This paper aims to explore the how of Africa's electric scramble. It argues that national, centralised energy development appears to be causing dam resurgence. After growing questioning of the benefits and costs of dams, the last decade has seen the re-emergence of their construction, largely under the guise of hydropower. Rather than soaring rhetoric of total national development futures, present justifications for dams are more typically confined to the prism of electrification and energy generation. Thus, dams' comeback is owed to the scramble for energy across the continent, to its' rationales, practises and vision of a centralised energy sector.

The paper uses the case study of Rwanda, and specifically the Nyabarongo and Rusumo dams. It will explore the national-level energy policies of Rwanda, demonstrating how the country's developmental and authoritarian characteristics have shaped a strident centralised infrastructure program that is notable for having achieved substantial increases in electrification and energy generation. The role of electricity infrastructure underpinning the Rwandan regime is critically drawn out. This context is then related to the planning and implementation of the specific Nyabarongo and Rusumo dams, with the extent of local participation, compensation and realised electrification drawn out.

The paper uses theoretical ideas around high modernism's ideology and operationalisation to analyse the Rwandan case and its continuity to past era's of high modernism and dam building. It draws on doctoral research including over 100 semi-structured interviews with officials, and more participatory methods in the dam's locales

The project of state building and the quest for modernization via economic development have been an evolving concern for successive Ethiopian regimes since early 20th century. Previous attempts, however, failed to buy the much needed legitimacy and the consequent development. The current ''ethnocratic''-regime with democratic pretensions under Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which is in power since-1991, has continued with this age-old agenda albeit with different strategy. The government has, in a James Scott's scenario of high-modernist paradigm, bent on "technology-driven development" and top-down planning under rhetoric of "developmental state" since early 2000s. This type of "high modernism" is most evident in the massive hydraulic infrastructural projects occupying the core of EPRDF's state building project both in symbolic and material terms. One of the most controversial mega-schemes is the Gibe III hydroelectric project, which is the second largest project in the country. A less deterministic-analytical framework informed by insights from theories of political ecology and state will be used to understand the issues related to governance and state power exercise by using this project as a case study. Accordingly, a qualitative approach based on field research conducted both at national and local scales from July 1 to December 30, 2016 and document analysis, will be employed to understand the problem. Hence, the paper hopes to contribute to debates on the contemporary revamp of high-modernism and state power from African states by providing a fresh interpretation to the themes of hydroelectric development and state building in Ethiopia.

This paper examines the political economy of energy in Mozambique amid recent efforts to expand energy access in the country. Monopolization of the political and economic system by the ruling party, Frelimo, in league with domestic and transnational business elites, has marginalized large segments of the population, especially the poor, and provoked organized resistance, led by the opposition party, Renamo. The paper will analyse how the conflict shapes the political economy of energy, including inward investment in untapped fossil fuel resources, namely coal and gas, along with grid expansion and electricity exports. The paper examines these investments and initiatives in relation to decisions about the location of new energy generation projects and access to energy by local populations affected by the conflict.

Après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, l'accélération du phénomène urbain au Cameroun s'accompagne d'une intensification du rythme de raccordement des villes aux réseaux électriques. La mise en place d'un État interventionniste renforce cette tendance. Les résultats de ces initiatives sont pourtant loin d'être flatteurs. Les délestages sont aujourd'hui devenus l'un des éléments de la vie urbaine, suscitant des alternatives à la dépendance au réseau. L'éclatement des émeutes dans les villes camerounaises d'Abong Mbang et de Kumba à la fin de l'année 2007 traduit bien la frustration des citadins privés de longues semaines d'un service public aussi fondamental et, de façon intrinsèque, déterminant de leur vie « en ville ».

L'objectif de cette communication est de retracer l'évolution du processus d'électrification des villes au Cameroun, en soulignant comment celle-ci se traduit dans le discours politique, dans les choix de développement et dans l'espace public. Cette proposition s'appuie sur des documents d'archives et sur la littérature consacrée à l'électrification de ce pays. L'analyse se fonde sur une approche diachronique de la question. Il s'avère que l'électrification des principales villes est devenue une nécessité au cours de la seconde moitié des années 1940. Mais, l'idée d'une « électrification urbaine » n'est développée que plus tard, dans le cadre de la planification post-coloniale, s'étendant aux centres secondaires. Les difficultés qu'éprouvent les populations urbaines et péri-urbaines à accéder de façon régulière à l'électricité finissent par susciter la transgression des normes électriques ainsi que, dans certains cas, des réclamations portées directement sur la place publique.