The complexities of citizenship among Lebanese immigrants in Sierra Leone

Abstract

This article examines exclusionary citizenship practices in Sierra Leone toward people who are not racially Black. As far back as the 1919 “anti-Lebanese riots,” Blacks associated their lack of opportunities with economic privileges that the Lebanese enjoyed under British colonialism. British favoritism contributed to the denial of full citizenship to non-Blacks during the construction of a postcolonial state. Non-Blacks who were citizens of the British Empire became defined as “noncitizens” under a 1962 (amended) Sierra Leonean constitution, which excluded persons of “non-Negro African descent” from their right to citizenship by birth. Lebanese residents had no option but to naturalize. The laws excluded naturalized citizens from political membership. The Citizenship Act of 1973, the Citizenship (amended) Act of 1976, the 1991 Constitution, and the Citizenship (amended) Act of 2006 reinforced the exclusion of non-Blacks from natural citizenship. Legal restrictions ensured that Lebanese could not mount an independent political challenge. Lebanese continue to occupy both an economically privileged and politically isolated position in Sierra Leone. They have responded to citizenship discrimination by strengthening their economic activities, taking advantage of bureaucratic corruption to obtain passports, and/or maintaining multiple citizenships. Their membership to Sierra Leone is based on “entrepreneurial citizenship.”