Open AccessThe Technopolitics of Infrastructure Breakdowns: A Historical Overview of Dumsor
Author(s) -
Claudia Serwah Prempeh,
Joris Tieleman
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
e-journal of humanities, art and social sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2720-7722
DOI - 10.38159/ehass.2020111
Subject(s) - mains electricity , narrative , electricity , rationing , corporate governance , politics , business , power (physics) , political science , economics , finance , engineering , economic growth , health care , law , linguistics , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , electrical engineering
In sub-Saharan Africa, Ghana is considered a beacon of success because of its high electricity access rate: 84.3 per cent as at 2018. Despite this success, the sector is entangled in a crisis. Crisis as used here refers to the crisis of electricity supply where supply deficits results in prolonged periods of blackouts and load rationing. Between 2012 and 2016, blackouts christened dumsor (Twi word for off/on) became a regular experience in Ghana with more blackouts than electricity supplied: 24 hours lights out, 12 hours light supplied. Using a historical narrative, this article provides a summarized account of how dumsor unravelled- the momentous cascading socio-economic interruption dumsor caused, the dramatic user responses it evoked and the ways in which it became the subject of intense political debate. Primary data was gathered from ethnographic eldwork and secondary data from online and archival sources. This narration reveals the generative potential of uncertain infrastructure and its ability to foreground the “under the radar” interdependences between infrastructure and political power. It details how an “imperfect” electric infrastructure produced new user subjectivities, challenged the conduct of electricity governance and revealed electricity provisioning to be a starkly contested technopolitical process.Keywords: Technopolitics, Blackouts, Dumsor, Infrastructure