Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This research report documents the results of a study that aims at investigating the potential contribution of a gender perspective towards conflict resolution. In this regard, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is used as a case in point. The study takes the form of an exploratory and descriptive study and extensive use is made of both primary and secondary sources of data. By arguing that a gender perspective on conflict will elucidate the way in which women are affected differently by conflict it logically follows that women should be permitted to assume their rightful positions in attempts at transforming conflict. The application of a gender perspective furthermore urges a revision of conflict resolution towards conflict management and transformation as the appropriate ways of bringing an end to war. This implies that the emphasis is shifted from a search for political solutions towards conflict prevention and early warning as the most effective ways of pre-empting violent conflict and the breakdown of peace-processes aimed at resolving violent conflicts. In the search for an appropriate role for women in conflict management, the study revisits a number of frameworks for the full and equal participation of women in conflict management at the international, regional and subregional levels of analysis. These frameworks are then applied to the situation in the DRC and some practical courses of action are proposed. While the study concludes that there is a clearly defined need for exposing the gender bias in the analysis and resolution of violent conflict, it notes that the patriarchal nature of the DRC and the international system will in many instances hamper progress towards the achievement of a non-patriarchal and nongendered peaceful social world order. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie navorsingsverslag dokumenteer die uitkomste van 'n studie wat daarna streef om die potensiële bydrae van vroue tot konflik resolusie te ondersoek. Tot hierdie end word die Demokratiese Republiek van die Kongo as 'n gevalstudie gebruik. Die navorsings ontwerp is eksploratories en beskrywend en daar word ekstensief gebruik gemaak van beide primêre en sekondêre bronne van data. Deur aan te voer dat 'n gender perspektief op konflik die wyse waarop vroue verskillend geraak word deur konflik beklemtoon, volg dit logies hierop dat vroue toegelaat behoort te word om hul regmatig plek in te neem ten tyde van pogings tot konflik transformasie. Die toepassing van 'n gender perspektief dwing verder ook 'n hersiening van konflik resolusie en beskou konflik bestuur en transformasie as die gepaste maniere om oorlog tot 'n einde te bring. Dit bring mee dat daar 'n verskuiwing van klem plaasvind - vanaf 'n soeke na politieke oplossings na konflik voorkoming en vroeë/tydige waarskuwing as die mees effektiewe instrumente om geweldadige konflik en die ineenstorting van vredesprosesse te voorkom. In die soeke na die gepaste rol vir vroue in konflik bestuur, herondersoek die studie 'n aantal raamwerke vir die volledige en gelyke deelname van vroue in konflik bestuur op die internasionale, regionale en sub-regionale vlakke van analise. Hierdie raamwerke word dan toegepas op die situasie in the DRK, en praktiese riglyne word voorgehou. Hoewel die studie vind dat daar 'n duidelike gedefinieerde behoefte bestaan om die gender vooroordeel in die analisie en resolusie van konflik te openbaar, word dit ook aanvaar dat die patriargale aard van die DRK en die internasionale sisteem in die meeste gevalle ware vooruitgang in die daarstelling van 'n nie-patriargale, gelykregtige, vreedsame sosiale wêreldorde sal kniehalter.

