Papers presented by Fauziyatu Moro since 2019
2024 Providence, Rhode Island
"Energizing Accra: Charcoal Production and the Politics of Fuel Access in a West African City"
Fauziyatu Moro, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Abstract:
The 1980s in Ghana was an unprecedented moment of social and economic uncertainty, more so for charcoal producers and urban residents who relied on charcoal as their main source of fuel energy. In that period, the charcoal industry attracted critical scrutiny from policymakers due to the environmental concerns associated with the felling of trees for charcoal. Bans on charcoal production were implemented by local chiefs in the forest regions of the country where the majority of the nation’s charcoal is produced. Charcoal is a type of wood fuel which makes up one of the main sources of fuel energy for many households in sub-Saharan Africa. Over thirteen million people are employed in the wood fuel energy sector, and the 2022 Africa Energy Outlook report by the International Energy Agency reveals the connection between price hikes in Liquefied Petroleum Gas and the overreliance on charcoal by lower income households in East and West Africa. Thus, bans on charcoal production in Ghana do not only result in job displacements but also disproportionately affect the urban poor in places like Accra where many residents rely on charcoal for their household and commercial needs. How do we reconcile charcoal production and its high demand by the urban masses with the restrictions on production? What insights can be gleaned from understanding the positions of the various stakeholders on the environmental implications of charcoal production: the producers, consumers, and local chiefs? My paper is a close reading of the urban and environmental politics of energy access in Ghana. It historicizes the making of the charcoal industry in the country by Sissala migrants from north-west Ghana as a way to broach a discourse on the environmental concerns associated with charcoal production and its implications on employment and the realities of urban life in Ghana.