Citizenship and statelessness in Africa: the law and politics of belonging

The role of nationality laws and their implementation in underpinning or undermining the modern state in Africa is both important and has received too little attention from policy-makers to date. This is the finding of a comparative analysis of nationality laws across all 54 African states, matched with detailed case studies of the ways in which the law has interacted with politics, especially in countries that have had crises centred on identity. Recommendations call for reform of law and practice to provide a right to a nationality in the country where a person has the closest connections.