SOLVING STATELESSNESS who had fled anti-colonial struggles was key in the politics of selfdetermination that eventually led to African decolonisation and the formation of independent States: the return of refugees represented “an important symbolic legitimation of independent African sovereignty” and in return became “a symbolic reclaiming of the state, not only by individuals as citizens, but by the nation as political community”.6 However, since then many States in Africa have been characterised as much by their failure to build viable shared identities within the new State structures as their success. As Harrington argues, although legal citizenship was established at independence with African constitutions guaranteeing the equality of citizens, “few states conveyed to their people the political rights generally regarded as inherent in citizenship today, such as to vote or to stand for election”.7 They also did not guarantee the right to public and social services. Consequently, “states had little political or financial incentive to deny individuals citizenship”.8 Yet in the past two decades, the significance of citizenship has begun to change as a result of growing democratisation, respect for human rights, and pressure on African States to provide basic social services. As a result, citizens, at least in principle, have increasing rights and power.9 In other words, the opening up of political space and in particular democratisation – although incomplete and imperfect – has introduced new salience to notions of citizenship. If citizens have the right to vote, then deciding who is and is not a citizen can be a critically important strategy for maintaining power through elections. Although increased democratisation and respect for the rights of citizens is a positive development in many respects, it has also fostered more exclusive understandings of citizenship – and opened the door for the creation of statelessness. In other words, by raising the stakes through increasing the quality of citizenship, both the incentive to exclude, and its practical consequences have increased – and, therefore, the possibility of statelessness, as legally defined, has not only been created but is exacerbated. 6 7 8 9 K. Long, State, Nation, Citizen: Rethinking Repatriation, Refugee Studies Centre 2008, Working Paper No. 48, p. 17. “Voiding Human Rights: Citizenship and Discrimination in Africa”, Justice Initiatives 2005, p.24. Ibid. Ibid. 73