By Amadu Wurie Khan<\/p>\n
Introduction<\/span><\/p>\n Sierra Leone<\/span>\u2019s history,<\/span>like <\/span>that of <\/span>other colonised African countries<\/span>,<\/span>has <\/span>shape<\/span>d <\/span>the <\/span>country\u2019s <\/span>citizenship laws <\/span>in particular ways<\/span>.<\/span>The <\/span>t<\/span>ransatlantic slave trade, inward <\/span>migration by African<\/span>s <\/span>and non<\/span>–<\/span>Africans, <\/span>and the <\/span>fight for self<\/span>–<\/span>rule and decolonisation predicated on <\/span>a <\/span>pan<\/span>–<\/span>African <\/span>nationalist ideology <\/span>are constitutive of these <\/span>experiences<\/span>. <\/span>Sierra <\/span>Leone\u2019s internecine <\/span>war <\/span>during the 1990s <\/span>and the post<\/span>–<\/span>war <\/span>efforts at <\/span>reset<\/span>tlement, reconciliation and development <\/span>continue to form the backdrop of <\/span>current debates<\/span>. <\/span>M<\/span>embership of international institutions such <\/span>as ECOWAS, <\/span>t<\/span>he UN and the African Union <\/span>also <\/span>continue to <\/span>influence its citizenship regime. <\/span>Consequently, Sierra Leone\u2019s <\/span>current citizenship laws<\/span>, which <\/span>share<\/span>d <\/span>a lot of commonalities <\/span>at <\/span>independence, have gradually <\/span>diverge<\/span>d from <\/span>other <\/span>Anglophone colonial territories of West <\/span>Africa <\/span>\u2013<\/span>Nigeria, G<\/span>hana (formerly the G<\/span>old Coast<\/span>)<\/span>, and <\/span>t<\/span>he Gambia. <\/span><\/p>\n This analysis <\/span>explore<\/span>s <\/span>the continuities <\/span>and divergencies of Sierra Leone\u2019s citizenship <\/span>regime compar<\/span>ative <\/span>to other African countries. It highlights <\/span>the dynamics of <\/span>rac<\/span>e <\/span>and <\/span>ethnic<\/span>ity<\/span>, <\/span>entrepreneurial <\/span>and forced migration, <\/span>gender<\/span>, post<\/span>–<\/span>civil war reconciliation and <\/span>development, <\/span>a<\/span>nd <\/span>international laws in <\/span>shaping modes of citizenship: <\/span>i<\/span>us sanguinis<\/span>, <\/span>i<\/span>us soli<\/span>, <\/span>i<\/span>us domicil<\/span>i<\/span>, <\/span>i<\/span>us <\/span>matrimonii<\/span>, and dual citizenship. <\/span>T<\/span>he analysis <\/span>also <\/span>considers <\/span>how <\/span>citizenship modes <\/span>of <\/span>acquisition <\/span>and <\/span>loss<\/span>, which were once modelled along th<\/span>e British colonial power <\/span>at the time of <\/span>independence, have evolved <\/span>over time.<\/span><\/p>\n