Latest news feedRefugees Magazine Issue 147 ("The Excluded: The strange hidden world of the stateless") - Suddenly, you are nobody
by Jack Redden
Trevor Ncube was born in Zimbabwe. His father was a citizen, and Ncube kept in his home a laminated copy of the document confirming he had taken an oath of citizenship. But in 2006, as the well-known newspaper publisher tried to renew his Zimbabwean passport, he was told he had become stateless.
"You can never begin to imagine what it means to be stateless – until you are stateless," Ncube said."It has a hugely debilitating effect. It dehumanizes you. Suddenly you are nobody. You begin to think about who you are and where you belong... It must have been one of the most difficult times in my life."
Ncube, in what he sees as a form of political harassment, had become a victim of complex nationality laws that are leaving huge numbers of Zimbabweans in danger of being stateless. The problem is not unique to Zimbabwe. It exists all across the continent – its roots usually arising out of the arbitrary borders drawn by colonial administrators decades ago. However, nowadays the main threat stems from the web of restrictive laws constructed by successor governments.
"They told me the document I had confirming I had taken an oath of Zimbabwean citizenship had lapsed because I should have gone to the Zambian embassy, and formally lodged a certificate renouncing my entitlement to Zambian citizenship (as my father was born in Zambia)," Ncube said, at the office in the South African city of Johannesburg where he oversees his growing newspaper holdings.
Using his nearly full Zimbabwean passport, Ncube left the country of his birth, went to his main home in Johannesburg and launched a court challenge."I won the case quite resoundingly: the High Court took a very dim view of what the officials in the passport office had done."
His lawyers interpreted the court decision as a precedent for others in the same dilemma, but Ncube says he is constantly being contacted by others in Zimbabwe who are facing a similar threat of becoming stateless. Ncube – who owns two newspapers in Zimbabwe, as well as the influential Mail and Guardian in South Africa – is well aware that the option of hiring good lawyers is not available to most people.
"The majority of people who find themselves in the same situation as mine are farm workers and general labourers in the city centre, who are very poorly paid – so they cannot afford the kind of litigation I was able to put up," he said."That means the whole matter has really dire consequences for people."
After winning back his own citizenship, Ncube used his Zimbabwean newspapers to launch a campaign to find out how many other people were in danger of becoming stateless. Most come from the poorest end of society, but some people, he said, occupied high political positions.
"There could be a couple of million Zimbabweans in my situation," Ncube said."For some people, the status of being stateless does not present itself as a problem until they have to vote, until they have to get a birth certificate for their son, until they apply for a passport."
Ncube's problems arose from a number of changes to Zimbabwean law that took place in 2001. These had the effect of stripping many white Zimbabweans who owned large commercial farms of their citizenship. They also resulted in the disenfranchisement of many of those farms' labourers, whose families had once come from neighbouring countries — prompting allegations that the new legislation was driven by fears such people might cast their votes for the opposition.
In colonial times, farm labourers often moved between what is now Zimbabwe and neighbouring countries – especially Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi. All three of those countries now have different laws governing citizenship. Unlike many other states, none of the nations in southern Africa allow people to hold citizenship of more than one country, and in some cases people may lose their citizenship if they go to live abroad.
Some offer children the original citizenship of a parent – even when the parent has since changed his or her nationality. Sometimes citizenship must be actively claimed, and on other occasions it is inherited – unless formally renounced. In some places, there is a deadline for deciding. Other countries allow a person born there to become a citizen by taking an oath; whereas, elsewhere, citizenship may be contingent on a parallel statement to the parent's country renouncing citizenship there.
In many countries in Africa, and elsewhere, the threat of depriving people of citizenship – making them stateless – is a powerful and tempting way for a government to control some of its opponents. Even without political motives, the ambiguity over citizenship can fuel the xenophobia that is a growing problem in many countries in Africa.
"African politicians are so aggrieved by what colonialism did to this continent... and yet one of the most destabilizing creations of colonialism is the artificial boundaries of African states," said Ncube, who is not afraid to tackle some of the continent's thorniest issues."And these rabidly anti-colonial politicians are hanging on to that, and I would think that one day reality is going to dawn for them."
"So for me," he added, "it is not about reviewing each country's citizenship laws but – at the African Union level – unifying citizenship best practice and looking at a much more progressive way of looking at citizenship."
Ncube would like to see African countries adopt liberal citizenship laws, including the right to dual citizenship. He hopes his own children will be able to make their own decisions about which nationality they adopt.
"We need to mobilize citizenship as a way of strengthening our strategy for growth – and not use it to punish those you disagree with," Ncube said."We don't talk about this issue of statelessness and citizenship in Africa enough because there are a lot of people who have been affected by the arbitrary use of citizenship."
Source: Refugees Magazine Issue 147: "The Excluded: The strange hidden world of the stateless"
(September 2007). Download the complete issue in pdf format: low-resolution (1.8 Mb) here or high-resolution (6.8 Mb) here.