This study focuses on the premise that national interests of governments are the primary motivating factors that inform decisions on military interventions. Military strategy remains a principal tool in the attainment, pursuance and safeguarding of these interests. Military intervention is the last resort to a series of options that begin with and continue to inform the dynamic: diplomacy, policing, reliance on alliance action and finally, deterrent or pro-active military action. Military interventions in the 20th century have been undertaken at the multilateral, regional and sub-regional levels in given conflicts by a range of actors. Scholarly questions have been asked about the rationale behind the respective governments’ decisions to undertake these interventions. In the case of this study, which focuses on the SADC coalition of willing nations’ military intervention in the Congo conflict, questions have centred on the following: What was the rationale and motive that led governments of the three countries to undertake the decisions for military intervention in the Congo? Was the intervention an altruistic act by the intervening governments seeking to stop aggression of an ally or was it driven by the personal quests by leaders of these intervening countries to secure their share of the DRC mineral wealth? Or, was it merely a case of the three governments intervening as a coalition in pursuit of their varied interests? What was the strategy that this coalition adopted in pursuit of the member countries interests? It is this attempt to explain and determine the rationale and principal factors that informed the three countries’ decision to intervene in the conflict and the military strategy adopted to safeguard these interests that serve as the focal basis for this study. In trying to answer its key questions, this study uses historical and qualitative approaches in collecting and analysing data not only from both primary and secondary sources but also interviews with participants (some off the record as still serving). Thus, the findings of the research would be analysed critically within the framework of the core objectives of the study, which seek not only to identify and establish how the interests of the governments that intervened in the DRC conflict were the primary motivating factor that informed their decisions on military interventions, but also to ascertain the extent to which the SADC coalition’s military strategy became a principal tool in the attainment and safeguarding of these varying interests as well as how that strategy was utilised as a mechanism for the translation and development of these varying interests into common ones among the intervening countries. Lastly, the study seeks to offer policy suggestions on the execution of future military interventions in African conflicts, particularly at the SADC sub-regional level. Whilst literature on military interventions seems to be informed by realpolitik, with the notions by Barry Buzan (and others) that strong states take decisions to intervene when their geostrategic and economic interests are served, states can also militarily intervene for humanitarian purposes. Using the realist paradigm as a theoretical tool of analysis, the study noted that military intervention can best be understood in terms of the power and interests of particular nation states acting individually or collectively as a coalition using the brand of a sub-regional, regional or even international organisation with or without the mandate of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). An analysis is made on the scholarly legal debates surrounding the decision to intervene by the SADC coalition. The study generally established that the claimed interests that motivated the decisions by the respective governments were generally based on the political, economic and military/security dimensions. A critical evaluation of these respective interests of the interveners show that their interests shifted in regards to the levels of importance (that is primary and secondary level) at the initial stage of the intervention and during the intervention period. The coalition’s military strategy became a tool for attaining, securing and safeguarding of these respective interests. As part of the strategy, the SADC coalition’s Mutual Defence Pact acted as a political and legal guide in the promotion of complimentary and common interests of the interveners. Despite formulating such a military strategy, the unexpected longevity of the intervention impacted on the intervening countries’ logistical capacity to sustain the war effort. An initiative by the DRC government to enter into bilateral business ventures with the respective SADC countries and its awarding of mining concessions to the same was meant to be part, arguably, of sustaining the military intervention. However, this war time economic initiative has raised questions among scholars and policy practitioners on whether or not the decision for intervention by a coalition of these countries was basically underpinned by the quest to attain and safeguard national interests or it was aimed at promoting personal elite interests. Having taken note that the major findings of the study revolve around contentious primary issues relating to foreign policy decision making in the context of military intervention, a number of recommendations are made. These include: · Firstly, the undertaking of cost benefit analyses in regard to political, legal and economic matters prior to a nation’s decision for military intervention; · Secondly, the need for an appropriate and effective sub-regional mechanism guided by a sub-regional legal guide or tool for military intervention that would be utilised within the relevant AU and UN political and military framework; Finally a paradigm shift is needed in the conceptualization of what constitutes national interest. This includes a new theoretical thinking based on unilateral and multilateral military intervention in the present global order which should be based on the global or collective interest where maintenance of international peace, stability and security (more importantly human security) are of primary importance. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

