Waiting for Light in N’Djamena

N’Djamena was out of power again. I was sitting in the courtyard of the woman I call my Chadian mother, watching the light disappear while the evening heat held on. By then, I had already been living in Chad for seven months as a Chinese PhD researcher conducting long-term fieldwork in sociology, and I had learned that blackouts were part of the city’s rhythm. But that night was not just another interruption. My Chadian mother had cared for me with a steadiness that made kinship feel less metaphorical than real. Her husband was a professor, who occupied a relatively high social position. Yet, to save on rent, they still lived in an area where infrastructure was poor and cuts to electricity and water were frequent. On my side of the city, the power had only just gone out. On theirs, it had already been gone for four days.

Four days without electricity also meant four days without water. Water in my Chadian mother’s house was not something that arrived reliably through a municipal network; it had to be pumped up by electricity. A dull fatigue set in when the heat had nowhere to go, but one could not simply take a shower to relieve the discomfort. At the same time, with no electricity, the air conditioner and even the fans were useless. The house became almost uninhabitable, which was why everyone gathered outside despite the mosquitoes, the flies and the blowing dust. Phones and power banks were nearly drained. Electricity had to be mentally rationed before it ever physically returned. People used their phones less, conserving the last traces of charge. Nothing much could be done. When power finally does return after a long absence, the reaction can feel almost religious: people cheer as if something long prayed for has at last arrived.

A road in N’Djamena at dusk, with the nearest stretch still unlit.

That was hardly an exceptional scene in Chad. Data from the International Energy Agency show that oil accounted for 98 per cent of the country’s total electricity generation in 2023. In 2024, oil accounted for around 51.8 per cent of government revenue and 65.3 per cent of exports. However, electricity has not become a widely accessible and affordable public service. World Bank data show that, only 13.4 per cent of the country’s population, estimated at 20.3 million, had access to electricity, placing Chad near the bottom globally. In the World Bank’s Doing Business 2020, Chad ranked 182 out of 190 economies, and 180 on getting electricity. More recent World Bank private-sector diagnostics in 2023 identify the lack of reliable and affordable energy as the country’s most serious bottleneck for doing business. In a place like this, power cuts do more than turn out the lights. They reorganize business costs, housing choices, social relations and the fragile routines through which everyday life is held together.

Then, that same evening, a friend of my Chadian mother sent over a large bag of goods. Alongside farm produce was a large solar power bank. It could run three lights at once and charge phones. As long as there was sun, it could keep working without waiting for the grid to return. On the outside were Arabic and French instructions, and even a small Chadian emblem. At first glance, it looked as though it naturally belonged here. Only on closer inspection did another line appear in much smaller print: Made in China. The relief it brought was immediate. The device did more than illuminate a room. It bought a little time, allowing phones to be charged again and making the night liveable. The object was modest, but the world it pointed to was much larger.

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Waiting for Light in N’Djamena

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