Afromusing

In the post on Electranets, the idea of top down development, something synonymous with the Hippos (including the misguided hippo cheerleaders at Economist ;)) clashes with the idea of bottom -up development. For an example of just how these top-down initiatives can go awry, lets go to Senegal.

Thanks Emeka for the story.
This piece from IRIN news is instructive, especially since its a solar energy project. It describes an ambitious rural electrification project that was funded by the Japanese and Spanish governments in the form of grants and loans to the Senegalese government to set up Photo voltaic systems for a rural area far from the electricity grid.

The project had good intentions it appears, what with the powerful image of a hut with a solar panel on its roof. As reported on the article, the project is devolving into an unsustainable mess, with only 30% of the people paying the fees for the photovoltaic systems, and ongoing maintenance problems due to lack of money to change the batteries and keep the parts working properly. The article then goes on to describe other problems such as the high cost of fees for the PV systems. The contractors hired by the Senegalese government left in 2005 after their contract ended and the new contractor has 1 technician to service 10,000 home systems. 1. It becomes clear quite quickly that the development model that this project was based on was flawed. Not the technology behind it. I think that the project did not fully involve the community, these guys came in, ’saved’ the village by installing the PV systems, but they did not think it through. Is the community involved in the maintenance? Nope.

The sad part is that the Senegalese government did not steer the project in a sustainable direction. There can be a partnership between governments that result in great projects (rural electrification using solar is still a superb idea), but the local government on the receiving end of the aid needs to tailor the aid to meet the needs of its people. Take the bottom up approach of training and equipping the community with the skills and this IMO is the most important part. It needs to be a market driven approach. Why would would anyone take ownership of maintaining a system if there wasn’t something in it for them? Rural development could use a few Gordon Gekko’s no? He’d probably shriek at stepping on cow dung and ruining his Johnston and murphy shoes…I am kidding! (filmmakers out there feel free to make a movie about him going to rural Africa to do his ‘greed is good’ speech. I know I would watch that, just invite me to the premiere) That aside, the idea of capitalism needs to be injected into a lot the development models if they are to be sustainable.

So how could this project have been done better? There are great models to follow. The first one that comes to the fore is the Barefoot College in India. Senegal and other countries in Africa can look at other developing countries such as India for models on how to use renewable energy in a viable manner.

The IRIN article points to the unnecessary perception that solar energy is not a viable solution for rural electrification, and that the ‘Donors are watching closely’

Individual and communal solar systems have brought electricity to over 170,000 people in Sine Saloum which lies south of Dakar near the border with The Gambia. The project is the largest of its kind in Senegal and experts say donors are watching it closely to gauge whether solar energy could be a practical means of electrifying other rural areas.

The point that the donors might be missing is, there is a red herring to watch out for. Simon Mwacharo pointed out at TED that solar and wind power systems got a bad rap in the past because the systems were not set up correctly. It appears from the situation in Senegal, that the follow-up plan to maintain the project was severely lacking. Confusing implementation and project model problems with the effectiveness of solar technology in providing power would be a mistake. A detailed article from refocus magazine, showing the obstacles and success conditions in developing countries is helpful in summarizing some of the issues in renewable energy. Projects such as the one in Senegal do require a different type of strategy.

So what practical things can we learn from all this?

From a consumer perspective, if you are out there looking for a solar powered solution for your energy needs, don’t skimp. i came across some good tips in Wired Mag January issue. Specifically

Choose the right system. Want a house that produces all of its own electricity? Opt for monocrystalline or polycrystalline panels. They’re the most efficient – and the most expensive. Amorphous photovoltaics are roughly half the price but only about half as efficient. If you can’t bear the appearance of those big black roof slabs, go with building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV). Your normal-looking roof and windows become solar catchers.

From a larger country-type perspective, again,

• Don’t skimp on setting up a good quality system.
• Include a bottom-up strategy of involving entrepreneurs and invest in training for the people who will manage the systems.

In the Refocus magazine June Issue, there is a great interview by David Hopwood. In it he interviews Christoph Paradeis and Andrea Ocker of Solar Fabrik, they were discussing the future of solar as a viable market driven technology. In this bit they were talking about SA and its embracing of wind power. Specifically relating to this post (and the dont skimp bit)…

…

reFOCUS: South Africa appears to be on the verge of embracing windpower at least…

CP: They also started with solar in 2001, just after I joined the organization, but this project failed. They installed solar systems of course but the quality of them was so poor that many failed after two to three years. One of the requirements was that the systems be really cheap, but this caused problems with reliability. Yes, some of those regions are poor, but they should invest in good systems so that they don’t have to change them after several years; this is a false economy.

