Liberia's constitution provides that only persons of Negro descent may be Liberian citizens. Those outside that category cannot naturalise and are restricted in land ownership. It is the only country in the world still applying such an explicit racial criterion to citizenship.

Liberia was founded in the nineteenth century as a settlement for African Americans freed from slavery, declaring independence in 1847. The provision was originally framed as a protection: keeping the country out of the hands of the European colonial powers then dividing Africa, and keeping it a refuge for people of African descent.

The returnee group from America, a very small minority of the population, held overwhelming political and economic power for more than a century, while the indigenous peoples already living there were severely restricted in citizenship and voting rights through most of that period. That stratification is among the stated causes of later conflicts.

The same provision can be a shield for one group and a wall to another, and usually it is both at once. The original motive does not determine the long-run outcome; the structure of the provision does.

No. If you fall outside the category then however much you invest, however long you stay, whoever you marry, the route stays closed. It is one of very few countries where the answer does not depend on the applicant's file.

Liberia is among the world's largest ship registries with one of the largest registered merchant fleets by tonnage. Most of those ships have no substantive connection to Liberia — owners elsewhere, crews elsewhere, cargo moving between other places. What Liberia sells is the right to fly the flag and the legal regime that comes with it.

They are the same business model: a small state selling its legal status to foreign parties in exchange for fees. With ships it is called a flag of convenience, with people it is called citizenship by investment.

Flags of convenience are graded by international lists on safety control, and ships flying low-graded flags are inspected more at foreign ports — the label itself creates friction. With passports the mechanism is identical: a passport from a country assessed as running loose vetting is scrutinised harder at immigration desks and at bank account opening, even where the holder is entirely clean. A practical reason to choose a programme with rigorous due diligence rather than the fastest and cheapest.