Two hundred years after the abolition of the slave trade, the descendants of those enslaved are still trying to transform themselves and truly claim to be free. In retrospect, still cradled in the philosophies of Marcus Garvey and Pan-Africanism and artistes like Bob Marley, is the need to free ourselves from mental slavery and a call for the unification of black peoples against imperialism all over the world. This has manifested itself in various forms: repatriation to the motherland, development of black consciousness through education, creation of black wealth through entrepreneurship and community development and more recently a call for reparations for the descendants of those once enslaved.

However, despite some advancement, black peoples everywhere continue to be marginalized from real power and wealth, by every social malady known to the free world including poverty and crime and violence. The enactment of various development models to liberate the poor has not translated into their empowerment and transformation, nor have the various empowerment models, that seek to transform individual and community life.

In prospective we will argue that our analysis and addition to empowerment theory is the key to empowerment as freedom. An examination of empowerment theories show that research in the area has primarily focused on those resources and processes (including education and community participation) by which the individual becomes empowered, without linking this to where empowerment truly begins, in the individual consciousness and its power to transform a life and in turn his/her community. In other words, empowerment as freedom is an understanding of identity, talent and potential which will channel and utilize the right resources and processes. In prospective, this is real freedom.