During a trip to one of Niger’s largest uranium mines in 2003 as a research associate with World Policy Institute, I was struck by a large sign at the mine entrance that read, “The highest quality at the lowest price.”
Descending into the mine, I met workers with no protective gear toiling in darkness to provide uranium for nuclear power plants abroad. The miners’ working conditions were horrendous; they had little access to healthcare, and limited access to electricity.
I began ÉnergieRich in 2015 to help create new ways to produce energy that would enhance community fabric and justice. My approach to “development” addresses multiple issues at once, including job creation, innovation, and value-added production. Photos courtesy of ÉnergieRich.
Later, as my research partner, Eddy Balogun, drove us around Niger’s capital city, Niamey, on a typical sunny day, we talked about how so many people globally don’t have consistent energy access. “Why don’t we have energy [for everyone] if the sun is shining all the time?” Eddy wondered aloud. His words stuck with me.
Soon after, I visited the oil-producing Niger Delta and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where I researched how coltan and other minerals were fueling the early years of a conflict that is still ongoing.
That research trip helped me understand the political, economic, and environmental impacts of oil and mineral extraction, and transformed my thinking around energy. I was and am still fascinated by the fact that African earth provides so much of the resources and energy that those of us living in the “developed” West consume daily — resources that power everything from the phones and computers we use to the cars we drive. Yet the people digging up the minerals that fuel our lives are unable to access energy themselves.
Over time, I became dedicated to the idea of changing this equation. I developed a praxis to respond to the devastating impact of the extractive sector and unlock our potential to provide clean energy for all in ways that would enhance community fabric and justice. That praxis emerged from deep reflection on the intersections of Pan-Africanism, African political thought, contemporary movements against fossil fuels, and the role of art in fostering imagination beyond our current realities.
Photo courtesy of Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.
I began ÉnergieRich in 2015 to put these ideas into practice and establish an approach to development that addresses multiple issues at once, including job creation, innovation, and value-added production. ÉnergieRich began in partnership with Burkina Energy and Appropriate Technology, a social enterprise aimed at expanding solar-energy access to Burkina Faso’s rural areas. We worked in Burkina Faso for two years, developing a line of solar products that could be locally assembled, including portable solar lamps and poultry egg incubators. Unfortunately, the conflict of 2019 ended our work there. So I shifted my focus to Ghana.
The move facilitated new collaborations, including with renowned Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama, whose work speaks to the crisis of capitalism, the human struggle against colonialism, and the importance of everyday laborers — all concepts with connections to energy justice. Mahama also speaks of using art to “reorganize our way of thinking,” a crucial part of our work at ÉnergieRich.
ÉnergieRich attempts to do this through our integrative model of local manufacturing of solar-energy systems, including solar-powered farm equipment. We adhere to the values of a circular economy by integrating e-waste, such as recycled batteries, into our systems. We also center intergenerational justice. Our work involves teaching local youth STEM skills with a focus on improving their communities. These students go home and teach their families and their friends what they’ve learned, sharing a vision of a regenerative future. In other words, our work is not just about the technical development of products that support energy access; we seek to build innovative thinking that directly responds to community needs. It is through this process that we hope to see generational change.
ÉnergieRich engineers will soon be collaborating with the Basandja Coalition of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, an alliance working for the social and environmental rights of forest and river communities living around mines in the DRC. The Basandja Coalition has invited ÉnergieRich to train local youth to assemble and install solar-energy systems and learn about integrative circular economic approaches to product design.
After two decades, it feels good to be returning to the DRC with solutions in hand.
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