The Role of Colonialism in Creating and Perpetuating Statelessness in Southern Africa most of the colonial period, people could move relatively freely throughout the British colonies of Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), and Nyasaland (Malawi). Labour migrants from non-British or non-colonised countries, including Mozambique, Eswatini, and Lesotho, were also recruited. At its peak in 1956, 300,000 migrant labourers were working away from their homes within the ‘Central African Federation’ (Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, and Nyasaland). Under independent white minority rule, South Africa and Zimbabwe continued similar recruitment practices. Colonists also brought Asian indentured servants to provide labour. Countries with the most extensive histories of labour migration and land dispossession where large numbers of ‘foreigners’ have remained after independence have encountered the most nationality disputes since the end of colonialism. Manby further explains that European colonisers established multi-tiered citizenship structures that provided full citizenship rights only to settlers. Like all other aspects of society, the citizenship system was founded on racial and ethnic exclusion, exploitation, and discrimination. Some indigenous people were granted full citizenship rights in Portuguese and French colonies under exceptional circumstances. Settlers were simultaneously offered full citizenship benefits in their European ‘home’ countries. Native Africans were forced into legal subordination with minimal rights that were superseded by those of white settlers. In the post-colonial period, strong resentment lingered toward colonial powers for their legacies of extreme inequality and dispossession.7 Most Southern African countries adopted nationality laws based on the models of their former colonial rulers. Some, however, made efforts to reverse the system of discrimination and even sought laws to disenfranchise their colonial oppressors. Some countries, such as Mozambique, established citizenship rules offering preference to people who had participated in the liberation and punishing those who fought against it. In some other parts of the region, nationality laws discriminate according to ethnicity, favouring people belonging to groups whose ancestral origins are within the territories. Malawi restricts citizenship to children born to at least one parent who is not only a Malawian citizen but also of the ‘African race’; Eswatini has similarly included nationality provisions that make it difficult for non-ethnic Swazis to obtain citizenship. Many of these measures have ended up dispossessing native Africans who were also unjustly marginalised by colonialism, even more than they have affected settlers. Now, many native Africans are denied citizenship in their current territory because their ancestors once lived in a different territory. Democratisation has dismantled minority white rule, and new constitutions have enshrined the rights of native people across the region. However, in the wake of colonialism, the practice of political exclusion has remained.8 Classifying people Bronwen Manby ‘Struggles for citizenship in Africa’ Open Society Justice Initiative (2009), available at www.justiceinitiative.org/publications/struggles-citizenship-africa 8 Brian Klaas ‘Political exclusion in Africa’ in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics (2019), available at https://doi. org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1326 7 77