2.6.3. Racial and ethnic discrimination Half a dozen countries in Africa limit nationality from birth to members of ethnic groups whose ancestral origins are within the particular state or within the African continent. In West Africa Liberia and Sierra Leone, both founded by freed slaves, take the position that only those of “Negro” (Liberia) or “Negro-African” descent may be citizens from birth. In Liberia, “non-Negroes” may not even be citizens by naturalisation.56 In Mali, though the law does not discriminate in the rules it applies for children with citizen parents, the provision on double jus soli restricts access to nationality to children born in Mali of a mother or father with nationality of another African state who was also born in the country.57 Such rules leave those who are not perceived to be “African” at risk of statelessness if they do not have access to another nationality. Nigeria’s 1979 constitution introduced an ethnic dimension to the criteria for citizenship for the first time. The revision was argued to be necessary to take account of the fact that many communities in Nigeria are separated from their ethnic kin by arbitrary colonial borders; but at the same time it completely removed any element of jus soli citizenship, granting no right of any kind to access nationality based on birth in the country. These provisions were repeated in the 1999 constitution currently in force, which provides for citizenship by birth to be acquired by “every person born in Nigeria before the date of independence, either of whose parents or any of whose grandparents belongs or belonged to a community indigenous to Nigeria”. 58 Although this provision only refers to persons born before independence, the emphasis on belonging to a “community indigenous to Nigeria” ensures that recognition of citizenship at the moment of succession of states is based on ethnicity, and continues in practice in the recognition of nationality of those born since then (see further below, section 3.2). Discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity is much more commonly asserted in practice: in Liberia, for example, against those of Fula or Mandingo ethnicity. 2.6.4. Acquisition of nationality by a spouse Achieving gender equality in the right of a woman to pass nationality to her husband has proved more difficult than reforms to ensure nationality for children on a gender neutral basis. More than two dozen countries in Africa today still do not allow women to pass nationality to their non-national spouses, or apply discriminatory qualifications to foreign men married to national women. However, ten out of the fifteen ECOWAS countries now provide equal rights for men and women to transmit their nationality to a spouse; the exceptions are Benin, Guinea, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Togo, where in each case a woman who marries a national acquires nationality automatically on marriage, while a man who marries a national does not do so (though the period required for naturalisation may be 56 Liberia Constitution Article 27; Aliens and Nationality Act 1973, Art 20.1 ; Sierra Leone Citizenship Act 1973 Art 2. 57 Mali Code des personnes et de la famille, 2011, Art 227. Before 2011, the parent had to be of “African origin”. 58 Article 25(1): “The following persons are citizens of Nigeria by birth, namely: (a) every person born in Nigeria before the date of independence, either of whose parents or any of whose grandparents belongs or belonged to a community indigenous to Nigeria; Provided that a person shall not become a citizen of Nigeria by virtue of this section if neither of his parents nor any of his grandparents was born in Nigeria; (b) every person born in Nigeria after the date of independence either of whose parents or any of whose grandparents is a citizen of Nigeria; and (c) every person born outside Nigeria either of whose parents is a citizen of Nigeria.” 21