EM·POW·ER·MENT
Empowerment in context to African society can be view with westernized conations. Merriam Webster describes empowerment as: ‘1. The act or action of empowering someone or something; the granting of the power, right, or authority to perform various acts or duties; 2. The state of being empowered to do something : the power, right or authority to do something.[i] This definition succumbs to tradition colonial emphasis of power transferences from one authority to another. While Zimmerman and Rappaport [16, page 725] describe empowerment as “the ability of individuals to gain control socially, politically, economically, and psychologically through access to information, knowledge and skills, decision-making, individual self-efficacy, community participation, and perceived control”.[ii] I argue that in the scope of Africans countries, the definition of empowerment is a framework of advocacy rather than the traditional westernized definitions that transfers the authority, power, right to an individual or group.
The Zimmerman and Rappaport description of empowerment allows it to be a contextual noun that depends on region, industry, or population. For example, it extends to caregiving, community, healthcare, and workplace empowerment. Furthermore, empowerment is viewed as “a process of enhancing feelings of self-efficacy among organizational members through the identification of conditions that foster powerlessness and through their removal by both formal organizational practices and informal techniques providing efficacy information”.[iii] Empowerment is a process. African countries who host societal and political institutions that implement a framework of an empowerment seek a self-sufficient, self-confident, and self-supporting community with a desired social, economic, political and psychological independence.[iv]
Harnessing empowerment within African societies requires us to take a look at powerlessness. Powerlessness is the opposite of empowerment; it stems the desire for empowerment advocacy. Powerlessness can be viewed within African countries as decreased economic and political status which typically is a result of authorities who hold power or global constructs that maintain power over African countries through economic, political or resources infrastructures. Groups within African countries have limited resources, but holding frameworks of advocacy like education, resources management and socioeconomic mobility encouragement allow for empowerment within African societies. These vulnerable societies are not transferred direct power but instead given tools within the toolbox to gain self-sufficiency of empowerment. The tools within the toolbox are catered toward the individual, groups, and communities who are within the framework of advocacy; this is why African countries can view empowerment as just the framework rather than transference of power. At the same time, African countries experience this powerlessness as they lack the political capital to advocate for themselves due to subpar economic and political status.
The action of empowerment means to mediate powerlessness with combative measure like empowerment education and empowerment engagement. Empowerment education is the intervention of powerlessness when it comes to environments. This can be seen prominently in environments such as healthcare and the workplace where education of self-health, management and awareness can create change within the environment or the individual. The demand for self-confident and self-sufficient empowerment in environments as these is crucial for long term success of a society entirely. Empowerment engagement means taking the construct of interaction within the society in a framework that centers around understanding the desire, necessities, strengths and points of hurt within the community. I think understanding allows for creative collaboration with members who hold power, to then advocate for that enduring powerlessness. The framework of engagement advocacy still seeks the desired goals of social, economic, political and psychological independence. Combating powerlessness is circumstantial with approaches, but the framework of empowerment advocacy holds firm when deciding on impactful change. To empower means to have a voice, to be equal in standing, to be respected, and to build upon individual strengths and weakness to formulate the end goal of desired awareness.
[i] “Empowerment.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/empowerment.
[ii] Zimmerman MA, Rappaport J. Citizen participation, perceived control, and psychological empowerment. American Journal of Community Psychology. 1988;16(5):725–750.\
[iii] Conger JA, Kanungo RN. The empowerment process: integrating theory and practice. Academy of Management Review. 1988;13:471–482.
[iv] Carr, Gloria F. “Empowerment: a framework to develop advocacy in african american grandmothers providing care for their grandchildren.” ISRN nursing vol. 2011 (2011): 531717. doi:10.5402/2011/531717