Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Linguistics, March, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

A la différence des arts rupestres du Sahara ou d’Afrique australe, richement documentés, ceux d’Afrique centrale restent encore aujourd’hui largement méconnus. Cette région se différencie des précédentes par la prégnance d’un art peint et gravé non figuratif. Dans la plupart des cas, leur signification reste obscure. A l’échelle de la sous-région, la République démocratique du Congo est pourtant connue depuis longtemps pour ses sites rupestres.Ma recherche porte sur le Bas-Congo, la région la plus à l’ouest de l’actuelle République démocratique du Congo. / No English summary available.

Magister Legum - LLM / In many countries around the world, approximately 230 million children are living in countries affected by armed conflict. 15 million of them were caught up, in various parts of Africa, in violent conflicts. Some of the African countries where children are involved in armed conflicts include: Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mali, Somalia and South Sudan. In CAR, for example, thirty four children (girls and boys) were abducted by armed groups, some as young as 3 years of age.

This thesis examines relations between Wales and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) during the Cold War period of 1949 to 1990. Previous studies have investigated who in Britain interacted with the GDR and their motivations for doing so. The appeal of particular groups and demographics to the GDR authorities - in pursuit of foreign policy objectives - are also well documented. This study is driven by two research questions: i) the identity and motivations of Welsh individuals or organisations approaching and engaging with the GDR and considering to what extent their ‘Welsh identity’ influenced their positioning vis-à-vis the GDR and the Cold War; ii) the extent of Welsh acceptance of any overtures made by a socialist state, including the likely resonance of the GDR’s self-promotion as an anti-fascist, egalitarian state, which sought to protect and develop the rights of its own Sorbian minority culture. The research approach adopted for the thesis has considered how multiple projections of ‘Welshness’ influenced the expression of, and thus the GDR’s perception and understanding of Welsh identity. The findings from this research suggest that the most intriguing and recurrent interactions between Wales and the GDR occurred as a result of concerns for the status of the Welsh language during the Cold War period, encouraged by the GDR’s domestic policy for its own Sorbian minority. This study thus contributes a further category of Welsh-speakers to those identified in the existing scholarship as having interacted with the GDR. Notwithstanding Welsh-Sorbian interactions, this research also determines that other facets of Welsh life sought to engage with the GDR, including representatives of the friendship movement, the Welsh proletariat and left-leaning politicians who believed that establishing relations with the GDR would facilitate détente and peaceful co-existence. Existing assumptions in the field are further strengthened by this thesis’ findings, including the GDR’s methods and approaches for cultivating relationships with the West. Varying projections of Welsh identity prompted different (and often confused and inappropriate) responses from the GDR authorities. By evaluating a range of Welsh-GDR interactions throughout the Cold War period, the findings of this research contribute an alternative Welsh narrative to the field of British-GDR relations.

This study examines the effectiveness of environmental and developmental rights within the SADC region, especially the status of their implementation and enforcement in the DRC and the RSA. The SADC Treaty recognizes implicitly the rights to environment and to development. Unfortunately, the unequivocal commitment to deal with human rights within the region is not translated with equal force into the normative framework established by the Treaty or into SADC’s programmed activities. No institution has been established with the specific mandate to deal with human rights issues, neither are there any protocols or sectors especially entrusted with human rights protection and promotion. The SADC member States do not share the same understanding or agenda on matters pertaining to the respect for, and the promotion, protection and the fulfilment, of human rights at the regional level. The inception of environmental and developmental rights within the Constitution of the DRC is still in its infancy compared to the situation in South Africa. Implementation and enforcement remain poor and need important support from all organs of state and from the Congolese citizens. A strong regulatory framework pertaining to human rights (environmental and developmental rights) remains an urgent issue. Guidance may be found in the South African model for the implementation and enforcement of human rights, although the realization of the right to environment in South Africa is hampered by a number of factors that cause the degradation of the environment. Against South Africa’s socio-economic and political background, the constitutionalization of the right to development remains of critical concern to a sustainable future for all. The Congolese and South African peoples need to be made aware of their constitutional rights, especially their environmental and development rights, and the institutions and the mechanisms available to enforce them. They need to be empowered to demand justice as a right not as an act of charity. It is patently clear that the authorities will not protect the environment or tackle the development agenda unless there is a strong people’s movement to challenge the State and other role players over environmental and development issues and ethics. / Constitutional, International and Indigenous Law / LL.D.

