Bronwen manby biography of michael

The concept of stateless persons under International Law: Summary Conclusions

The “Prato Conclusions” Expert meeting organized by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Prato, Italy, 27-28 May 2010 This was a first of a series of Expert Meetings convened by UNHCR in the context of the […]

Cameroun: Bientôt, la double nationalité…

Par Georges Dougueli Yaoundé l’a assuré : l’article du code de nationalité du Cameroun empêchant l’acquisition de la double nationalité a été supprimé. Reste à voter le nouveau texte. Paul Biya l’avait promis à la communauté camerounaise de France, lors […]

ACmHPR Communication No. 313/05, Good v Republic of Botswana

1. The Complaint is submitted by INTERIGHTS, Anton Katz and Max du Plessis (Complainants) on behalf of Mr Kenneth Good (victim), against the Republic of Botswana (Respondent State). 2. The Complaint states that Mr Kenneth Good, an Australian national, teaching […]

Clause on Kenya child citizenship defended

by Sarah Wambui NAIROBI, Kenya, May 18 – The Committee of Experts (CoE) has defended a clause in the Proposed Constitution that allows children aged eight and below whose nationality and parents are unknown to automatically become Kenyan citizens. In […]

Submission in Communication 317/106: The Nubian community in Kenya v. Kenya

Arguments on the Merits in Communication before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Submitted by the Open Society Justice Initiative, the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa and the Centre for Minority Rights Development. Link to […]

The African Charter and the Right to a Nationality: Report of a meeting held

Zimbabwe: National Registration Regulations, 1977

Rhodesia Government Notice 47 of 1977 [as amended at 1st May 2010]. Download: Zimbabwe National Registration Regulations 1977 as amended

Cabo Verde: Parlamento aprova alterações à Lei da Nacionalidade

Cidade da Praia – A proposta que altera a Lei da Nacionalidade foi aprovada quarta feira na generalidade no Parlamento cabo-verdiano, com os votos a favor do PAICV e UCID e contra do MpD, que considerou as alterações « eleitoralistas ». O […]

Naturalisation of Burundian refugees in Tanzania: A new home?

It is rare for host countries to offer refugees citizenship, especially in a context such as the Great Lakes region where millions have been displaced. Instead, most governments wait for circumstances to change so that refugees can go back to […]

Abyei Area Referendum Act 2009

Voter’s Eligibility 24. A voter shall be a resident of Abyei Area according to Article 6(1) of Abyei Area Protocol namely: (a) Members of Ngoc Dinka Community; (b) Other Sudanese residing in Abyei Area in accordance with the criteria of […]

The Mandingo question in Liberian history and the prospect for peace in Liberia: Part 1

By:  Flomo Y. Kokolo Ethnic tension in Liberia had been nonexistent or at least dormant until Samuel K. Doe assumed the presidency. Doe’s Government was dominated by his kinsmen, the Krahns, and manifestly supported by the Mandingo tribe. Perhaps as […]

DR Congo: Unstable areas endanger returns

Field Report: The recent signing of a tripartite agreement between the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda w

Bronwen Manby takes us through her new book Citizenship in Africa: The Law of Belonging. In an important contribution to the literature on statehood, citizenship and identity in Africa, this piece highlights the importance of formal legal frameworks and contests over citizenship in determining who belongs.

Who belongs? And how do you decide? These are questions that are central to any community. In the context of the modern state, the rules are established by citizenship laws that set out the conditions for recognition as legally belonging to that state – with rights and responsibilities to match.

The content of citizenship[1] laws can be politically controversial in any country. African states, whose borders were, for the most part, arbitrarily created at the stroke of a pen in Berlin in 1885, have particular challenges. The 1964 decision of the newly formed Organisation of African Unity to respect those borders committed the continent to the task of moulding the colonial units into legitimate political communities. A very large literature deals with the challenges to this task posed by questions of identity and belonging, and the “crisis of nationality and sovereignty” that result.

Few scholars, however, have seen the detailed provisions of the laws governing the differentiation between “native” and “stranger” as highly relevant (though one exception is Jeffrey Herbst, who commented in 2001 that African states “have not explored the surprising firmness of their boundaries to develop innovative citizenship regulations that might establish a strong national bond between state and citizen”) My book seeks to fill this gap. It has three main elements:

First, it tells the history of citizenship law in Africa – from the rules applied during the colonial period and the trends in substantive law and procedural practice from independence to the present day.

Secondly, there are case studies of the countries where contests over the right to citizenship have been p