Swings and roundabouts: Powering rural Ghana through play

Kids on the electricity-generating ‘merry-go-round’ at Pediatorkope Basic School. (Pic: Flickr/ctrilogy)

The southeastern island of Pediatorkope is one of rural Ghana’s poorest places, with most people living from farming mussels on the Volta River.

But despite being cut off from the national grid, Pediatorkope is relatively well-off compared to the capital Accra and the rest of the country when it comes to power.

How? It uses the natural energy of children to generate enough electricity to power lanterns every time they use specially adapted roundabouts.

When children play on the equipment at the Pediatorkope Basic School, their effort turns a turbine connected to a rechargeable battery that powers LED lanterns.

The children use the lanterns at home, bringing them back to the school when they need recharging, teacher Gerson Kuadegbeku told AFP. “So it is helping the students to learn.”

Kuadegbeku said the scheme – the brainchild of US-based charity Empower Playgrounds Incorporated – has been a success, allowing children to study at home, when previously it was impossible for lack of electricity.

“Formerly the performance of the children in the school was very low,” he told AFP.

Energy crisis

Ghana is in the throes of a crippling energy crisis, which is slowing down economic activity and raising fears about its effect on the emerging economy’s overall development.

Most homes receive electricity for 12 hours but can then be without power for the next 24.

The government, criticised for failing to maintain economic growth after the country began commercial oil production in 2010, recently signed new contracts with external power suppliers.

While Ghanaians wait for those new facilities to begin producing power, demand for generators is increasing.

Some businesses have threatened to leave the country for places with more regular supply. Others said they are being forced to downsize their workforce.

The main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and its supporters last month took to the streets, claiming that President John Dramani Mahama has crippled business by not resolving the problem.

“If you are running a factory and you have to power a generator before you can produce, then there’s a real problem,” said Isaac Osei, an opposition member of parliament.

Power through play

If the situation is acute in cities such as Accra, then it is even worse in rural areas, with schoolchildren among the hardest hit by the lack of electricity.

George Thompson, the project manager at Empower Playgrounds Inc., said the system was helping to improve the chances of rural children continuing their education beyond junior school.

“So far we’re in 42 schools and what we do is that any school that has… junior high, we assess them by their final year examinations,” he said.

“It has really brought improvement in the lives of these children’s education.

“All that we expect from the community is to ensure that when the kids bring these lanterns home, they (use them) to do their home studies.”

Small price to pay

A separate scheme using solar power is also running on the island, where residents pay 500 cedis (about $150) to buy a battery, which is recharged by the sun via roof panels at a “charging station”.

Local man Humphrey Teye Ayeh said he decided to enrol because of the increasing cost of kerosene previously used to provide light.

The sustainable energy system – which can be used to power electrical devices such as mobile phones – has got people more connected, he said.

For Thompson, the decision to come to Pediatorkope made sense because it would take time for the island to get onto the national grid.

“We thought it wise to come to this island and ensure that the people in this community also have a little life here,” he said.

“Our objective is not to make any money or profit from this but we need to get the system, the centre sustainable or the project sustainable, so we ask them to pay 500 Ghana cedis to be hooked up to the system and then each time they bring the battery for recharge, they pay five cedis for that.”

9 years ago

SABC’s Vuyo Mvoko and crew mugged on camera

The South African Broadcasting Corporation’s Vuyo Mvoko and his crew were robbed of their belongings seconds before they could cross live from Milpark in Johannesburg on Tuesday. He was reporting on Zambian President Edgar Lungu’s arrival to Milpark hospital.

Mvoko and the SABC team were robbed of their cellphones and a laptop, but thankfully were not harmed.

Here is the live footage, which clearly shows the muggers, and an SABC News interview with Mvoko about the incident.

9 years ago

Let’s be honest. The West ignores Congo’s atrocities because it’s in Africa

Ugandan police trucks carrying refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo travel from Busunga border post to Bubukwanga town in Uganda on July 14 2013. More than 30 000 refugees from the DRC crossed the border into Uganda’s Western District of Bundibugyo, about 430km from the capital Kampala, following a rebel attack on the town of Kamango in North Kivu province. (Pic: AFP)

Some lives matter more than others: the “ hierarchy of death ”, they call it. The millions killed, maimed and traumatised in the Democratic Republic of Congo are surely at the bottom of this macabre pile. The country was the site of the deadliest war since the fall of Adolf Hitler, and yet I doubt most people in the west are even aware of it. No heart-wrenching exclusives at the top of news bulletins; no mounting calls for western militaries to “do something”.

