Standing in a winding queue in downtown Harare, Zimbabwe\u2019s capital, Judith Kapito, 38, cannot hide her excitement: she is waiting to receive a new identity document, one that will offer her rights and opportunities she has long been deprived of.<\/p>\n
Kapito was born to Malawian parents who migrated to Zimbabwe \u2013 then Southern Rhodesia \u2013 in 1960. She lost her citizenship in 2001, when the government\u2019s amendment of the Citizenship Act forced those born of alien parents to renounce their foreign citizenship.<\/p>\n
Kapito, who was born in Zimbabwe and registered as a national of the country, had no other citizenship to renounce. She became stateless, and remained so until the country\u2019s new constitution, passed in April 2013, restored her status as a Zimbabwean. \u201cFor 10 years, I had no identity, just a name. I had no country to call mine because the government of Malawi, where my parents came from, did not consider me as its citizen and could not help me in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n