Spirituality and war: soldier practices in deployment in African Military landscapes

Abstract

This special issue explores the intersections of spirituality and war through the lived experiences of soldiers deployed in sub-Saharan Africa. Bringing together five papers, it highlights how spiritual beliefs, practices, and local cosmologies shape soldiers’ engagements with landscapes of conflict. Moving beyond conventional Western analytic approaches that privilege material, textual, and visible dimensions of military landscapes, the collection emphasizes the invisible, affective, and spiritual dimensions that profoundly influence survival, operational practices, and military identities. The case studies ranging from Zimbabwean and Ugandan soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, to guerrilla fighters in Zimbabwe’s liberation war, and San soldiers and trackers in Namibia and Angola demonstrate how spiritual agency is embedded within landscapes of war. By foregrounding Afrocentric and post-colonial perspectives, the special issue expands scholarly understandings of war and culture, challenging dominant Western frameworks and underscoring the need to consider spirituality as integral to military practice and knowledge production.