Congolese nationality law is a legal statute regulated by the Constitution of the Republic of the Congo. It determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of the Republic of the Congo. The legal means to acquire nationality, formal legal membership in a nation, differ from the domestic relationship of rights and obligations between a national and the nation, known as citizenship. Congolese nationality is typically obtained under the principle of jus soli, i.e. by birth in the Republic of the Congo, or jus sanguinis, born abroad to parents with Congolese nationality. It can be granted to persons with an affiliation to the country, or to a permanent resident who has lived in the country for a given period of time through naturalization.
Acquisition of nationality Nationality can be acquired in the Republic of the Congo at birth or later in life through naturalization.
By birth Those who acquire nationality at birth include:
Children born anywhere who have at least one parent who is a Congolese national by birth; Children born to foreigners in the Republic of the Congo, who are still residing in the Congo at majority may obtain nationality of origin by request; Children born in the country to parents who are stateless; or Abandoned children or orphans discovered in the territory whose parents are unknown.
By naturalization Naturalization can be granted to persons who have resided in the territory for a sufficient period of time to confirm they understand the customs and traditions of the society. General provisions are that applicants have good character and conduct; have no convictions that resulted in a sentence of one or more years; have good mental and physical health; have sufficient means to sustain themselves economically; and have resided in the country for ten years. There are no provisions in the Nationality Law for children who have been adopted by Congolese parents. Besides foreigners meeting the criteria, other persons who may be naturalized include:
The wife of a Congolese national automatically acquires Congolese nationality upon marriage after five years residency; Minor children can be automatically naturalized when their parent acquires nationality; or Persons who have performed exceptional services to the nation can be naturalized without meeting a residency requirement.
Loss of nationality Congolese nationals cannot be denaturalized, if they were born in the territory, but can renounce their nationality pending approval by the state. Those who have previously lost their nationality may reacquire it if they are residing in the country, are not under arrest, and were not previously expelled from the country. Nationality may be lost in the Republic of the Congo for failure to perform military obligations; performing actions indicating one is a national of another state; serving in the government or military of another state; committing serious crimes, disloyal acts, or crimes against the state; or for fraud, misrepresentation, or concealment in a naturalization petition.
Dual nationality Dual nationality is typically allowed in the Republic of the Congo since 2002.
History African kingdoms (1400–1880) In the region, inhabitants were typically arranged in lineage groups, known as kanda. From the early fifteenth century, a political system evolved where in a single person was elected and began representing multiple kanda rather than his own kin to establish cooperation in trade and taxation, so that goods could safely pass among them. Marriage was used to create alliances among various groups and solidify cooperation. As the networks begin kanda grew and power accumulated, weaker groups were absorbed and became subjugated to the ruler. Governors ruled chiefdoms throughout the region extracting tributes, passing a portion on to the main ruler. By the time Diogo Cão, a Portuguese explorer, first established contact with the Kingdom of Kongo in 1483 it was the most powerful kingdom in the region. Portuguese chroniclers noted other lesser kingdoms in the region including the Kakongo, Ngoyo (later Loango), and Vungu Kingdoms to the north of the Congo River; the Tio Kingdom on the coast near present-day Brazzaville; and the Matamba and Ndongo Kingdoms in the south, in what is now Angola. Each of these kingdoms had centralized governments and relied on trade networks with each other for their economic stability.
Initially the Portuguese were interested in mineral resources, but quickly turned to the slave trade. In 1491, they sent a fleet including priests, soldiers and builders, who after making their way to the capital, baptized king Nzinga a Nkuwu, who took the name João, and five of his leading chieftains. João's son Nzinga Mbemba, who took the name Afonso I, was also baptized that year. Afonso became a committed Christian and used Christianity to expand and consolidate his reign when he succeeded his father in 1506. In 1509, Afonso used Portuguese troops to assist in subduing the territories to the north of Nsundi, which included Nsanga and Masinga, two copper producing towns which were aligned with the Tio Kingdom. Throughout his reign Afonso was involved in the slave trade with the Portuguese, who needed the labor for their Brazilian plantations. Upon Afonso's death, the kingdom weakened and saw a succession of short-lived monarchs reign between 1545 and 1568, when Jaga warriors invaded the kingdom.
