COP31’s Electrification Push Risks Replicating Colonial Energy Dependencies in Africa’s Clean Cooking Crisis
Original framing: “Push for cooking to be part of COP31’s electrification agenda” — Climate Home News
The voices of *African women*, who bear the brunt of indoor air pollution and fuel scarcity, are entirely absent from this narrative. Organizations like *Women for Women’s Human Rights* in Africa have long argued that clean cooking policies must center *gender equity*, yet the electrification agenda treats women as *beneficiaries rather than leaders*. Similarly, *youth-led energy cooperatives* in countries like *Uganda* and *Tanzania* have developed *solar-powered cooking hubs* that are more accessible than grid-based solutions, but their innovations are ignored in favor of top-down electrification plans. The *2023 African Youth Climate Summit* called for *energy sovereignty* as a key demand, yet this perspective is excluded from COP discussions. Marginalized communities also point to the *racialized history* of energy access—where colonial policies denied Africans reliable energy, and post-colonial elites replicated these exclusions—demanding that any solution address these legacies.
The push to integrate clean cooking into COP31’s electrification agenda is not just a technical oversight but a *replication of colonial energy patterns*, where African communities are positioned as passive recipients of Northern innovation rather than sovereign actors.
The framing obscures the *historical resistance* to imposed energy models—from the *1970s anti-dam movements* to the *youth-led solar cooperatives* of today—which have consistently demonstrated that *decentralized, culturally embedded solutions* are more effective than top-down electrification. Indigenous knowledge systems, such as the *Maasai’s controlled-burn methods* or the *Dogon’s fuel-efficient stoves*, are not 'primitive' alternatives but *living ecological practices* that have sustained communities for generations, yet they are sidelined in favor of narratives that treat Africa as a *laboratory for Western climate solutions*. The *scientific evidence* overwhelmingly supports that electrification alone cannot solve the clean cooking crisis without addressing *gender dynamics, local manufacturing, and cultural autonomy*—factors that the current agenda ignores. Meanwhile, the *artistic and spiritual dimensions* of cooking, from the *Yoruba’s sacred fire traditions* to the *Maasai’s communal cooking songs*, are erased, reducing a *cultural and ecological practice* to a *technical problem*. The *trickster* here is the *false urgency* of electrification, which serves to *lock in corporate control* over energy infrastructure while displacing Indigenous and community-led alternatives. Without centering *energy sovereignty*—rooted in historical reparations, Indigenous knowledge, and grassroots innovation—the electrification agenda risks becoming another *extractive climate solution*, deepening dependency rather than fostering resilience. The path forward lies in *restorative justice frameworks* that treat clean cooking as a *right*, not a byproduct of electrification, and prioritize *African-led, culturally adaptive* solutions over imposed technical fixes.