One of the concerns of the modern Christian church and dissident groups is to ensure that the Church's fundamental doctrines, leadership, women's ministries and religious practices conform with the early apostolic church teachings. In this study the writer offers a comprehensive and detailed evaluation of the modern church in the light of the early church. The case of the modern Seventhday Adventist (SDA) Church in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and worldwide is examined and compared, basing its survey on numerous published and unpublished documents from a combined use of primary, secondary materials and individual statements. Setting the early history of the SDA Church within the religious context of nineteenth-century America, the writer describes how SDA doctrines, leadership, women's ministries and religious practices link with those beliefs and practices in the early apostolic church, showing whether the SDA Church has departed from the early apostolic church’s Biblical, timeless principles or not. Several pertinent issues however have stirred up as much controversy in recent years within the Adventist dissident groups as that of the women’s ministries in the church, the righteousness by faith doctrine, the monarchical leadership, and various religious practices. Nevertheless, in the light of the early apostolic teaching, some enlightenment has been achieved, and several critical accusations from dissident groups were illuminated and confirmed.The accusation regarding the deterioration of Biblical doctrines appears not to have been confirmed by the Biblical evaluation and the lifestyle of the SDA believers. Rather, concerning this issue, it is confirmed that in the DRC and worldwide, the SDA Church has not departed from the fundamental doctrines of the early Apostolic church. / Thesis (D. TH. (Church History))

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Despite the excessive mineral wealth, the underground deposits of gold, diamonds, copper and cobalt and other valuable minerals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which are coveted by many countries, the majority of the population is still destitute and lives in dire poverty. However the country itself prospered during the colonial period 1885-1960 and it became the second most industrialized state in Africa after South Africa (Petit & Mutambwa, 2005). Unfortunately it is now ranked among the world's poorest countries in the world. Since the Democratic Republic of the Congo gained independence in 1960 it has not experienced development that benefits the whole population. The country is experiencing continuing and pressing problems of poverty and human suffering. Thus the purpose during this study is to analyse the position of the Pentecostal Church in the Congo (30ème CPCO) concerning the situation of poverty in the city of Lubumbashi and to design a pragmatic approach that can assist the denomination to find ways to effectively address the problem of poverty. Findings reveal that the city of Lubumbashi is riddled with complex socio-economic challenges, but the 30 ème CPCO is not equipped practically or theologically to address these challenges. Poverty in the city of Lubumbashi is pervasive, it is therefore structural and historical. It comes a long way, from the slavery, to colonization, to dictatorship, neo-colonization and globalization. Sin and lovelessness have been identified as the roots causes of poverty in the DRC in the sense that sin which is the opposite of love is the driving force behind the oppressive structures that have impoverished millions of people in the DRC and around the world. Furthermore findings also disclose that the understanding of the soteriology within the Pentecostal denomination theology is problematic. Salvation is understood as being spiritual only, the physical aspect is misapprehended. In addition there is a heretical prosperity gospel in the denomination which teaches that poverty is the result of personal sin and unfaithfulness to tithing. They believe that giving large amounts of money will release blessings and prosperity. This view has skewed the denomination's approach towards the eradication of poverty. As a result the 30 ème CPCO’s involvement in poverty eradication is described as rudimentary, it is limited to sporadic assistance to the poor. Although the 30 ème CPCO station of Lubumbashi as a whole has been sporadically giving assistance to the poor, there are many factors that have restricted its ability to effectively engage in poverty eradication amongst which is poor understanding of the root causes of poverty. This in fact is influenced by the perception of poverty which is subject to features such as the mentality of the people or the level of literacy, the environment, the world view, the circumstances, the culture etc. The inability of the 30 ème CPCO to address poverty is also due to lack of enough education, poor administration, financial issues, lack of partners to help with the development and cooperation between congregations. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Ten spyte van groot minerale rykdom, die ondergrondse bronne van goud, diamante, koper kobalt en ander minerale, wat deur ander lande begeer word, leef die oorgrote meerderheid van die bevolking van die Demokratiese Republiek van die Kongo in armoede. Tydens die koloniale tydperk (1885–1960) het die Kongo tog vooruitgegaan en die tweede mees industrieë in Afrika, na Suid-Afrika, besit. Dus was dit die doel tydens hierdie studie om die posisie van die Pinkster Kerk in die Kongo (30 ème CPCO) betreffende die armoede stiuasie in die stad Lubumbashi te bepaal en om maniere te vind waarop ’n pragmatiese benadering tot armoede gevolg kan word. Daar is bevind dat die stad Lubumbashi baie komplekse sosio-ekonomiese uitdagings in die gesig staar, maar dat die 30 ème CPCO nie bevoeg is om daardie uitdagings op ’n praktiese wyse of ’n teologiese wyse aan te spreek nie nie. Die armoede in die stad kan oral gesien word, dit is struktueel en histories. Hierdie armoede gaan ver terug, na slaverny, kolonisasie diktatorskap, neo-liberalisme en globalisasie. Sonde en liefdeloosheid word gesien as hoofoorsake van armoede in die Demokratiese Republiek van die Kongo in die sin dat sonde wat die teenoorgestelde van liefde is, die dryfveer is agter die onderdrukkende strukture wat miljoene mense in die DRK en elders in die wêreld in armoede gedompel het. Daar is ook bevind dat die begrip van soteriologie in die Pinkster denominasie se teologie problematies is. Net die geestelike aspek van redding is in ag geneem en die fiesiese aspek is misken. Daar is ook diegene in die denominasie wat verkeerdelik glo in die voorspoeds evangelie waarvolgens armoede die gevolg is van die persoon se eie sonde of ontrouheid wat betref die gee van tiendes. Hulle glo dat die gee van groot hoeveelhede geld sal lei tot seëninge en voorspoed. Hierdie siening het ’n effek gehad op die denominasie se houding teenoor die uitroei van armoede. Daarom is die 30 ème CPCO se betrokkenheid by die uitwissing van armoede rudimentêr. Dit is beperk tot hulp aan die armes. . Alhoewel die 30 ème CPCO stasie van Lubumbashi as geheel sporadies hulp aan die armes verleen het, is daar baie faktore wat die kerk se vermoë om effektief te wees in die uitroei van armoede, beperk het. Een daarvan is ’n begrip van die grondoorsake van armoede. Die begrip word beïnvloed deur die persepsie van armoede, en aspekte soos die mentaliteit van die mense, die graad van geletterheid, die omgewing, die siening van die wêreld, die kultuur ens. Die onvermoë van die 30 ème CPCO om armoede aan te spreek is die gevolg van ’n gebrek aan opvoeding, swak administrasie, finansiële probleme en gebrek aan vennote, asook ’n gebrek aan samewerking tussen gemeentes.

