SOUTH AFRICA’S PARTICIPATION IN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC AND DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO PEACE MISS IONS: A COMPARISON

After the peacekeeping tragedy in the Central African Republic (CAR) in March 2013, South Africa’s participation in peacekeeping missions on the African continent is under investigation. Military personnel of the South African National Defence Force recently took part in both conventional and unconventional, asymmetric warfare in two peace missions, one in the CAR and one in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In the CAR a unilateral military agreement between states existed, while in the DRC a United Nations (UN) mandate for multilateral offensive peacekeeping was authorised. The rationale for South Africa’s participation in African missions is important while the country is serving as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. Its role as one of the leading nations in Africa to deploy peacekeepers is central to its foreign policy. The article focuses on contrasting operations, and diverse challenges such as the authorisation of mandates, funding, logistics and shortcomings in asymmetric training for irregular “new wars” where peacekeepers are required to protect civilians in countries to which they owe little allegiance. Lessons learnt from the widely differing operational experiences in these recent peace missions are discussed.

The Scottish Catholic Mission Stations in Bauchi Province, Nigeria: 1957-1970

In 1963 the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, Gordon Joseph Gray, asked for volunteers to staff a mission station in the Bauchi province in the north of Nigeria. By the end of 1969 the Bauchi experiment was deemed a success; however, the process of establishing the mission was littered with complications. Not only had this station been abandoned by the Society of African Missions since 1957, it was also firmly located in an Islam-dominated area where Catholic priests had to compete not only with Muslims but also with American Protestant missionaries and indigenous religions. To make matters worse, the years between 1963 and 1970 included two coups and a civil war during which religion became the focus of much of the violence. This article looks at the correspondence between Archbishop Gray and the volunteers in Bauchi in order to provide insight into how the missionaries experienced their task of establishing a Scottish Catholic presence an area others considered too hostile.