5 - Between Rootedness and Rootlessness

Summary

Chapter 5 indicates that migration to and from Liberia in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries profoundly modified the meaning and practice of citizenship by creating categories of Liberians that have defied the legal definition of citizen. In 1847, Liberia was a country of relative immigration yet citizenship norms were biased against those considered ‘rooted’—primarily the 16 ethnic groups already occupying the territory were formally excluded from the institution of citizenship. In 2019, however, while Liberia exemplified a country of relative emigration citizenship norms were biased against those deemed ‘rootless’—essentially jus soli Liberians who naturalised abroad and jus sanguinis Liberians who maintained their birthplace citizenship remained excluded from formal Liberian citizenship. This chapter moves beyond the rhetoric of politicians and policy makers to underscore that ordinary Liberians’ contemporary notions of rootedness and rootlessness represent a continuum of sedentarist and nomadic metaphysical thinking thereby simultaneously challenging and strengthening claims for dual citizenship. While motivations for not naturalising abroad—largely based on sedentarist metaphysics—have challenged core assumptions about the necessity of dual citizenship for Liberia, motivations for naturalising—largely based on nomadic metaphysics—have galvanised proponents of such a policy prescription and development intervention.