Faith on the Frontlines: New Military Chaplain Programme Reaches Soldiers in Africa

By Farai Shawn Matiashe
MUTARE, Zimbabwe, Jul 16 2025 – It is a cold morning in eastern Zimbabwe as Lieutenant Colonel Reverend Doctor Samba Mosweu celebrates a glorious moment he has been waiting for all his life.

His family has accompanied Lieutenant Colonel Mosweu from the Botswana Defence Forces to this monumental occasion, which marks the culmination of years of hard work and dedication for not only him but also for hundreds of other graduates.

He is part of the 10 military chaplains from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region who have just been conferred with their doctoral degrees in ministry from Africa University, a United Methodist Church-related institution.

This is the first of its kind in Africa.

“I enrolled in this programme as a way to equip, to empower and to strengthen myself in the line of my duty,” Mosweu tells this publication at AU just outside Zimbabwe’s third largest city of Mutare.

Doctor of Ministry Military Chaplaincy recipient, Lieutenant Colonel Reverend Doctor Samba Mosweu of Botswana Defence Forces at Africa University in Mutare. Credit: Farai Shawn
Matiashe/IPS

“However, I can attest that from what I have learnt, perceived and even interacted with other colleagues from different countries, I have learnt a lot.”

Over the years, the African military turned to pastors from churches around the continent to join the army and provide spiritual, counselling and moral support to service members and their families.

Those military chaplains had to enrol in schools abroad, like the United States (US), to learn programmes aligned to the military and not general theology programmes offered by the majority of African universities.

This programme can be traced back to 2017 when Colonel Dr David Wesley Lile (Retired) from the US Army engaged the US Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Brian A. Nichols, about the possibility of establishing such a programme in the country.

Robert Mugabe was still President and relations between him and the US were frosty; hence, Nichols advised Lile to look for a neutral institution that had nothing to do with the military.

This is how the programme came to Africa University.

Doctor of Ministry Military Chaplaincy recipient, Brigadier General Reverend Doctor Shadreck Mwale of the Zambian Army at Africa University. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe/IPS

But it took a long time for the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education (ZIMCHE), a parastatal responsible for the accreditation of higher learning institutions in the country, to approve the course.

So, the 10 students studied for their doctoral degrees through a partnership with Wesley Theological Seminary, based in Washington.

Lile, who was studying for a similar Doctoral ministry chaplain programme at Wesley Theological Seminary, says they developed the programme at AU using what he was studying.

“If you are going to have a chaplain school that trains, you need the professors to train. You have 10 chaplains now who have doctorates. That is not anywhere in Africa,” says Lile, who was a US Army Africa chaplain based in Italy in 2017.

“That is the uniqueness of the programme; they focused on the context, the violence, and the trauma that is endured on the continent.”

He says in 2017 he had a two-week training programme for combat and deployment psycho support with military chaplains from Africa, and a general encouraged him to develop an African-centric military chaplain school and not workshops where they get only certificates.

Africa has experienced numerous wars and conflicts, including both civil wars and interstate conflicts.

Doctor of Ministry Military Chaplaincy recipients seated in the graduation arena at Africa University. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe/IPS

Various insurgencies, including Boko Haram in Nigeria, M23 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ansar al-Sunna in Mozambique, Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan and al-Shabaab in Somalia.

These have caused not only displacements of millions of people, long-term instability and loss of life but also serious issues like trauma and mental health challenges for the soldiers fighting these wars.

Lile, from Kentucky, says Africa has at least five of the most dangerous places in the world.

“Those are places we sent United Nations peacekeepers. And most of the people we worked with as the US Army in Africa, we would come down to help train those chaplains to go with those troops deployed in those areas,” he says, adding that he trained a group that had six people die in combat in the DRC.

The UN has 11 missions, and five of those are in Africa, namely MINUSCA in the Central African Republic, MONUSCO in the DRC, UNISFA in Abyei, UNMISS in South Sudan, and MINURSO in Western Sahara.

There are 105,000 peacekeepers around the world, and close to 85,000, mostly from the continent, are in Africa.

“Africa has high standards for who can lead the training. So, to develop leadership models, they needed a programme. That is the base level,” says Lile.

“But they do not have military training for chaplains. People get killed. Who is taking care of the families, and do they have skill sets for trauma and kids? There are suicides.”

The 10 graduates were affected by COVID-19 but were able to continue and finish the programme.

Lieutenant Colonel Mosweu says people who have been deployed come from an operation as different people who desperately need his services.

“If you take the one who has been trained and put them behind the enemy lines within the operational areas, lives are lost. People get killed and injured. When they come to me, I do pastoral psychotherapy, which I use to engage, strengthen and give them that spiritual resilience. So that they become better individuals,” he says.

Brigadier General Reverend Doctor Shadreck Mwale of the Zambian Army, who has been a chaplain for the past 24 years, says this programme has uplifted his spirit as a chaplain.

“Education is important. AU came in at the right time when they provided training to chaplains. We had a break for almost a year and a half because of COVID-19,” says Mwale, who is the Director General of Religious and Moral Services in the Zambian Army.

“I learnt more about moral injury and issues of stress among soldiers. If there is one thing that troubles soldiers, it is stress. Everything is stressful and extreme. Therefore, it is important to have a chaplain who is extremely equipped in these matters.”

James H. Salley, president and chief executive officer of Africa University (Tennessee) Inc.—a charitable organisation that disburses resources to Africa University Zimbabwe—says the chaplains programme has now been accredited by ZIMCHE and is continuing.

“We will have not only the doctor in the ministry of military chaplains or chaplains for all of these entities. We now have four additional doctors with ministry degrees in chaplaincy,” says Dr Salley.

“These are senior officials and officers in their respective areas who now marry the practical with the theory. And sometimes in the classroom, you only get theory. But it is a good thing to have practical experience.”

Mosweu is now back in his home country, Botswana, offering counselling and moral support to service members.

“I want to assure you that this programme is going to aid my delivery to both my colleagues and those people I offer ministry to, soldiers and their dependents. I encourage others to attend, too,” he says.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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