CITIZENSHIP AND STATELESSNESS IN THE HORN OF AFRICA \Y The impossibility of naturalising: Rastafarians in Ethiopia In the late 1940s, the Emperor Haile Selassie designated a 200-hectare site in Shashamane, about 250km south of Addis Ababa, as available for settlement by the African diaspora, in thanks for their support during the occupation of Ethiopia by the Italians and British. From the 1960s, Jamaican other) followers of the Rastafari faith have travelled to Ethiopia to take up this offer. The (and number of Rastafarians living in the settlement is estimated to be in the hundreds, perhaps more than a thousand. Many have been resident in Shashamane over several decades, and some for generations. In 2003, the Ethiopian immigration department considered the status of 120 people who were living in the settlement: 77 had a tourist visa, 13 had a business visa, and 31 had residence permits; none was an Ethiopian citizen. % In 2017 it was announced that the Rastafarian community would be eligible to be issued a version of the new Ethiopian national ID cards on the basis of the status of “Foreign National of Ethiopian Origin”%, giving them more secure rights in the country than the temporary permits held to date.% Leaders remain hopeful that citizenship may be offered in future.% Although the Rastafarians in Ethiopia are generally recognised as nationals of other countries, and thus not stateless, the risk of statelessness is there for their children, as future generations are born outside the territory of the country of origin of the parents.2’ Many states that were formerly British territories (and the UK itself) place restrictions on transmission of citizenship to the second generation born outside the territory. Jamaica, however, has removed these restrictions. Nonetheless, members of the Rastafarian community in Ethiopia can also face extended delays and challenges in renewing passports from their countries of nationality. 93 Erin C. MacLeod, Visions of Zion: Ethiopians and Rastafari in the Search for the Promised Land (New York: NYU Press, 2014), 4 (citing Giulia Bonacci, Exodus ! L’histoire du retour des Rastafariens en Ethiopie [Paris, Scali, 2008]). % In accordance with Proclamation No. 270/2002 concerning the rights of foreign nationals of Ethiopian origin. 9% “Ethiopian Jews, Rastafarians to receive Ethiopian IDs”, Agence de Press Africaine, 27 July 2017. % Interview, Ras Ambrose King, Ethiopian World Federation, March 2021. 97 Yoseph Berhanem “Promised land no more? Rastafaris struggle in Ethiopia, stateless and not allowed to own property, or even pay taxes”, Medium.com/ Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg), 15 November 2015; Maria Gerth-Niculescu, “Why Ethiopia's Rastafari community keeps dwindling”, Deutsche Welle, 9 September 2019. UNHCR — December 2021 29