African energy poverty: a moving target

Abstract

Historically, ‘energy poverty’ in Sub-Saharan Africa has been understood in relatively static terms and its solutions largely understood as a modernist state-led project of expanding centralised distribution to achieve a coordinated ‘transition’ from traditional fuels. In recent decades, however, political economies of energy in the region have exhibited considerable dynamism, changing what energy poverty looks like. The rapid dissemination of mobile phones, for example, has meant that most households now require near daily access to some form of electricity, inducing creative local responses. As well, with increased Sino-African trade, a plethora of cheap lighting products such as dry-cell battery torches and small-scale solar products have become widely available, reducing consumer interest in kerosene lamps and fuel. Finally, charcoal has emerged as a key cooking fuel for growing urban populations—introducing a new/expanded source of rural revenue while disrupting a decades long official campaign to induce ‘transition’ from firewood to LPG. We demonstrate how these particular changes are occurring through the example of dynamics in Sierra Leone in West Africa.

Keywords

• Africa
• energy poverty
• solar
• kerosene
• batteries
• fuelwood