Mutumwa Mawere

In 1980, Howard Zinn, the late American historian and political scientist, published a book entitled: "A People's History of the United States, in which he sought to present the American history through the eyes of working people rather than that of political and economic elites.

He eloquently observed that: "The power of determined people armed with a moral cause is, I believe, the ultimate power".

Most societies are pyramidal in power structure with a select few at the top commanding a large number of underlings.

The majority is in the valley while a few whether in pre or post-colonial Africa are at the top of the power ladder.

Many nation states exhibit the same power structures with the majority feeling alienated from the political processes and decisions that are critical in shaping their societies.

National democratic revolutions were waged precisely to assert the rights of the majority to take charge and impact directly on their future.

Regrettably, the change of guard at independence did not produce the kind of outcomes that were expected.

Whether it is Cuba, Haiti, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Brazil, or South Africa, for example, the majority of the population feels powerless and alienated.

In post-colonial Africa, each year of the experience of independence produces unacceptable outcomes and undermines the hope and expectation that characterized the transitional phase from colonial to majority rule.

The only power that people who feel powerless is the power to organize and yet this is where the challenge really lies.

As Zinn correctly observed, the ultimate power lies in the determination of the powerless to make tomorrow a better and brighter day. It does not lie in the benevolence of the rich or powerful.
Even where the majority has the freedom to speak through the ballot, rarely do they actively participate in the process to ensure that the people who govern them are accountable to them.

In the product and services market, the majority makes markets dynamic and efficient but rarely do they organize as consumers to leverage on their market power.

The people who acquire political power in democratic dispensations do so in the name of the majority and yet when they assume office they often govern in the interests of the few who have access with the majority playing a spectator role.

The majority has the power to change governments and yet rarely to they exercise the power vested in them instead they naively expect the economic and political elites to surrender their personal interests in the national interest.

In most developing countries it is not unusual to hear people in power complaining at every opportunity granted and available about the economic hegemony of foreigners.

Even the power with power often forget that the power they hold is derivative and not absolute compelling them to act in the interests of the people from whom they draw such power.

In any environment, if people with power fail to use it so that the people who do not have it want it then surely it would be absurd to expect a dynamic political power supply chain market.

How can people in power dream of being empowered when they have the power to make a difference? Often the majority expects the minority to go out of their way to commit class suicide so that they can be less economically and politically powerful in the interests of national progress.

In countries like the United Arab Emirates, it has been shown that the native minority can construct a social contract in which the minority controls the majority without tinkering with the constitutional order.

In post-colonial Africa, the majority of the population is black and yet people who would not want to call Africa home make key economic decisions about the continent's future.

Some of the fundamental decisions about the continent's political and economic health are made at conferences that are organized by people who live and work outside the continent.

Rarely, are we able to convene our own indabas and workshops to debate about the key nation building architectural issues.

How smart are the political processes that produce African leaders? The promise of electoral power cannot be trusted to produce "smart and dynamic leadership" that the majority yearns for.

Democracies and free markets claim to empower people by offering people choices as voters and consumers and yet the countries that claim to be politically and economically democratic have exposed their majority inhabitants to a growing sense of powerlessness.

People make choices everyday and yet the majority of the people expect state actors to make the decisions that they do not want to make themselves.

History has demonstrated in the words of Margaret Mead that a small group of thoughtful and committed citizens has the power to change the world rather than expecting change from the actions of a fragmented majority.

This is what Ms. Mead had to say: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

In the United Kingdom, we witnessed how the convoluted message from the voters did manage to produce a coalition government that can pick from what the Labor administration left.

If Gordon Brown were an African incumbent President, he would certainly have argued that the results produced no winner and, therefore, could hardly be considered as a marching order.

What was clear in the UK is that the message of change was as a clear as day and night and the power of the people to speak was respected in the outcome.

We need to better understand the concept of powerlessness because this is a necessary step towards better arming citizens to take charge of their destiny.

History is full of examples or ordinary people who started by networking and connecting with like a like-minded circle of friends, neighbors, family and even enemies to share concerns with a view to being part of a process to make Africa the kind of society that we want to live in.

Powerlessness of the majority is nothing but a state of mind. Political actors cannot be relied to help change the state of the mind. We all have a part to play in the change agenda for the future lies in our hands.