Thesis advisor: M. Shawn Copeland / Thesis advisor: O. Ernesto Valiente / The title of this essay is deliberately provocative. It aims at drawing attention on the reality of Christian churches full everyday – not only on sundays – with people who everyday die from hunger. In the Congo-Zaire. Behind the image of crowded churches, I see the complex reality of Christianity, and behind the image of empty stomachs, I have in view the complex reality of poverty, oppression, violence and death. It is paradoxical that those two realities grow together. This essay explores the sources of that paradox, going back to the first encounter of the people of the old Kongo Kingdom, and later on Congo-Zaire, with Christianity. It analyzes the relationships between Christianity and the poor throughout the history of the Congo-Zaire. It examines the message of salvation brought by Christianity and how it is related to the people’s conditions of life. The conclusion is tough, but unavoidable. First, Christianity during colonial times – which I call missionary Christianity – in the Congo-Zaire did not side with the poor. It served the interests of the powerful, to safeguard its own interests. It despised the way of life of the autochthonous and destroyed their identity. Second, Christianity today in the Congo-Zaire – which I call postindependence Christianity – struggles with the heritage of the colonial past, but it basically continues to function following the same model. We still live in the colonial settings. Therefore, this for me is the key to resolving the paradox. Following the insights of postcolonial theories, turn the page of colonial Christianity, move towards what I call a “postcolonial Christianity.” That postcolonial Christianity should be informed by the African way of life (hence re-appropriating the values of the autochthonous) and rooted in the preferential option for the poor, which is the main principle at the heart of liberation theology. There lies a great challenge: how to actualize that postcolonial Christianity in the Congo-Zaire? / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Most of what we know of the socioecology and behaviour of gorillas comes from studies of mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei), despite their representing less than 1% of all gorillas in the wild. Western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) have received far less research effort, and difficulties in habituation have led previous studies to rely heavily on indirect trail evidence. This has prevented any in-depth comparison of social structure and behaviour between species. The discovery of swampy clearings frequented by western lowland gorillas in northern Congo has offered the first opportunity to obtain accurate demographic and behavioural data. This thesis reports on 6273 hours of observer presence at Mbeli Bai, which yielded 1681 hours of direct gorilla observation. Most data come from a population of 13 groups and 7 solitary silverbacks. Group size ranged from 2 to 16 (mean = 8.4, SD 4.3) which does not differ significantly from data published on most other populations. Female natal and secondary transfer were recorded, and male emigration from the natal group appeared universal (no multi-silverback groups were recorded). No evidence of sub-grouping or a fission-fusion grouping pattern was found. During intra-group interactions, no evidence was recorded of female philopatry, and silverbacks herded and intimidated females (especially new immigrants) to prevent emigration. Inter-unit interactions took place on only 42% of shared bai-use occasions, and levels of silverback agonism were much lower than in mountain gorillas, with peaceful mingling of groups recorded. Display behaviour was common, and two previously unrecorded agonistic displays (the splash display and the crest display) are described. No contact aggression between silverbacks was observed but evidence of wounding sustained in the forest suggests that the bai environment may inhibit such aggression. High visibility and the ease of silverback 'policing' are thought to create an unusually tolerant social dynamic, and as such, frequencies of certain social behaviours should probably be viewed as site-specific. The thesis offers the fullest account of western gorilla social structure and behaviour to date. Long-term monitoring of life history variables, if continued, will provide an unparalleled opportunity to understand the effects of habitat and food availability and more stochastic influences on western gorilla social structure, fitness, and survival.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 263-282).

Thesis (M.A.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 1991. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 198-205).

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University. / Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: F. W. Herriott. Dissertation Committee: M. S. Bates, M. R. Brunstetter. Type B project. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [205]-217).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--American University, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 227-249).