Zambian Politician Arrested, Charged with Defamation for Calling President a Potato

The standard for defamation is high for a reason, you don’t want to have the same headache every time you say anything remotely derogatory about public officials. But the threshold appears to be particularly low in Zambia, because a politician there has been arrested and charged with defamation because he reportedly referred to President Michael Sata as a potato.

A potato.

Frank Bwalya is the leader of the political group Alliance for a Better Zambia, and he somehow got in trouble for gourd-invoking.

[He] allegedly referred to president Michael Sata as “Chumbu Mushololwa” during a live radio broadcast Monday.

The Bemba term literally refers to a sweet potato that breaks when it is bent and is used to describe someone who does not heed advice.

This is not the first instance of vegetable-based defamation causing a stir in Zambia, one Zambian newspaper was accused of defamation by referring to then-president Levy Mwanawasa as a cabbage.

[photo via Shutterstock]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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