The Role of Colonialism in Creating and Perpetuating Statelessness in Southern Africa new categories. It continues the colonial legacy of weaponising a particular status against other human beings. Among many other adverse outcomes, these threaten to undo gains in the fight against statelessness and, in fact, create and perpetuate it instead of stopping or slowing it. Statelessness comes at extreme costs, not only to individuals but to states. These costs are well established and have been repeated in this paper. The case to reduce and prevent statelessness is clear. Yet, some states in Southern Africa show a concerning propensity to continue to ignore, perpetuate, and even create statelessness to achieve short-term political ends. Importantly, nationalism and xenophobia distract from true issues and threats. Southern African countries face limited resources. Measures to create barriers to citizenship or denationalise cost these countries time, money, and efficiency, all the while doing nothing to address critical security, migration, or crime threats. Resources dedicated to denationalising or depriving nationality would be far better used to address real problems and threats. While countries in the region are taking steps to address and reduce statelessness through different legal and policy measures, they must guard against nationalist practices and platforms that increase it. Citizenship is a fundamental and essential human right. Access to citizenship for all is a necessary step for nations and the region to thrive. Countries in the region should prevent efforts to deny, deprive, or restrict nationality, at every turn. 93