The usual for defamation is high for a purpose, you don’t wish to have the identical headache each time you say anything remotely derogatory about public officers. But the threshold appears to be specifically low in Zambia, because a baby-kisser there has been arrested and charged with defamation because he reportedly said President Michael Sata as a potato.

A potato.

Frank Bwalya is the chief of the political workforce Alliance for a Higher Zambia, and he by hook or by crook received in trouble for gourd-invoking.

[He] allegedly observed president Michael Sata as “Chumbu Mushololwa” right through a are living radio broadcast Monday.

The Bemba time period actually refers to a candy potato that breaks when it is bent and is used to describe anyone who does now not heed recommendation.

This is not the primary instance of vegetable-based totally defamation causing a stir in Zambia, one Zambian newspaper used to be accused of defamation through referring to then-president Levy Mwanawasa as a cabbage.

[picture by means of Shutterstock]

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Apply Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac