Category Archives: Historical Overview
Electricity in colonial German East Africa and British Tanganyika Territory , 1908-1950
Electricity as a “tool of empire”? As most industrial technologies, electricity arrived at the African continent with colonial administrators, serving European interests. As Daniel R. Headrick has demonstrated in The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth … Continue reading
Electricity, development and statecraft in the late-colonial and post-colonial era, 1950-1990
At the end of World War II the United Nations Trust Territories Tanganyika experienced a period of steady economic growth fueled by high demand for sisal and high commodity prices. In this period, colonial administration shifted from an extractive economic … Continue reading
Public good or commodity? Electricity sector reforms since 1990
This section will discuss the power sector reforms in Tanzania in the 1990ies. Cited literature: Renfrew, Christie, Electricity, Industry, and Class in South Africa. New York 1984. Eberhard, Anton [et al.], Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic. Underpowered: The State of the … Continue reading
Political ecology and the history of electricity in Africa
This chapter will discuss the environmental perspective on the history of electricity in Tanzania and discuss the energetic basis of political power. Cited literature: Showers, Kate B., Electrifying Africa: an environmental, history with policy implications’, in: Geografiska Annaler: Series B, … Continue reading
History of Electricity in Tanzania 