Paper short abstract:

Rooted in mission histories and recent changes to national energy policy, a growing number of rural convents in Tanzania own and operate small hydropower dams. This paper analyzes these "sisters electric," and the intertwined material and spiritual economies of their presence in local landscapes.

Paper long abstract:

Across Tanzania, a number of religious sisterhoods—Benedictines, Franciscans and others—have constructed small scale hydropower dams, often using them to power their own convents, dispensaries, and schools. In some cases, they are extending out minigrids to surrounding areas and acting as a local utility. This paper contextualizes such “Sisters Electric” in relation to a history of mission infrastructure and enclaves, changes in Tanzania’s neoliberalized regulatory environment, and the growing popularity of off-grid solutions to rural electrification. Drawing on preliminary ethnographic research, it compares and contrasts ‘faith based’ provisioning with other models (community, private, cooperative, state), focusing on how a gendered, “Catholic Social” ethics of charity and service shapes flows of current and currency. Finally, it offers reflections on small scale hydropower, with its cycles of abundance and shortage, as a site of encounter between Christian religiosity and ecological ethics in an African context.