Report on Citizenship Law: Tanzania This report traces the history of citizenship in Tanganyika dating back from German colonialism, through British control and the changes brought in by the wave of independence in Tanganyika in 1961. This is followed by the history of citizenship in Zanzibar under foreign leadership and how Zanzibar citizenship was defined following the revolution of 1963. The report continues to follow the citizenship developments in the United Republic of Tanzania following the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1964. The citizenship laws of Tanzania were consolidated in 1998, when the Citizenship Act, Cap 357, Act. No. 6 of 1995 became effective. The Citizenship Act being the overarching legislation on citizenship in Tanzania guides the discussion on the current trends on acquisition and loss of citizenship in Tanzania. The report also discusses the citizenship status of minority groups that have settled in Tanzania and highlights lacunae that still need to be redressed by the government. 2. Historical Background and Changes 2.1 Citizenship under the pre-independence period 2.1.1 Tanganyika Tanzania has a rich cultural diversity whose composition changed over the years as new migrants and settlers from various parts of the world arrived. In addition to the various African communities that settled in Tanzania from other parts of the continent, during the tenth century, there was an increase in settlement by the Arab and Asian traders6. Later centuries saw the arrival of Portuguese in the fifteenth century who, in the eighteenth century, were driven out from the coastal area by the Arabs7. The German colonialists took over Tanganyika declaring it as part of German East Africa in the late nineteenth century. The Germans faced a lot of resistance to their rule from the native Africans whom they managed to overpower8. Under German rule, most of the Africans in order to pay off the taxes imposed by the colonial rulers, were forced to provide labour for the construction of roads and forts, as well as on the plantations established for the production of mainly cash crops9. In the interim, a number of Asians were also brought in mainly to work provide technical services, but also as labourers on the railways; and these later stayed on and became traders10. As demand for literary skills grew, Africans were educated and were employed in mainly middle-level administrative positions, with the top-level posts occupied by the Europeans. While the Asians enjoyed a comparative economic and professional advantage than the Africans, they never enjoyed any political power. Suffice to note that under the German rule, Africans, Indians and Arabs were all regarded as natives, a status that the Indians were later to challenge. Following the defeat of Germany in World War I and the subsequent Treaty of Versailles in which German renounced its rights and influence over its overseas territories 6 Heilman, supra note 3 at 369. Ibid. 8 It is alleged that the Germans faced over 50 rebellions during their rule including the Bwana Heri rebellion in the 1889-1890, the Mkwawa rebellion in 1891-8, and the famous Maji Maji rebellion from 1905-8. See A Coulson (2013) Tanzania: A Political Economy, 2 ed. Oxford University Press, pp.52-6. 9 Ibid, p.64. 10 Ibid, p.69. 7 2 RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/6- © 2020 Author(s)