AO: And besides, people don’t trust the technology any longer if they first experience poor quality.

This post is getting too long so i shall stop here. Thank you for reading this far. How about we go listen to some Ghanaian highlife music over at Museke, or listen to Vusi Mahlasela, Habib Koite and Dobet Gnahore on Afropop?

While at TED Global, i got a chance to speak with William Makali, the president of a company called Full Dimensions in Tanzania, and a TED fellow. His view of development is what he terms ‘The Big Idea!’.

The Big Idea is to create a Rural Development Community Role model sustainable Project. The Community members from other areas will be invited and get immersed in the community activities to learn the Power of Ideas to eradicate poverty. This will help to transfer information to other communities which will evidently result in transforming other communities.

The project is already underway in Singida region, Yullansoni Valley Tanzania, a remote rural village. Please click here for a google earth placemark of Singida. What they have been able to do so far is expand a mobile clinic that started in 1996 into a health center that caters to the community, and install a 38000 liter water tank to store rain water. The exciting thing is is what Mr. Makali is working on now. In his own words:

Installation of the Solar Power at the clinic to upgrade the medical services.

Upgrading the Clinic to become a referral Hospital in the future.

Education of the Solar Power cooking to the community to protect the environment from deforestation and erosion.

Installation of the Sunflower Oil Press industry.

Provision of modern Agricultural tools.

Initiation of Rural Microfinance Credit Bank Facility

Mobilizing the community to create communication Infrastructure.

Mobilizing the community to preserve the environment.

Introduction of Vocational Training School.

Well drillings and water harvest to introduce irrigation system.

Upgrading the Pre school to Primary school and to a secondary school level.

For more details of Mr. Makali’s inititiave in rural Tanzania, please click here for a word document. (He can be reached at wn_love [at] yahoo dot com.)
As you can tell from the list of things he is doing, these are initiatives that aim to serve and involve the community. Although it is still an early stage project, it has a bottom-up component that i particularly like. The initiatives are formulated by him a Tanzanian who is familiar with the realities and challenges of rural development, and not from without. Not only did i find what he is doing laudable, i really liked the by line on his business card. It says “Think Big, Think Smart, Think Creative, Think Positive, Work Smart, Make a difference”.

Ethan had a great post A new wind blowing in Africa where he writes about William Kamkwamba and Simon Mwacharo.

The wind continues to blow…

From Refocus - International Renewable Energy Magazine (Print version),

South Africa’s first commercial wind farm is being built in Darling, near Cape Town. It will have capacity of 5.2 MW, and slated to supply Cape Town. A partnership between SA government’s Central Energy Fund, Development Bank of SA, Darling Independent Power Producer and the Danish Development Agency (DANCED).

And now for a different kind of wind
From Timbuktu Chronicles

The pioneering work of Olatubosun Adeleke (Obayomi) in Nigeria, in creating a household scale biogas production system, which you can read about and see great pictures here.

I would like to direct you to a post by Steve, one of the other Afrigadget bloggers (by the way, do visit Steve on fridays for great music from Africa) The post includes a video showing the Knife Sharpening Bicycle. Get today’s dose of African Ingenuity by visiting Afrigadget.

Simon Mwacharo and William Kamkwamba - Renewable Energy Innovators.

Here is the video i did with Simon Mwacharo, the founder of Craftskills, a wind and solar company based in Kenya. This was recorded after his TED talk which you can find a great summary of at LHKB Ethan’s and my post on his talk can be found here.

**I am a total noob on this one, please pardon the frequent uh huh’s vigorous head nodding and leading questions…I said it was a conversation right? Right. I promise that the next video I make will definitely be better; I am getting started on Pixel Corps to get me on the road to better digital media work.(Thanks Alex Lindsay). Ok, without further ado…

Please click here to download the video

Update1: Mr. Mwacharo commented on the post

We are situated in Kibera slums Nairobi and are looking for a chance to give Africa her pride. Funds will come in handy to place us on an industrial scenario where we can produce these turbines at a lower cost and benefit wananchi.

Check out his company here.

Meeting these two gentlemen pictured above at TED was indeed an honour. I am not the only one who was impressed…Nii Simmonds has a post on William Kamkwamba, “I see I make”.

Update 2: Via Hash, William Kamkwamba has a blog, do visit him here.

In other hot news, Ethan came out swinging on the post ‘Judging a magazine by its cover’, as did Sokari on ‘faking Africa and stories of vanity‘. Bankelele did a quick post on this VF issue june 6th.
I got a hold of 4 copies of Vanity Fair; yes indeed I am collecting all 20.
-Bono and Queen Rania

-Oprah and George Clooney

- Don Cheadle and Iman

-Oprah, Bill and Melinda Gates.