We are rightly appalled at a barbaric conflict in Syria that has stolen the lives of 200 000 civilians; and yet up to six million people are believed to have perished in the DRC. Not that the mainstream media alone can be berated for this astonishing lack of attention. The left have rightly championed the cause of a Palestinian people subjected to decades-long occupation and subjugation: surely the misery of the DRC does not deserve this neglect.

Although the murderous intensity of the war peaked between 1998 and 2003, the misery has persisted. According to Oxfam , civilians in the east of the country still face exploitation at the hands of armed groups. The UN has labelled the country“the rape capital of the world”. Women, girls and boys have been systematically raped as a weapon of war. Back in 2011, it was estimated that 48 women were raped every hour in the country. Men were raped, too: there are stories of men being raped three times a day for three years. Then there’s the cannibalism: at one point, pygmies in the north east were being killed and eaten by rebels.

It was a war that was remorseless when it came to the innocent: when 45 000 people were being killed every month , around half of them were small children, even though they only represented a fifth of the population. The war triggered devastating waves of starvation and disease which claimed the lives of millions.

Armed militias continue to commit atrocities, and the aftermath of the war has left the country impoverished and devastated. According to the International Rescue Committee , this is “the world’s least developed country in terms of life expectancy, education, standard of living and key health indicators”. And yet this vast country of nearly 80 million people barely punctures our consciousness. Why?

Being generous, perhaps the war was just too complicated. Some described it as Africa’s own “world war”, the spill-over from the Rwandan genocide that involved the armies of nine African nations. Many different, complex conflicts have intersected with each other. The country is awash with precious minerals that should be a source of huge wealth, but instead have proved magnets for armed profiteers. It is a misery that goes back generations: under the rule of the Belgian King Leopold II in the 19th and early 20th centuries, up to 10 million were killed in one of the greatest acts of mass murder in human history.

But we should perhaps just be more honest. On another continent, such a devastating war would never have been allowed to rage for so long. African lives simply do not matter enough: a death toll of up to 6 million would surely not have been tolerated elsewhere. For the West, it is a country of little strategic importance. As for the left, the complexity of the war was no excuse. It is a cause that should have been championed. It wasn’t, and millions died amid near silence. It must not happen again.

Owen Jones for the Guardian

9 years ago

Ethio-jazz: Burned to the ground but the beat goes on

Misale Legesse, an Ethiopian jazz drummer,shows the damage from a fire that ripped through Jazzamba jazz club, a milestone for Ethio-jazz in Addis Ababa. (Pic: AFP)

Heaps of twisted iron, piles of ash and a charred microphone are all that remains of Jazzamba, the iconic Addis Ababa nightclub that revived Ethiopian jazz after it all but disappeared under communist rule.

The fire that destroyed the venue in January has left Ethiopia’s vibrant and growing jazz scene in disarray.

“I still do not believe it,” said musician Misale Legesse, a regular performer at the wood-pannelled club inside the Taitu Hotel.

The century-old hotel, one of the most historic buildings in the city, gained fame as the setting for Evelyn Waugh’s 1938 satirical novel about foreign correspondents Scoop .

But the Jazzamba bar inside brought prestige of another sort as it fostered a resurgence of the Horn of Africa’s unique jazz style – a genre created in the 1960s by music legend Mulatu Astatke, who fused jazz with traditional Ethiopian music.

“For me, it was not just a club, it was my school, where I learnt everything and played with the greatest,” Misale said.

Three nights a week, the young musician would play with the big names of Ethio-jazz, such as Alemayehu Eshete or Bahta Gebrehiwot.

Resurgence after military rule

Jazzamba only opened its doors four years ago but swiftly became the capital’s landmark jazz club, run and managed entirely by the musicians themselves.

“Musicians from all walks of life came to play with each other, we had up to 300 or 400 people huddled in the room, and that really helped create a movement,” said Henok Temesgen, a bassist and one of the founders of the club.

Then the accident happened, a blaze officially ruled accidental due to “electrical overload” and confined mainly to the jazz club.

While the fire came as a shock, Ethiopia’s jazz musicians have weathered adversity in the past. They survived decades of suppression under military rule and show no sign of slowing down now.

