“If we are to have a chance at change that is meaningful, it’s going to come from building power and making demands by the people who are most affected by injustice. To me this is the front line,” Peter Nsikak.
Grassroots organizing, building unity, legal knowledge and deploying collective power offer the best chance for communities to sustain momentum toward systemic change, said over 50 leading community organizers from across Africa.
Today, grassroots communities across Africa are increasingly organized and ready to challenge injustice. Yet, many face a common challenge: government complicity in injustice and institutional unresponsiveness.
About 50 grassroots justice advocates joined our second learning circle event to distill practical approaches and establish solutions to building community power and pushing for change even when systems are entrenching or pushing back against addressing injustice.
The session drew from the direct experiences of two grassroots leaders working in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo : Peter Nsikak from WeThePeople and Danny Mtendela working with Vision De Filles Leaders Pour Le Developpement/Vision of Female Leaders For Development, (VIFLED).
In Nigeria, WeThePeople realised that mining companies had infiltrated protected areas and were illegally mining in the Cross River state national park, their licenses granted in violation of existing laws.
In the DRC, VIFLED noted that mining licences in the Mwenga region (home to the Indigenous Batwa people) are issued at the national level in Kinsasha often without consulting local communities. Consequently, local officials are stripped of power by their unaccountable superiors and are unable to intervene, leaving communities vulnerable to land grabs and environmental degradation.
“This system essentially strips authority from the local officials. When communities lodge complaints, officials are in a fix. If they side with the community they risk the wrath of higher officials. If they align with the corporations, they face mass direct action from the community members,” said Danny Mtendela.
Additionally, the miners coming into these communities also perpetrate cases of gender based violence against community members but when reported these are always dismissed due to bribery, with justice systems failing to protect the most vulnerable.
Faced with the same patterns, both organizations realised that their communities could not rely on the same government involved in the injustice to self-correct.They had to build their own power.
From Nigeria to the Democratic Republic of Congo these are the scalable and replicable methods that grassroots actors can use to achieve justice solutions when systems meant to offer redress fail.
Combining law and Organizing can empower communities to build their own power
Developing leadership on the ground and mobilizing community power begins with combining the power of the law and the power of people. This includes consolidating existing power structures within the community, bringing together diverse groups of impacted people such as farmers whose land has been degraded and conducting legal awareness – citing the specific laws being violated and where to seek redress. It is important to demonstrate that the law is the solution to these issues and how to use it appropriately to bring systemic solutions. When people know the law, understand what the law says, they can use it appropriately to seek the change they need.
“If we are to have a chance at change that is meaningful, it’s going to come from building power and making demands by the people who are most affected by injustice. To me this is the front line,” Peter Nsikak notes.
Deploying Community Power is a tool for community justice
Once organized, the aim is to move the community to be active agents of change.The community must take the driver’s seat to engage powerful actors and apply pressure at multiple levels in seeking remedies for the violations they face. This includes empowering the community members to make demands by themselves and supporting them to realise that they can make decisions on their own.
What does community power look like in action? When WeThePeople realised that there were two mining companies that were infiltrating and actively mining in the Cross River State national park, a federal reserve area where extractive activities are prohibited, they organized community members and educated them on sections of the law, i.e. the Nigeria Minerals and Mining Act of 2007 and the Nigerian National Parks Service Act of 2006 that prohibits mining in protected areas. Armed with this knowledge of the law, they convened a press briefing to bring attention to this issue. After a couple of days the companies had their licenses revoked.
Sustaining Hope Amid Setbacks
As Danny put it, “A community can never lose, even when you do not get the response you desire, it is not a failure but a step in the process.”
The path to justice is long and it isn’t always that we end up winning. It is important to prepare the community that there will be some setbacks but it does not translate into failure. Teach communities that the act of fighting back itself is a victory. Remember to celebrate small victories to prove that change is possible.
It is also important to build a support network, formal and informal, where interactions can be sustained such as WhatsApp group chats where you can maintain constant communication, share encouraging information and ensure the community doesn’t feel alone in its struggle
Build Allies
Because no community can do it alone, more so in an environment of unresponsiveness they will need supporters to join in their struggle. This can include other organizations (CSOs) that can provide resources, share knowledge and amplify your issues. Communities can also amplify their voices through the media. WeThePeople ensures the media is present in all their activities making it difficult for justice to be ignored.
Finally, remember that support can be sought from different avenues of power. When one arm of government is unresponsive, turn to others. In the DRC, groups work with supportive parliamentary representatives and use policy papers for advocacy in the senate. Communities can also seek out incorruptible government officials who can act as internal champions and provide strategic advice.
“In Congo,we have three levels of power: the legislative, executive and judiciary, and also the media. If the executive doesn’t support us, that doesn’t mean we don’t have support. We have other levers,” concludes Danny Mtendela.