Mutumwa Mawere

In our daily conversations, many of us believe that Africa would have been better off if it was left to its own devices to chat a development course that addressed its human and institutional challenges.

It is easy to blame colonialism, imperialism and globalisation for the current condition of Africa.

However, Africa may not be necessarily where it is on the development ladder just because of the complex interactions with other civilisations but also the inability of our generation to fully appreciate the true nature of the colonial state and the mindset that informed the choices made by the role players.

As we try to understand our present, we are compelled to look back and locate some of the innovations that have contributed significantly to the continent's social and economic change.

We all take for granted electricity and its impact on the quality of human life and yet without it the condition of Africa would be a very different story.

For the privileged Africans, it is hard to imagine life without electricity and yet millions of Africans live without it.

The genesis of the electronic revolution was in Europe and Africa had little part to play in the history and development of electricity.

Electricity has been a challenge not only to scientists but lay persons for hundreds of years. We know it exists but it is difficult to explain what it actually is.

It is not visible and it cannot be stored. Although it has no weight, it can lift and move thousands of tons. It has no shape and yet it is everywhere. It is a form of energy that can be harnessed. Modern Africa could not exist without electricity.

There are two main types of electricity known i.e. static and current. If it was not for the work of people like Benjamin Franklin, Luigi Galvani, and Alessandron Volta, our world today would be different.

We, therefore, need to acknowledge the contribution of non-Africans to our heritage.

Without their knowledge, capital and ability to convert ideas into practical things, Africa's present condition would be different.

What is the history of electricity in Africa? It is recorded in the Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa that an electric device was first used in South Africa in 1809.
In 1860, the first electric telegraph system that operated between Cape Town and Simon's Town was introduced so was an electric arc light demonstrated the same year on the African soil.

The local railway station in Cape Town was first illuminated by electricity in 1881 and the first telephone exchange was opened a year later in Port Elizabeth.

Cape Town's Table Bay docks were first illuminated by electric arc lamps in April 1882 followed by the Cape Colonial Parliament in May 1882.

During the same year, Kimberley, the Diamond City, switched on electric streetlights making it the first city in Africa to use electricity in this manner.

The first electric power station was established in 1891 preceded by the use of electric motors, lights in mines, private lighting and an electric tram between 1884 and 1890.

With the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886, Johannesburg installed its first electric plant in 1889 that generated power by gas engines.

An electric reticulation system followed in 1891 with municipal supplies being switched on in 1892 in Rondebosch, followed by Cape Town city centre in 1895, Durban in 1897, Pietermaritzburg in 1898, East London in 1899, Bloemfontein and Kimberley in 1900, and Port Elizabeth in 1906.

In 1892, hydropower was first generated in South Africa and this was followed by the installation and commissioning in 1896 of an overhead trolley-wire electric tram.

Siemens and Halske became the first independent power producer in Africa in 1889 when it was granted the concession to supply electricity to Johannesburg and Pretoria beginning operations in 1894 after obtaining a concession to transmit electricity to the mines of the Witwatersrand.

In 1895, the concession was ceded to The Rand Central Electric Works Limited which commenced commercial supply operations in Brakpan in 1897.

Pursuant to a Government Gazette of 6 March 1923, the Electricity Supply Commission (Escom) was established with effect from 1 March 1923 with Dr. Hendrik Johannes van der Bijl as its first Chairman. It is Africa's largest producer of electricity.

South Africa will this year be the first African country to host the FIFA Soccer World Cup. It was also the first country to introduce electricity in the continent.

Electricity was introduced to meet market needs not for political expediency.

Investments in the power sector are lumpy. Before an investment is made one has to be confident that the target market would be willing and able to pay for the investment.

What is instructive about the South African experience is that such investments were domestically conceptualised with little or no input from the colonial office.

There was no expectation of external bilateral or multilateral financial and technical support. If there were mistakes, they were made by the actors who had to live with the consequences of their choices and actions.

At its foundation, the colonial state was meant to serve the needs of the people to whom it owed its existence.

Without enterprising and daring people, South Africa would not have scored a first. This is not to say that the political economic system that underpinned the business model was desirable and equitable.

What it means is that we should not take for granted our corporate heritage lest we lose the foundation that has made some part of Africa points of light while other parts remain in darkness.

Investments in electricity were not accidental but were deliberate. There are men and women who made it possible. It is through the experiences of these individuals that we can learn about what we need to do to extend the perimeter of light in Africa.

As we learn about our past we should critically examine what our obligations are in terms of institution and human capacity building. If the industrial pioneers of South Africa were small minded the outcome we see today in the country would show.

What occupied the minds of these pioneers? Their actions could not have been motivated by a desire to solely promote the interests of the mother country but a genuine desire to improve the quality of life of the people to whom they felt electricity meant something.

To a subsistence farmer, for instance, the meaning and value of electricity is different to a commercial farmer.

Electricity only has value to those with the means to pay for it. If you do not have the resources, it is a question of time before you plunge into darkness.

It is after all an expensive and risky game but ultimately someone has to pay.

To the extent that South Africa has scored many firsts in Africa, we need to know more about this 15-year old baby in Africa.

It is pregnant with lessons on how to build nation states. Once we discount the race-based approach to human civilization, we may find that the values, beliefs and principles that informed the choices made on industrial, agricultural and mining development may resonate need to be holistically understood.