Jazzamba also played a key role in the international rediscovery of the Ethio-jazz genre, forgotten by many during the hardline communist regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam, whose 17-year rule of terror ended when he was ousted in 1991.

During Mengistu’s rule – including the “Red Terror” purges in which tens of thousands were executed – Ethiopia’s music scene all but died.

The clubs closed and many musicians fled into exile.

“Apart from songs in praise of the regime and some nightclubs, there was nothing going on,” said Henok.

Iconic club, full of history

It was not until the late 1990s that the Ethiopian jazz scene started getting back on its feet.

“People no longer had the habit of listening to instrumental music, it was necessary to have a live singer,” Henok said. “Today, thanks to radio stations and clubs such as Jazzamba, the public is much more open to improvisation and experimental music.”

Jazzamba was the first club in Addis Ababa to offer concerts every evening and to promote jazz as more than background music.

Since then, interest in Ethio-jazz – with its distinctly un-Western scale – has grown.

“The Ethiopian music scene is very dynamic,” said Girum Mezmur co-founder of Jazzamba. “The local public is interested more in Ethio-jazz and traditional music, and more and more people came to the concerts.”

Since the fire, musicians have taken refuge at Mama’s Kitchen, a new restaurant in town that offers several concerts a week and aims to become a centre of the Addis music scene.

The Coffee House, one of Addis’ earliest jazz clubs, has also just reopened after being closed for years.

Convinced that Ethio-jazz has a bright future, Girum and Henok founded a music school near the capital three years ago, so far teaching some 70 students.

Income from Jazzamba paid for the school, but with the venue gone Ethiopian wine producer Awash has stepped in to fund the school for a year.

“We lost an iconic club in a place full of history, it’s true, but the music scene in Addis is not limited to Jazzamba,” Girum said.

“I am very optimistic about the development of Ethiopian music.”

9 years ago

‘Robocops’ take on Kinshasa traffic

One of three new human-like robots that were recently installed in Kinshasa to help tackle the hectic traffic usually experienced in the capital. (Pic: AFP)

In the teeming capital of DR Congo, where drivers often flout traffic rules, five chunky, arm-waving robots equipped with cameras and lights have been set up to watch over the roads.

The solar-powered aluminium robots are huge, towering over the jammed streets of Kinshasa, as cars and motorcyles jostle for road room, their horns blasting.

Each hand on the odd-looking machines – built to withstand the year-round hot climate – is fitted with green and red lights that regulate the flow of traffic in the sprawling city of nine million.

The robots are also equipped with rotating chests and surveillance cameras that record the flow of traffic and send real-time images to the police station.

Although the humanoids look more like giant toys than real policemen, motorists have given them a thumbs up.

“There are certain drivers who don’t respect the traffic police. But with the robot it will be different. We should respect the robot,” taxi driver Poro Zidane told AFP.

“We’re very happy about it,” he said, his taxi packed with passengers as drivers around him honked their horns in a desperate bid to cut through the traffic jam.

A traffic robot cop on Triomphal boulevard of Kinshasa at the crossing of Asosa, Huileries and Patrice Lubumba streets. (Pic: AFP)

Of the five robots set up across the capital, two have been regulating traffic since 2013.

On Tuesday, three new and improved robots developed by a Congolese association of women engineers were set up across the city.

The newcomers even have names: Tamuke, Mwaluke and Kisanga. They each cost $27 500.

‘An asset for police’

Therese Izay, president of Women’s Technology, the group behind the robots, believes the invention will help make it far more difficult for motorists in Kinshasa to get away with traffic violations.

“In our city, someone can commit an offence and run away, and say that no one saw him. But now, day or night, we’ll be able to see him in real time and he will pay his fine like in all the serious countries of the world,” she said.

The new robots “react much more quickly” than the older models, she said.

“The electronic components work much better now than the ones from the first generation,” she said, adding that she had submitted a proposal for the authorities to purchase 30 more robots to watch over the country’s highways.

Five of the machines have already been sent to Katanga province, in the southeast of the country.

General Celestin Kanyama, chief of Kinshasa’s police force, said the new electronic cops were a welcome addition in a city where 2,276 people have died in traffic accidents since 2007.

“These robots will be an important asset for the police,” he told AFP.

But Kinshasa governor Andre Kimbuta said that while the machines could regulate traffic, they were no match for real policemen who could chase motorists who jump red lights and raise civic awareness.

“We should congratulate our Congolese engineers, but policemen also need to do their job,” he said.