Southern African Development Community, Power, Politics and People

The SADC intentions to build a regional integration scheme that has the will, the interests and the good of the peoples of the region is not in doubt when you examine the SADC document. The entire approach to regional integration in the region seeks to break with the dominant trend in regional integration that places markets at the center. In the chapter at least, SADC seeks to build what is called developmental integration, an approach that is measured by progress made to bring about economic, social, and human development on the ground. The SADC Treaty emphasizes social and economic justice central in that its main objectives as stated are to alleviate poverty, achieve socio-economic development, improve the quality of life, and support the socially disadvantaged. The treaty refers to regional integration that is built on democratic principles and equitable and sustainable development. In this sense, the SADC intended to construct regionness in Southern Africa on the notion of the people at the center of integration. This suggests people's choices, voices, interests, and agency in the building of this integration scheme. But it is the contention of this paper that to achieve this would require fundamental change in the model of power upon which nation states and regional institutions are built. The possibility of the downtrodden to wedge a space to assert themselves is widely discussed, showing that the marginalized are not hapless victims but are able to resist, subvert, relate, and reroute power (Nebasifu and Atong, 2020 ; Dowding, 2008; Zaaiman, 2021). This is because they have to break the mold of power that militates against people's inclusion, participation, and empowerment. Afro-decolonial thought is enlisted here to help us understand the structural basis of exclusion and people's agency in asserting themselves in nation states and their regional institutions.