May 16, 2018: Exiled Zambian activist-rapper arrested in Lusaka

According to an eyewitness, Zambian rapper Fumba Chama, aka Pilato, was detained by plainclothes police on arrival at Kenneth Kaunda international airport on Wednesday afternoon.

He was returning to Lusaka from exile in South Africa.

In a tweet, the rapper said: “I have been detained at Kenneth Kaunda airport… Upon arrival, however the spirit will not die… I will hand over all my gadgets to the friends of Pilato, they will be updating you on everything.”

Pilato — whose stage name is an acronym for People in Lyrical Arena Taking Over — is an outspoken critic of the Zambian government.

In December 2017, the 33-year-old, dropped Koswe Mumpoto, which in Bemba means “rat in the pot”. He raps: “A rat has entered our house/ It is busy stealing, thinking we will not question it.” The song contains veiled references to current and former Zambian leaders and alludes to the country’s complicated politics.

Koswe Mumpoto was an especially direct attack on Zambian President Edgar Lungu. On the day the song was released, Pilato began receiving threatening phone calls, voice-notes and messages from Lungu supporters.

The rapper left Ndola, his hometown, to seek refuge in Lusaka. But the threats of violence intensified when the youth wing of Lungu’s Patriotic Front, the governing party, weighed in.

Moses Chilando, a senior youth league official, gave Pilato 48 hours to “withdraw” the song. Instead, Pilato fled again: first to a rural farm and then, a few weeks later, to Johannesburg.

“I haven’t been home since I released the song on December 11. I haven’t seen my wife; I haven’t seen my kids. I don’t know how safe they are back there,” Pilato told the Mail & Guardian in February.

A warrant for Pilato’s arrest was issued on February 5 after he failed to appear in a Zambian court on charges connected to his participation in a peaceful protest in September 2017. Pilato believes the timing of the warrant is suspicious.

In a statement, Amnesty International insisted that Pilato is an activist and artist, not a criminal.

The organisation’s regional director for Southern Africa, Deprose Muchena, called Pilato’s arrest a “shocking affront to justice”. Muchena said: “It shows the lengths to which Zambian authorities are prepared to go to stifle dissent.”

The M&G reached out to the Zambian embassy in South Africa, but they did not respond to comment at the time of publication. (Mail & Guardian, Johannesburg)