Of these, the only one i can dispense with is the cover of Oprah and George Clooney, sorry George, Don Cheadle and Bono are just waay too hot for me to give up. This aside, i have been reading the criticism of Bono’s work on this issue. I would urge you to go beyond the cover. Some of the content is superb, really it is, i enjoyed it. In the VF issue, I found pictures of people who were at TED Global in Arusha; if this issue had been on newsstands before June 4^th when the conference started, it would have been perfect airline reading on the way there. It is still a wonderful read for the rest of the month in my opinion, and I think Bono did a great job on editing it.
Some of the people in the magazine were in TED Global Arusha, and the criticism that Bono should have included Africans on the cover, well, he hadn’t met the Cheetahs before TED Global and the editing of the Vanity fair issue. There is room for improvement as Ethan pointed out, but please allow me to be utterly shallow and point out some of the sections that might get lost in all the Bono bashing going on.

I choose to see this as an opportunity (thanks to TED bringing people together) for cover ideas like Erik Osiakwan and Bono as Ethan proposed. I would add that Andrew Dosunmu should do the photography since Annie Leibovitz had this issue how about Andrew doing a spread for Vanity fair? - Hey, do comment with which pairings would be neat. Ory Okolloh and Obama would be just wonderful wouldn’t it! She can whisper ‘Mzalendo‘ into Obama’s ear like Iman appears to Don Cheadle. (Eric Mwangi with Mrs Obama to make things even )

Ok, back to the VF issue… I will use some pics from TED Global to illustrate that Bono did include notable Africans in the VF issue.

Update: Everyone, please start on page 84

Binyavanga Wainaina has an awesome piece on ‘Generation Kenya’. (Could VF hurry up and make a link available online? please?) I am tempted to pluck the last line out of the piece, but that wouldnt be good, as you need to read the whole article, every single word of it.

Photo by Mweshi

Girls, start with page 184 for a spread of the gorgeous, sexy, African filmmakers including Newton Aduaka.

Photo by Andrew Heavens

Page 124, Uzodinma Iweala Acclaimed author of ‘Beasts of No Nation’

Photo by Jen Brea

Page 180, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Photo by Andrew Heavens

Rokia Traore is mentioned on page 174 by Youssou Ndour whose playlist you can check out here.

Picture by Soyapi

Other pages you could jump to…

Page 187, Picture of John Githongo and text by Parsalelo Kantai. (I have to inject the classic Kenyan tongue twister here. Kantai is pronounced phonetically like ‘can tie’. So - If Kantai can tie and untie a tie why cant I tie and untie a tie like Kantai can tie and untie a tie?! Try it!)

page 194 for the very photogenic networkers of the Africa Channel.

Guys, quickly turn to page 149 for a seductive photo of Terry Pheto the actress from Tsotsi.

Page 152 for comic relief from Chris Rock in the form of a diary from his last trip in Africa, asking Nelson Mandela whether he saw Richard Pryor when he was in Jail.

At the very least, this ought to be interesting, and serve as an alternative ‘table of contents’ to the notorious July VF Issue.

Caveat: The fact that Bono gave me a hug when in Arusha during the DATA tour of Kaloleni Primary School has absolutely nothing to do with this post. Nada, Zilch… the fact that he kissed me on my forehead does, just a wee bit.

Before i get to the rest of the post, in case you are travelling and happen to be in Charles De Gaulle airport in France, i have a HUB Telecom wifi card that i bought but did not use much. The username is 0037-7375, password 767491, should have about 50 minutes of time remaining, and its valid till the 19th of June.

My last post was on ‘electranets’; the idea of generating electricity using a bottom up model where there are mini grids tied to the main grid. While catching up on my rss feeds, i found a very interesting webcast at the sustainable energy blog about Distributed Generation, which is somewhat along the lines of the ‘electranet’ post.

It is 18minutes long but well worth your time if you are interested. It is focused on the EU market but gives an excellent overview of the distributed generation and renewable energy sources. Click on the graphic below for the webcast by Rob Van Gerwen of KEMA.

On TED global Arusha, here are some links and blurbs from around the web.

Emeka Okafor of Timbuktu Chronicles

The ideas,initiatives,businesses,inventions,creative pursuits on display at TED Global provided us with hint of what exists and a glimpse of what is possible. We have barely skimmed the surface of ingenious and profound possibilities, I am gladdened and delighted that a face of the continent that hitherto remained unknown has made its debut.

