Guinean nationality law is regulated by the Constitution of Guinea, as amended; the Guinean Nationality Code, and its revisions; the Civil Code of Guinea; the Family Code of Guinea; and various international agreements to which the country is a signatory. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of Guinea. 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. Nationality describes the relationship of an individual to the state under international law, whereas citizenship is the domestic relationship of an individual within the nation. Guinean nationality is typically obtained under the principle of jus soli, i.e. by birth in Guinea, or jus sanguinis, i.e. by birth in Guinea or abroad to parents with Guinean 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 Guinea at birth or later in life through naturalization.
By birth Those who acquire nationality at birth include:
Children born anywhere to at least one parent with Guinean nationality; Children legally adopted by a Guinean parent, at the time of completion of a legal adoption automatically derive Guinean nationality; Children born in Guinea who have a parent who was also born in Guinea, regardless of the parent's original nationality; Abandoned children or orphans, whose parents are unknown, and were discovered in the territory, are assumed to have had Guinean parents unless proven otherwise; or Children born in the territory who would otherwise be stateless.
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 Guinea. General provisions are that applicants have good character and conduct; have no criminal convictions which resulted in a sentence of more than one year; are in good physical and mental health; and have adequate means to be self-sufficient. Applicants must typically have resided in the country for five years. Besides foreigners meeting the criteria, other persons who may be naturalized include:
Adoptees whose adoption is informal, are allowed to naturalize; Persons born in Guinea who did not acquire nationality prior to age sixteen can naturalize after demonstrating five year's residency prior to the request; The spouse(s) of a Guinean national after five years of marriage and three years of residency in Guinea, provided at the time of the request the marriage has not dissolved. Should they have a child, the marriage period is reduced to three years; Minor children can be automatically naturalized when their parent acquires nationality; or Persons who have performed exceptional service to the nation without a residency period.
Loss of nationality Guinean nationals can renounce their nationality pending approval by the state. Guineans of origin may lose their nationality for voluntarily acquiring another nationality or participating in actions, like voting or serving in public office, that indicates they are the national of another country. Naturalized persons may be denaturalized in Guinea for disloyalty to the state; committing crimes against the state or state security; ordinary crimes; residing outside of the country; or for fraud, misrepresentation, or concealment in a naturalization petition. Persons who previously had nationality and wish to repatriate if they voluntarily lost their status must establish residency and request reinstatement.
Dual nationality Dual nationality is not allowed in Guinea for persons who obtained Guinean nationality at birth.
History African empires and European contact (1443–1882) The Casa da Guiné was founded in 1443 in Lisbon as a private venture, licensed by Prince Henry the Navigator to explore the potential of Christianization and commerce in West Africa. Their goal was to establish permanent relationships with the African kingdoms in an effort to work together in trading ventures. The fort they founded that year on Arguin Island allowed the access the coast from the Bay of Arguin to the Gulf of Guinea. Between 1474 and 1495, the Portuguese began interacting with the peoples in the Fouta Djallon, specifically the invading Fula people. By the end of the fifteenth century, the region had been conquered by the Mali Empire, also known as the Manden Empire. Though ruled by a high emperor, local chiefs had autonomy over the inhabitants in their territories. The village formed the nucleus of society with the chief extending protection to his kin in exchange for their loyalty. In a succession of conquests, the Songhai Empire required tributes from the local population from 1494. The Songhai attacked the capital of the Mali Empire in 1546, but they were displaced by the invading Saadi Sultanate in 1590. The influx of Islam into the region also brought migrants from the Sahel, Mandinka and Soninke people, into Upper Guinea, where they founded the Batè Empire on the banks of the Milo River at Kankan. The Saadi ruled to 1670 and then the Bambara Empire of Ségou became dominate, after conquering the last remnants of the Mali Empire. These various states interacted with and competed with each other to control commerce in the region.
Increasingly Europeans involved in the Transatlantic Slave Trade disrupted the traditional economic ties of Africa and the Mediterranean Muslim networks of trade, replacing them with reliance on European markets. Conflict became frequent both within and between states in their quest to capitalize on selling captives to Europeans, leading to destabilization of the region. In the early eighteenth century, the Batè Empire aligned with the emerging Imamate of Futa Jallon. The Imamate was founded in 1727 during the Fula jihads when the Islamicized Fula pastoralists and merchants conquered the Yalunka people, who had settled in Middle Guinea around Gaoual and Télimélé. They established an Islamic federation of nine provinces governed by Sharia law, with a central capital at Timbo. Abolition of the slave trade, in the first half of the nineteenth century, brought about a new push to establish alliances between Europeans and African states in an attempt to monopolize trade networks. From 1827, the French began attempts to spread their presence south from Senegal. Alternating diplomacy and force, they wrote treaties to gain control of territories and offer protection to chieftainships along the Upper Guinea Coast. The Toucouleur Empire emerged at Dinguiraye in the 1850s with a series of conquests against rulers in Senegambia and the Bambara Empire, taking Ségou in 1861. In the 1870s, the Batè Empire agreed to merge with the Wassoulou Empire, formed after the Toucouleur Empire fell in 1864 to gain protection from regional conflicts. By 1882, the French had control of the territories along the Mellacorée, Nunez, and Pongo Rivers, as well as Tombo Island, establishing trading posts over the area they called the Rivières du Sud (Southern Rivers).
French period (1882–1958) The British recognized French sovereignty over the colony of Rivières du Sud in 1882. In 1884, Germany annexed the territory between the Bramayah River (also known as the Dembia River) and the Dubréka estuary of the Kaloum people. To settle the dispute, France ceded to Germany territory it claimed in Petit Popo and Porto Seguro in 1885 in exchange for the Kaloum's territory and recognition of the French colony. Portugal recognized the French claim in 1886. The colony had been administrated from Senegal, but on 17 December 1891, it became autonomous. The name of the colony was officially changed on 10 March 1893 to French Guinea. In 1895, the French established the administration system that would govern its possessions in French West Africa for the next sixty years. A Governor-General was installed and a headquarters was founded in Dakar, in the Colony of Senegal. The Governor-General's authority was extended to Senegal, French Guinea, and the Ivory Coast colonies, and in 1899 to Dahomey and French Sudan. Under Article 109 of the French Constitution of 1848, French territories were to be governed by specific laws until the constitution was extended there. This provision laid the groundwork for nationality legislation based upon whether the native inhabitants were able to be assimilated by adopting European standards. From 1848, those persons who settled in the colonies and were from France were considered nationals who had full rights and were subject to French law. However, those born in the new territories were considered to be nationals without citizenship. Nationals in the older colonies of the Antilles, Guiana, Réunion and parts of India and Senegal were granted political rights, but those in new colonies were confirmed by a decree on 14 July 1865 to be subjects and not citizens, unless they renounced their allegiance to native custom and possessed sufficient understanding of the obligations of citizenship.
Also 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 West Africa in 1904, nationals in the new colonies followed customary law. The French West African Federation had been founded that year with the existing five colonies, of Dahomey, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Sudan, and was later expanded to include Mauritania, Niger, and Upper Volta.