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- Convenors:
-
Moïse Williams Pokam Kamdem
(University of Dschang)
Marius De Batchouo Moifo Fonkou (University of Dschang )
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- Stream:
- Social Anthropology
- Location:
- Appleton Tower, Lecture Theatre 1
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 12 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
This panel aims at examining narratives and practices related to the need for electricity in Africa. The issue is to determine how populations react to their connection or not to electrical grids and to the disruptions of these infrastructures, through expressions of wonderment or disillusionment.
Long Abstract:
This panel aims at examining narratives and practices related to the need for electricity in African countries. Our proposal is based on two observations that intersect. First, for a long ago, there is a popular craze and an economic necessity to access this vector of modern energy across the continent. Secondly, the frustrations of communities and enterprises are increasing due to the poor quality of electricity utilities and frequent outages in this part of the World. In both cases, expressions of people's wonder or disillusion with regard to access to electrical grids would be interesting to analyse from a social perspective, but also by combining past and present experiences since the colonial period. This need for electricity is reflected as well by euphoria as by electric riots like witnessed few years ago in Algeria, Senegal, Guinea and Cameroon for instance.
The issue is therefore in this panel to determine how populations react to their connection or not to local, regional or national electrical grids, as well as to the disruptions in the distribution of electricity. Several aspects can be discussed, including the context, the discourses and the practices that underlie these expressions of euphoria or anger, the organization of the movements that carry these claims and the way in which they are handled by authorities in charge of it.
Thereby, communications in all social sciences and humanities and preferably based on field surveys are welcome.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 12 June, 2019, -Paper short abstract:
We analyse Saharawi experiences of, and perspectives on, energy in order to establish the political work that the latter performs in occupied Western Sahara. We ask how electrical energy consolidates and produces political realities, both Moroccan colonialism and Saharawi demands for independence.
Paper long abstract:
Our working paper explores Saharawi experiences of, and attitudes towards, (green) energy infrastructure and electricity in the Moroccan-occupied part of Western Sahara in order to establish the political work that electricity performs there. We contribute to the growing body of research on how electricity consolidates societal politics by showing how it can further two opposing political agendas simultaneously.
Our hypothesis, in this working paper, is that, for many Saharawis, Moroccan electrical infrastructural developments further colonialism on both material and discursive levels. However, these developments simultaneously, and perhaps unintentionally, nurture Saharawi nationalist identities and resistance to colonialism. Our methodology involves participant observation and interviews with Saharawis living in the occupied part of Western Sahara, including with those who also lived through electricity infrastructure development in the Spanish colonial epoch.
We argue that unequal access to electrical infrastructure helps to produce socio-spatial differentiation between indigenous Saharawis and Moroccan settlers (and previously between Saharawis and Spaniards), endorsing settler supremacy and thereby further antagonizing the relationship between the Moroccan state and Saharawis: demands for access to electricity in Saharawi shanty towns in the outskirts of the capital El Aaiún are increasingly accompanied by demands for independence. Furthermore, we find that 'electrical oppressions,' in the form of electrocution as a form of torture used against Saharawi political prisoners, and state-orchestrated blackouts in Saharawi-dominated suburbs at times of particular or potential political unrest, enact colonialism but simultaneously power (metaphorically) resistance to the same.
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores satirical representation of Nigerian power sector in Newspapers as forms of editorial cartoons. It examines how this narrative changed over the course of 48 years (1971 - 2019).
Paper long abstract:
Visual representation of events plays significant role in understanding and contextualizing societal realities. This paper explores satirical representation of Nigerian power sector in Newspapers as forms of editorial cartoons. It examines how this narrative changed over the course of 48 years (1971 - 2019). Generations of cartoonists over four decades have appropriated multimodal but constant visual cues in capturing epileptic supply of electricity over this period. It is observed that, though four different generations of cartoonists address this same issue over four decades, their individual representations could be brought together to form a reel of interconnected snapshots which reveal a steady deteriorating electric power system over a period of time. The personified symbols of electricity employed become organic over time and lives within Nigerian visual satirical space till date.
Paper short abstract:
10 years ago, a remote rural community in North-western Zambia gets electricity access, from a local, off-grid, micro-hydro plant. Based on qualitative fieldwork data, we answer questions like: How have people's lives, and expectations, changed? Who got connected and who didn't? What happens next?
Paper long abstract:
During the course of the past 10 years, the town of Ikelenge (in North-western Zambia) has been transforming. First, the local hospital got electricity, then, little by little the electricity lines started to reach some of the people's homes and local businesses (mainly shops). In a relatively short space of time, people from this remote rural area went from having no modern energy access, to having cheap electricity.
We present qualitative data from our fieldwork in this remote rural community, as well as the results from our analysis of how the recent access to electricity has changed people's day-to-day lives, as well as their expectations of access, reliability and affordability. The changes in people's lives go way beyond "extending the day" through lighting, into areas such as diet (with the introduction of refrigeration) and renewed possibilities for economic activities (with the introduction of different electricity-powered machines, for example for rock-crushing and fruit-drying).
We also explore the history of the development of the off-grid micro-hydro power plant (owned and funded by a local development trust, built with local workforce and materials) and the impacts it has had in the community in general (for example on the ability of the local hospital and school to recruit and keep young and qualified personnel). Finally, we look critically into the possible futures of the scheme, including aspects such as improved financing, reliability and expansion, and the effects these will have, once again, on people's day-to-day lives and expectations.
Paper short abstract:
This paper looks into the linkages and dynamics between the solar-electrification regime and solar-waste regime in Ghana by employing a circular economy approach.
Paper long abstract:
In recent years, there has been a surge in the amount of off-grid solar light solutions used in the African continent. This is largely due to the electrification efforts for a continent still struggling with ensuring electricity access to many parts of its population especially in rural areas. In Ghana, there is a growing concern over what has been coined 'solar waste' as a constitutive part of the long-standing issue of electronic waste facing the country. The linkages and dynamics between the two regimes (solar-based electrification and waste) remain understudied. Against the background of the challenge of energy poverty, this paper aims at offering some insights into these inter-linkages by employing a circular economy approach on both demand and supply side of electrification based on solar technologies. The paper draws on empirical research recently conducted in the country as a case study using two main methodologies. First methodology is structured interviews with 25 off-grid solar solutions firms operating in Ghana. Second methodology is surveys with 100 households in an island community relying on off-grid renewable energy system for electrification. The paper challenges the claimed sustainability prism of the so-called 'leapfrogging' model of Renewable energy based electrification in the context of Global South countries struggling with energy poverty. It argues that circular economy approaches and models can be employed to shed light and identify the complex connections between electrification and waste management regimes, which are in need of further investigation.