Bruno Giussiani of Lunch over IP has a summary in 25 pills.

What appears clearly however is that Africa is at a turning point; a new and modern Africa is emerging as Africans create their own businesses, markets, media, and technology, and TEDGLOBAL could interpret, and maybe — that’s what many bloggers have written — boost this change.

Sean Barlow of Afropop on the music at TED global

Thankfully, TED made a significant commitment to live music for the conference. Mali’s Rokia Traore delivered a beautiful set. South African singer-writer Vusi Mahlasela (recently inducted into the Afropop Hall of Fame) had TEDsters almost crying with his songs of strength and resistance in the bad old days of apartheid.

Andrew Heavens of Meskelsquare

…Spend too long with the hippos at the UN and the AU and you could easily give up hope for the future of African technology. Spend some time with the cheetahs in Arusha and you begin to wonder whether there is actually something behind all this talk about an African Renaissance.

Sean Park -of Park Paradigm

Last week something special happened in Tanzania. A moment in time. A jumping off point. (Say it softly…) a new future for Africa.

Russell Southwood of balancing act africa interviews Salim amin

African 24 hour TV news channel project to start investor fundraising

For more - Technorati tag TED Global 2007 search

Pictures - TED Global 2007 flickr tag

Electranets, hygridding, network of mini grids, the new idea in electrification by any other name sounds just as cool.

After the hopeful and progressive afterglow of TED Global, I find myself thinking about three things this morning. The first is ‘What do Africans (including myself of course) aspire to be?’ what reality are we creating for ourselves and our children? and As Nik Nesbitt of Kencall would say, ‘how do you make Africa relevant?’

I will look at several stories and ideas today with energy-tinted glasses , and attempt to make them relevant despite the fact that the topic of energy is not as sexy as say… Africa 2.0 or Andrew Dosunmu’s pictures.

The idea of an electranet or hygridding is not new, I have blogged about it several times and remain a staunch proponent of it.

The reason why I see energy generation as important is because as Ory said, the circumstances under which you live in Africa determine where you end up. It’s not a wonder that I am here writing. Even though I lived in a rural home, we had electricity and thus the amenities that come with them, most important of these being the TV and radio, which opened up my mind to what is beyond the rural world. Point is if I wasn’t at a well lit table with my dad showing me how to do math problems in preparation for my exams, would I be here? In this African century, the tools that will continue to expand horizons for many in Africa include not just the TV and radio, but the mobile phone and computers. For Africans to fully participate and compete in the global market, information access is paramount, as is power to run the tools of information dissemination.

“If it doesn’t need electricity, it can’t be any fun” – Blooregard Q Kazoo, Fosters home for imaginary friends.

*the quote from bloo is just to liven up this post.

Rural electrification is a goal for many African governments, with demonstrable progress in Kenya where more people are getting tied to the grid as we speak. In my opinion African countries have a chance to shape the energy transformation in a way that is contextualized and appropriate for their communities. As reported by Ethan Zuckerman LHKB (The long haired king of blogging), the ongoing discussion at the WEF forum in South Africa brought up the issue of how this transformation should occur. “…top down in major hydro, gas, coal and oil plants” or bottom up with mini grids making up an electranet “a flexible, adhoc structure like the Internet that could allow power producers to spill their excess power onto a network and sell their power.”

Now to the Hippo like part of this post; also from Ethan’s excellent coverage of WEF HippoCon….

An audience member - a builder of large power systems - objects to the direction of the discussion. He points out that there’s a massive, continent-wide deficit in electricity, exacerbated by the hyper growth of countries like Ghana, which are rapidly using up their generation capacity. “Doing this bottom up will be too little, too late.” Human and animal power won’t allow people “to run a blacksmiths or a machining shop” - instead, the investment must be from the top down in major hydro, gas, coal and oil plants.

This is the kind of thinking that results in huge IMF loan funded projects being inaugurated by Hippo-like presidents where the country has a power plant alright, but the debt incurred from setting up said power plants saddles the country for decades to come…Bono’s activism notwithstanding. In the face of ideas like the electranet being shared, we have a major builder of power systems having a voice at the table saying that it would be too little too late. He is entitled to his opinion as I am mine… and in a future where Africa is more relevant, we would have a cheetah-like leader at the WEF articulating what works for Africa. Not what someone else thinks is too little too late.

