Electric Capitalism: Recolonising Africa on the Power Grid

Date: 
Wednesday, October 15, 2008

This book analyzes Africa's choices, and includes a chapter by International Rivers' Africa team on hydropower. Essays by leading academics and activists cover the most important developments in the continent's energy sector today, and their implications for poverty reduction, environmental and human health, gender equity, and socio-economic justice.

"Although Africa is the most under-supplied region in the world for electricity, its economies are utterly dependent on it. There are enormous inequalities in electricity access, with industry receiving abundant supplies of cheap power while more than 80% of the continent's population remain off the power grid. Africa is not unique in this respect, but levels of inequality are particularly pronounced here due to the inherent unevenness of 'electric capitalism' on the continent."