The Past as Present: Contemporary Legal Fragmentation and The Mission Covenant Church of Sweden as a Rule of Law Actor in Congo 1881–1961

Our project turns to history to examine our present time; specifically, the present-day fragmented and ‘failed state’ of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), often described as lacking in terms of the Rule of Law and adequate legal institutions, by exploring the extensive and understudied  rule of law activities pursued in the lower Congo by Swedish missionaries from the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden (Svenska Missionskyrkan) in1881-1961.

Following the well-established thesis that ‘disorder’ in the contemporary ‘postcolony’ flows from how the introduction of law and order was pursued during the pre-colonial and colonial era, our project revisits the Swedish contribution to the establishment of the Rule of Law in contemporary DRC, in order to better understand legal fragmentation and pluralism was introduced in the pre-colonial and colonial era.

We draw on unique archival material with the aim to develop a substantiated holistic approach to legal fragmentation and state state-building initiatives in the contemporary DRC.