Report on Citizenship Law: Tanzania 3.1 Acquisition of citizenship in Tanzania There are three ways of acquiring citizenship under the TCA. 1. By birth: A person born in Tanganyika and Zanzibar before 26 April 1964 (Union day) and was immediately before that day a citizen of either country, retains the status of a citizen by birth86. Additionally, almost retaining the provisions of the previous law, but with an alteration as to dates, a person is recognised as a citizen by birth from the date of birth, if they were born in Tanzania on or after Union day, unless neither of the parents was a citizen of Tanzania and the father was a foreign diplomat; or either of the parents was an enemy alien and the birth occurred in a place under enemy occupation87. While this provision preserved a jus soli acquisition of citizenship, the official practice was that birth in Tanzania had to be further supported by descent from a Tanzanian parent if one were to be recognised as a citizen by birth88. The practice, which seems to have been uncontested in courts of law, effectively altered this aspect of citizenship acquisition under Tanzanian law. 2. By descent: The law recognises as a citizen by descent any person born outside of Tanzania on or after the Union day to a father or mother who is a citizen of Tanzania otherwise than by descent89. Moreover all persons having been born outside either Tanganyika or Zanzibar before Union day were recognised as citizens by descent retained their status as such under the new law90. One of the progressive elements in this provision was that it did away with the gender bias in the previous law, through which citizenship by descent could only be conferred through the father. In the current law, one can become a citizen by descent if either father or mother is a citizen of Tanzania. The proviso which precludes children acquiring citizenship on the basis of descent, if the parent’s citizenship was solely descent-based (that is, citizenship does not transmit to the second generation born outside the country), presumes that the child would have acquired the citizenship of the country where he or she was born. This would, of course, be a reasonable presumption if the other country had a jus soli law, or that one of the parents was a citizen of that country and could pass on that citizenship to the child. The law however gives any person caught by the proviso, that is where one’s father was a citizen by descent, to acquire citizenship through naturalisation91. While this may appear like a redeeming feature, at the same time, it rolls back on the gender-neutral aspects of the primary provision on descent-based citizenship. Apparently, a person born outside Tanzania to a Tanzanian mother who is a citizen by descent would not be covered under this provision. This would accordingly extend to a child born to a Tanzanian female diplomat whose citizenship by birth is not recognised on the same basis as that of a child born to a male Tanzanian diplomat. 86 TCA, section 4(1). TCA, section 5 (1-2). 88 Manby, Citizenship in Africa, supra note 30, p. 80. 89 TCA, section 6. 90 TCA, section 4 (3). 91 TCA, section 9 (2). 87 12 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/6- © 2020 Author(s)