Religious beliefs, modern politics and conflict resolution in The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

This doctorate project seeks to investigate the interplay between religious beliefs (the African
Traditional Religions (ATR), fear of God and spirits, modern African forms of Christianity and other
supernaturalism) and modern politics in DRC, and its significance, influence and place in modern
peace processes. The project will explore the role of religious beliefs in modern political processes
and political settlements. And whether are recognised and used in the conceptual methods and
theoretical approaches to international peace mediation, the design of peace processes and peacemaking
efforts, and in the field of conflict resolutions. Many social and political scientists, (Mbiti,
2010; Kagema, 2015; Daniel, 2010) suggest that although ATR and other modern forms of religious
beliefs are important features of the local cultural identities, they have often been undermined,
marginalised, neglected or labelled outdated, primitive, backward and irrational. The project will
explore to what extent this characterisation stifles the specific attainment of sustainable outcomes
in negotiations for peace and reconciliation in post-conflict contexts.
This project stems from my personal experience in facilitating a multi-track mediation (tracks one,
two and three)1
in DRC in 2012/2013. Working with international political peace mediators from the
Woodrow Wilson Centre and the University of Rouen (France), I observed the combination of
various methods and approaches to conflict mediation and had the opportunity to co-mediate an
intra-ethnic conflict involving a vice-president, senior army officials, some senators and several
senior executives in the private sector. The process started with a direct negotiation approach with
the individual parties in the conflict, and proved successful. This was followed by a direct and
indirect engagement with the parties in conflict to initiate dialogue using the Harvard Approach
delving deeper into the underlying interests and claims of parties and galvanising my interest in
further research about negotiations and conflict resolutions.