What I would wish for is for the Cheetah leader to articulate something along the lines of electranets and mini grids forming the foundation for energy expansion. Why? It is possible to have a grid that utilizes renewable energy from different sources, be it wind, like the marsabit wind turbine power plant or CSP concentrated solar power plants in the sahara. The large scale projects can provide a large chunk of the energy needed just as hydro electric power has done over the last decades in Kenya powering many industries. This is a top-down approach indeed, but look at the technology used, it is clean and renewable, not dirty – coal and expensive – oil. Africa cares about global warming too you know, what with the report from the economist pointing out that Africa will suffer more from climate change, the energy transformation of Africa needs to take into account this very fact.

That is why it is time to include the idea of netmetering or ‘electranets’ and having the people also contribute to provision of energy by being able to sell power to the grid as shared at the WEF. It would be self sustaining and even empowering. Yeah the pun in emPOWERing is very much intended.

Energy transformation may already be happening we just need to open our eyes, just read over at Bankelele’s about kenya’s energy budgetary allocation

energy rural electrification to be continued as mini grids will be set up in large towns. 8 billion has been allocated to deal with (anticipated?) energy shortages so they don’t hamper manufacturing processes

The next part (the aspirational bit) can we complete the loop of using mini grids, integrating renewable energy into the mix, community involvement in the form of partnerships to generate electricity and large scale investment funded projects to light the dark continent?

The big idea from TED was African solutions to African problems; I would like to add that sustainability and renewable energy can be just as African as fufu, ugali and matoke. We just have to open our eyes to the possibility, and urge our leaders to pursue strategies that include renewable energy sources. If Denmark can generate 20% of its energy needs using wind, and continue to pursue policies geared towards weaning themselves off of oil, well, Africa need not reinvent the wheel, there is clearly a roughdraft that energy policy can take into account when formulating the policies in energy transformation.

Back to the question that started this post ‘What do Africans (including myself of course) aspire to be?’ – We aspire to be self reliant, self determining and forward thinking.

What reality are we creating for ourselves and our children? – A reality of hopeful prospects in a clean environment free of pollution and degradation

‘How do you make Africa relevant?’ – By making choices that work for Africa. Let’s really think about what is appropriate not just for the short term but for the long term too.

Update: Watch John Doerrs’ TED talk this year, its along the lines of what i was attempting to say. Very powerful, inspiring and spot on.

Joseph Lekuton M.P speaking at TED Global.

For a brief run down of his talk at TED, please click here.

While in Arusha for TED I got the chance to speak briefly with Hon. Joseph Lekuton, M.P of Laisamis constituency; about renewable energy and specifically what is going on in his constituency. Hon. Lekuton stated that there is a wind power turbine power plant being constructed between Mt. Nyiru and Mt.Marsabit. The corridor between these two mountains has very powerful winds that are going to be harnessed for energy generation. He informed us that the project is currently underway and is slated to be tied to the electricity grid, specifically through the Turkwel gorge hydro power plant.

The opportunity to build and operate the turbine was posted by Bankelele back in Dec 2005, and incidentally, he introduces me to the man who is making it happen today. TED brought together the ‘Cheetahs’ like Mr. Lekuton and Mr. Simon Mwacharo, and I am glad to report here that following their meeting at TED Mr. Lekuton ordered several wind turbines for schools in his constituency from Simon Mwacharo’s Craftskills company.
Business Daily Africa reported today on the wind turbine power plant in Marsabit which is in Mr. Lekuton’s constituency, read more here.

Other News - “Dealers in solar panels have urged Kenya’s standards body to intensify quality assurance measures against imports and false labelling of poor-performing panels.”

**Energy transformation is happening as we speak, with renewable energy sources such as wind and solar having a greater role to play in Africa’s energy future!

PS: White African’s site is back up, see “Thinking About Africa 2.0″ for thoughts on the tech future of Africa.

Ted Talks just released the video of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Brookings Institution fellow and speaker at TED Global 2007. The video is from the talk she did at Monterrey California, but will give you a taste of what we heard this past thursday in Arusha.

Click here to watch - How to help Africa? Do business there

TED Global felt like a seminal moment in Africa. I may have said this already but i will say it again. It was unlike any conference i have ever attended. Stupendous, challenging, interesting, eye-opening, heart-opening literally with Dr. Seyi Olesola and figuratively with Binyavanga Wainaina, Chris Abani and the music of Vusi Mahlasela. It was not uncommon to see people quietly wiping away tears during some of the talks. I would be curious as to the psychology behind the organization of the conference, it literally does something to your brain, sort of like neuron shock-therapy. By this i mean the speed, content, superb production, entertaining ‘mental breaks’ and the mix of amazing people. Its like being given knowledge speed in an engaging syringe with extra tablets of wonderful food. (Yeah i know i am a little corny but seriously, its just fantastic).

A few more pictures posted on my flickr account.