Within, Above, and Beyond: Churches and Religious Civil Society Activism in South Kivu

ABSTRACT

In South Kivu in the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), various church actors have chosen to involve in advocacy and mobilization through a formalized civil society structure known as La Société Civile (LSC). In this article, we explore the relationship between the churches and civil society in Eastern DRC, paying particular attention to why this cooperation has taken such a formalized expression, the motivations of church actors to become involved in LSC and, finally, how this relationship between different civil society actors has underpinned various peacebuilding efforts at the local, provincial, and national scale.

KEYWORDS:

• Civil society
• Democratic Republic of Congo
• faith-based organizations
• peacebuilding
• advocacy

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Berit Aasen and two anonymous referees for instructive comments on an earlier draft of this article. Any remaining errors remain the sole responsibility of the authors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This article was written as a part of a research project funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (grant number RAF 11/0112).