The present research has been aimed at investigating how imperialism and colonialism are located both in the biblical text (cf. Joshua 1-12) and in present day interpretive postcolonial contexts such as that of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. An investigation was made of the unequal power dynamics at play between the Israelites who are depicted as mercilessly conquering the indigenous peoples of Canaan in the name of the deity, and the Canaanites. How were/ are such power dynamics played out in the Katangese, Democratic Republic of the Congo’s context in the relations between the then colonizers, that is, the Belgians as well as the neo-colonial African rulers and the Congolese peoples? It is argued that the Belgians assumed the role akin to that of the Israelite invaders as they mercilessly invaded the “promised land”, that is, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, ending with the brutal extermination of African peoples justified on biblical precedents. A conclusion is made that within the context of postcolonial biblical interpretation, the conquest narrative of Joshua 1-12 is one of the most traumatic stories in which violence is committed by one nation on another in the name of the deity. Postcolonial biblical criticism was found to be an appropriate approach in assisting the researcher to navigate through violent biblical texts with a view to coming up with a transformative reading of the texts in the (Katangese) context of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. / Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Biblical Studies)

French text / La Mission Évangélique de la Délivrance (M.E.D) est dans une ville où le VIH/SIDA fait rage. Ceci crée un problème social dû à la transmission par manque d’information sur cette maladie meurtrière. L’échantillon utilisé confirme l’idée selon laquelle la M.E.D contribue à la prévention de la transmission du VIH/SIDA et même cette lutte avec ses paroisses à travers les activités organisées concernant cette pandémie. Cependant, le besoin est d’étendre cette lutte dans les églises des autres communautés proches et lointaines dans la ville de Kinshasa. La MED intensifie son action pour convaincre les gens ayant une conception archaïque sur la pandémie. Elle veut bannir les mythes qui l’entourent et donner les conseils précis sur la pratique sexuelle responsable. La MED amène les gens à se faire examiner pour connaître leur état sérologique. Elle encourage les atteints à vivre positivement et à collaborer sans gêne. / The Mission Evangélique de la Délivrance is in a city where the HIV/AIDS makes rage. It creates a social problem due to the transmission for lack of information on this murderous illness. The used sample confirms the idea according to which the MED contributes to the prevention of the transmission of HIV/AIDS and even this struggle with her parishes through activities organized concerning this pandemic. However, the need is to spread this struggle in other near and far away community churches in Kinshasa. The MED intensifies her action to convince people having an archaic conception on the pandemic. She wants to outlaw myths that surround it and to give the precise advices on the responsible sexual practice. The MED brings people to make examine themselves to know their serological state. She encourages those who are reached by the illness to live positively and to collaborate without hindrance. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)

This thesis explores the Mbuti Pygmies, a sub-group of the Pygmy peoples, one of the main ethnic groups of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Mbuti Pygmies are settled mostly in the Ituri rainforest, and are, with regard to Christian mission, still unreached and unchurched. The oversight of the churches vis-à-vis these people is highlighted, through this thesis, as a challenge to Christian mission. This challenge is a result of the way Christian mission is understood and undertaken in DRC, namely in the selective and exclusive way of missioning, according to which some peoples are targeted and others forsaken. Churches in the DRC shy away from the Mbuti Pygmies probably because, on the one hand, these forest dwellers belong to the group of Pygmies whose existence as full human beings is enigmatic and very controversial. Because of the uniqueness of the Pygmy peoples in terms of physical features, culture, and way of life, on the other hand, the non-Pygmy peoples, including Christians, suffer from a kind of complex of superiority that creates in them a spirit of discrimination against the Mbuti Pygmies. As the Mbuti Pygmies are discriminated against even by Christians, it is very difficult for them to be taken into account within the mission agendas of the churches. This challenge to Christian mission is highlighted by two facts. Firstly, Christian mission is designed for all the nations to which the Mbuti Pygmies belong. Secondly, the churches, with their missional mandate to all the nations, shy away from the Mbuti Pygmies as if these people were outside the scope of Christian mission and, thus, unworthy of God’s grace and love.To remedy this challenge, with the aim of implementing Christian mission in the DRC, this study suggests a missional encounter as a way forward to addressing the Mbuti Pygmies. In practice, this may be implemented through the missionary conversion, the right perception of the Mbuti Pygmies as being fully made in the “image of God” and fully part of the “all nations”, promoting formal education among the Mbuti Pygmies, and sustaining the churches by an integrated theological education. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)