In the 1620s the Dutch began trading in the region at a time when the economic and political power were shifting from the centralized government to the provinces. Different factions of the kingdom established relationships with varying European powers throughout the early seventeenth century. A succession dispute in 1665, plunged the kingdom into civil war eventually fracturing the kingdom. Though Pedro IV of Kongo was able to restore the unified kingdom in 1715, by proposing that succession shift through various kinship groups, the peace was insecure and war reignited in 1730. By the mid-eighteenth century British and French traders had developed ports in the region and diverted much of the trade to ports under their control. The chiefs of the Kongo became increasingly less important and their authority disintegrated.
Having established themselves on the coast and in the river estuaries, by 1875, the French embarked on a plan to explore the interior of the region. Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, who had been a student at the French Naval Academy of Borda in Brest, volunteered for the project. Traveling down the Ogooué River, he explored the region for three years making contacts with the local people. In 1880, he began a second exploration with the goal of securing the area for France. After arriving at the confluence of the Ogooué and Mpassa Rivers, he founded Franceville and proceeded down the Lefini River to the Congo River. When he arrived in the lands of the Teke people, de Brazza signed a treaty with their ruler Makoko securing a large tract of land along the right bank of the Stanley Pool in exchange for protection against the British explorer Henry Morton Stanley, who had made enemies in the region.
French colonial period (1880–1960) De Brazza was entrusted with opening the area and secured the ratification of the agreement in 1882, which officially established the colony of French Congo. By 1885, the slave trade had been replaced by commerce in dye-making plants, ivory, and rubber. De Brazza was appointed commissioner general of France's possessions of French Congo and Gabon in 1886. In 1891, the two were incorporated into one entity and in 1894 de Brazza granted a large concession to the French trading house of Daumas Béraud and the Societe du Haut Ogooué (Society of Upper Ogooué) in Gabon, granting them a monopoly on trade in exchange for governing the region. De Brazza left the Congo in 1897, but his successors continued using corporate trade concessions to manage affairs in the French possessions licensing forty companies. On 29 December 1903, France issued a decree placing Gabon, Moyen-Congo (Middle Congo, the previous colony of French Congo), the newly established territories of Ubangi-Shari and Chad under French Congo's commissioner general at Brazzaville. Gabon was granted a lieutenant-governor in Libreville to oversee its administration. In 1910, these colonies were federated into French Equatorial Africa.
In 1848, slavery was abolished throughout the French Empire and the Civil Code was extended to all of the French citizens in the colonies. Under the Civil Code, women were legally incapacitated and paternal authority was established over their children. Upon marriage, a woman married to a French man automatically acquired the same nationality as her spouse. Illegitimate children were barred from inheritance and nationality could only be transmitted through a father. Non-citizen nationals were governed by traditional laws concerning marriage and inheritance which placed the well-being of the community above individual rights. These laws prevented a wife from being treated as a slave, required her husband to support her, and entitled her kin to a bride price, to compensate them for the loss of her fertility to their kinship group and secure the legality of the union. Having paid the price for the marriage contract, she and her offspring belonged to the kinship network of her husband and could be inherited if her husband died.
The French Nationality Law of 1889 codified previous statutory laws, changing the French standard from jus sanguinis to jus soli and was extended to the French West Indies. Under its terms, women who would become stateless by the rule to acquire their spouse's nationality were allowed to retain their French nationality upon marriage. The Nationality Law was modified in 1897 when it was extended to the remainder of the French colonies. Clarification in the 1897 decree included that bestowing nationality by birth in French territory only applied to children born in France, restoring descent requirements for the colonies. Under the Code de l'indigénat (Code of Indigenous Status) promulgated for Algeria in 1881 and extended to French Equatorial Africa in 1910, nationals in the new colonies followed customary law. On 23 May 1912, a decree was issued specifically addressing the status of French Equatorial Africans. Under its terms, native persons born in Equatorial Africa were nationals of France but not citizens and were subject to the Indigenous Code. Upon reaching the age of twenty-one, they could be naturalized; however, the law was explicit that neither a wife nor the children of a naturalized Equatorial African automatically derived his French nationality. Only if the spouses were married under French law and the children registered in the Civil Registry could they acquire the status of the husband or father. To naturalize Equatorial Africans had to be able to both read and write French and had to have served in the French military service or have been decorated with the Legion of Honor.