Heart of Darkness
In a deeply personal paper, South African journalist Geoff Hill describes the struggle to get energy for Africa, and the hardships its people endure just to survive and to make a living.
From the migrant workers hawking blankets at traffic lights, to the poignant tale of a funeral far from the city lights, Hill take the reader on a fascinating journey through the inequities of modern-day Africa.
Fossil fuels bring hope
Hill’s focus is on hope and, most importantly how lack of access to cheap and reliable electricity destroys it. Without power, there is no hope for the people in the countryside, who flock to the cities in search of a better life. Without power the countryside becomes denuded of its population.
And worse, without power and without hope, some will be tempted by crime and terrorism. As Hill says in his title, energy is a security issue.
“For those of us who lived through the 1960s, 70s and 80s, with coups and tyrannies across Africa, things are so much better now, and freedom is on the march across the continent. But looking down at night from a plane, there’s still that problem you can see on the cover of this essay: spots of light and mile after mile of darkness.”
— Geoff Hill
Heart of Darkness
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