This thesis is a critical missiological analysis of Pentecostal mission, specifically of the Congo Evangelistic Mission (CEM) in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It investigates how CEM members have been interpreting and expressing the Christian message in and for the context of Katanga Province through their communal life, worship and mission since its inception in 1914. It also asks the methodological question of how such a Pentecostal mission could best be studied and evaluated missiologically. To carry out this investigation the researcher developed a “Pentecostal Praxis Missiological Approach” which he used extensively throughout his study. Chapter two demonstrates that, while British missionaries brought the CEM to Katanga province, it was the early Congolese pioneers who actually spread the movement to different parts of Katanga and beyond its borders. Chapter three shows how CEM members have analysed the Congolese context, identifying it as a lost, unholy and socially broken society with high levels of poverty, unemployment and poor access to basic needs; it is also beset with problems of war and conflict, corruption and injustices as well as abuse of women. Chapter four focuses on the spirituality of power that inspires and motivates the CEM in the various dimensions of its mission. Chapter five uses mainly liturgical sources like prayers, songs and sermons to construct the Pentecostal theology of mission that guides and directs the CEM in its mission. Chapter six explores the agents and strategies of mission that the CEM uses to address the missional challenges they identify in their context. The final chapter raises six key missiological issues that emerged from the study and that require the attention of missiological scholars in order to foster the future of Pentecostal mission in Congo and the Southern African region as a whole. These issues are: preventing ongoing schisms, evangelising members of other religious traditions, the scope of healing, the impact of rapture theology, the place of women in ordained Pentecostal ministry, and the extent of contextualisation in the CEM. Keys terms Katanga Province, / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D.Th. (Missiology)

This study investigated integrated learning at a Christian university, the Christian Bilingual University of the Congo (UCBC) with the view to improving higher education practice in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) which is tasked with addressing social problems. Higher education in the DRC is shaped by its colonial legacy and a teacher-centred approach focused on theory, typical of a banking-type learning and a lack of integration. These factors stifle critical thinking and initiative in students and prevent them from developing into service-oriented agents for change in their communities. The advent of Christian universities has heralded a quest for holistic training to foster character and produce civic-minded and service-oriented citizens. A qualitative study using a phenomenology as methodology investigated the lived experiences in integrated learning and service in the community of twelve purposefully selected UCBC alumni. Data was obtained through semi-structured, in-depth interviews. Findings indicated that integrated learning is holistic education which engages mind, heart, soul and body; it combines practice and theory in training and prepares students to contribute to national welfare. It occurs in a multiple component and dimensional context and is characterized by learner-centeredness, active learning and constant interaction among the school community members. It is focused on the building of the inner person of the learner. Further, participants understood transformation as part of personal development, a lifelong process that moves a person to act differently in community after his personal assumptions have been deeply revised through his encounter with integrated learning. Its impact is character development as foundation for bold action in the community, the rediscovery of one’s identity, the development of servant leadership, team work and social networking and dependence on God. Findings revealed that transformed learners initiated a change of mentality and experienced culture conversion in their communities through confronting problems and modelling servanthood. It also established the enactment of integrated learning as a contributor to personal and community transformation as a result of students’ ‘echoed words’ and actions as learning-teachers. Based on the findings recommendations were made for the strengthening of integrated learning in Christian universities. / Educational Foundations / D. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)