Title:	Energy Politics and Rural Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
Authors:	Naaborle Sackeyfio
Keywords:	Energy Politics
Issue Date:	2018
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Description:	The power of an electric bolt, circuit, and streetlight is undeniable and the myriad ways that electric currents have produced milestones in communication and connectivity are rife. The invention of the light bulb revolutionized societies and provided an impetus for economy in ways that far outpaced any expectations for modern life. The provision of electricity as a powerful fulcrum for industrialization in what are now advanced economies—the United States, Great Britain, and many more—is all the more remarkable because its impact is often overlooked. Electricity has promoted economic growth through invisible linkages that bind: without electricity power lines, lighting at home and in offices, transportation systems and even literacy as well as educational outcomes would be undermined. This functionality is also underscored by the impact of technological progress and innovation that is largely subsumed as one of thousands of nearly invisible inputs that make modern living seamless, accessible and complete. Electricity, for all its purposes, remains one of the most visible yet simultaneously invisible instruments of the twenty-first century. Across much of the developing world or the global south, however, the flick of a light switch is rarely performed with certainty. Access to an amenity largely taken for granted as one of thousands of micro-processes that construe modernity is ultimately a political one. Paradoxically, the race to combat energy poverty is faced by one of the most democratic and promising states in sub-Saharan and West Africa: Ghana—considered a model state for much of the continent. As a country rich in hydropower, with its Akosombo dam and Volta River project, which ambitiously sought to produce aluminum, the promise of industrialization accompanied a competitive vision for a state whose economic growth once rivaled, but has been surpassed by, that of Malaysia. What accounts, then, for the simultaneous success of electrification initiatives in ten administrative regions (akin to states) and disparities between significant sections of the country’s populace since this period?
URI:	http://10.6.20.12:80/handle/123456789/49129
ISBN:	978-3-319-60122-9
Appears in Collections:	Rural Development Studies

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