in philosophy under the direction of the renowned Gabonese philosopher, , at the ICAD (Cheik Anta Diop Institute) of Libreville. At the end of this process, concluded once again with distinction, Séba was made researcher in philosophy within the same institute. In April 2025, Séba was awarded an honorary doctorate in political science by the Congolese University Bel Campus, for his ideological impact on Pan-Africanism in the 21st century, in Africa and the Caribbean.
In December 2004, Capo Chichi founded the Parisian political group , which promotes black identity and has been accused of racism against Jews. The group said it followed the ideology of the American NOI leader, Louis Farrakhan. They have also been described as proponents of a mix of antisemitic Kemetism and Guénonian Islam."Le Weltanschauung de la Tribu Ka, Stéphane François, Damien Guillame, and Emmanuel Kreis The group's name is an abbreviation for "The Atenian Tribe of Kemet".
In a May 2006 demonstration, twenty or more members marched along the Rue des Rosiers (in the Marais, a Jewish neighborhood) shouting antisemitic slogans and threatening pedestrians.Helene Fouquet, "Riots in Paris Suburbs Spark Fear of Violent Wave", Bloomberg, 30 May 2006. Retrieved 4 December 2010Tom Reiss, Letter from Paris: "Laugh Riots: The French star who became a demagogue", The New Yorker, 19 November 2007. Retrieved 4 December 2010 Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy sent a letter to Justice Minister Pascal Clément saying could be indicted for racist incitement. SOS Racisme and the Union des étudiants juifs de France also called for to be banned. Clément opened an investigation. The Ministry of Interior dissolved on 26 July 2006, but it reformed in Sarcelles under the name .French gang leader sentenced Jewish Telegraphic Agency During the trial of Youssouf Fofana, the leader of the ethnic gang that murdered Ilan Halimi, Capo Chichi had sent an intimidating e-mail message to various Jewish associations.
Imprisonment Séba was arrested in September 2006 for making allegedly antisemitic posts on his website, and again in February 2007 after he called a public official "Zionist scum". After the initial court hearing in 2006, supporters chanted, "The judge is a Zionist, the client is a Zionist, the decision will be Zionist." In February 2007, a French court near Paris sentenced Capo Chichi, the self-described "militant defender of the dignity of Black people", to five months imprisonment for criminal contempt of the law. In April 2008, a Parisian court verdict determined was the reconstitution of the dissolved group , and sentenced Capo Chichi to a one-year prison sentence with suspension. In June 2009, Brice Hortefeux, Minister of the Interior, ordered the dissolution of the group , founded to replace ."Dissolution du groupuscule 'Jeunesse Kemi Seba'" , The Coordinating Forum for Countering Anti-Semitism
MDI After his release from prison in July 2008, Capo Chichi announced that he had converted to Islam.Kémi Séba Musulman!!! Official website of Kémi Séba In March 2008, he became the secretary general of (MDI, "Movement of Those Damned By Imperialism"). MDI retains close ties with the Shia paramilitary Lebanese-based group Hezbollah in their anti-Zionist campaigns.Le MDI avec le Hezbollah contre le Sionism Official website of MDI In June 2009, MDI announced that Holocaust denier Serge Thion had joined the movement.Serge Thion rejoint le MDI Official website of MDI Inside the MDI blogger Boris Le Lay was "in charge of external relations for the Europe zone".Kemi Seba (Conspiracy watch)
New Black Panther Party In April 2010, Malik Zulu Shabazz, leader of the US-based New Black Panther Party (NBPP), appointed Capo Chichi the party's representative in France and gave him the nom de guerre Kemiour Aarim Shabazz. In July 2010, Capo Chichi left his position as the president of MDI but continued as the head of the francophone branch of NBPP.Interview d’Hery Djehuty Sechat, nouveau Président du MDI Official website of MDI
Activity in Africa In 2011, he left the NBPP and moved to Senegal, where he continued his political activism and became a lecturer in African universities and, from 2013, a political columnist in various African television channels. This earned him a certain popularity among the French-speaking African youth, who considered him as a defender of African sovereignty. Originally close to the Nation of Islam, he eventually joined Voodoo in 2014, which he links to the work of the metaphysician René Guénon about the perennialism as he explains in his latest book Free Africa or death. He was the initiator of the demonstrations against the CFA franc who took in several French-speaking African countries. In January 2018, he was elected as 2017 African Personality of the Year by Africanews, for his fight against French neocolonialism and the CFA Franc in Africa.
In December 2019, while accusing France of being partly responsible for terrorism in the Sahel, Kémi Séba placed himself at the disposal of the regional armies, to fight against the jihadists. He therefore proposed to the presidents of the G5 Sahel the creation of a group of "Pan-African civilian volunteers". On 23 February 2020, Séba returned to Senegal to attend the appeal for his trial for having burned a CFA franc note. He was arrested at Blaise-Diagne airport, detained for 30 hours and then deported to Belgium. The holding of the trial was then postponed. In October 2020, Séba went to Côte d'Ivoire to request a postponement of the 2020 presidential election, following a third term of Alassane Ouattara. In October 2021, three years after being turned away at Conakry airport, Séba was allowed to enter Guinean territory from where he met Mamady Doumbouya.
In February 2024, the French authorities initiated a procedure for loss of French nationality against Séba, who also holds Beninese nationality. French authorities accused Séba of spreading anti-French sentiment across West Africa. On 9 July 2024, By virtue of a decree published in the Official French Journal, Séba was stripped of his French nationality. Seba had earlier published a video online in which he burned a document that he claimed was his French passport. In August 2024, he announced via X that he had been granted a diplomatic passport by Nigerien authorities. He posted a picture of the purported diplomatic passport bio data page. His claims were confirmed by the French secret service during his last arrest in Paris in October 2024. Since August 2024 he serves as advisor to Abdourahamane Tchiani, the leader of the incumbent military junta in Niger.
In January 2025, Séba announced that he would run for President of Benin in the 2026 Beninese presidential election after denouncing the incumbent president Patrice Talon. On 15 April 2025, Séba was awarded the rank of Doctor Honoris Causa in political science by Bel Campus University in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa). On 31 March 2025, Séba was arrested as he was preparing to hold a press conference. On 3 May 2025, he hosted a conference dedicated to denouncing the CFA franc and challenging the agreements inherited from colonization in Central Africa. In June 2025, Séba is organizing a tour in Gabon against the CFA Franc, and cooperation agreements in Africa and France. In December 2025, an international arrest warrant was issued for Séba by the Benin government after his support for a failed coup against President Talon. In April 2026, Séba was arrested along with his son in Pretoria, South Africa at the request of Beninese government. Previously, Séba was intended to illegally cross the South Africa-Zimbabwe border via broker who was also arrested with him with an intention to flee to Europe. He was expected to be extradited to Benin soon.
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