Nioro du Sahel, une ville sous tension

Nioro du Sahel is a town of 25,000 inhabitants, isolated on the arid plateaux of north-west Mali and 450 kilometres down the track from Bamako. Needless to say, the town is not an economic priority and so has never been electrified by the State. At nightfall, most of Nioro’s inhabitants get down to organising themselves, and the well-off families can be recognised by the hum of their generators distributing electricity to relatives and neighbours… Since 1993, however, a French team has been working to bring electricity to the town. The team members work for the French Electricity Board, but the project was launched on their own initiative within Nioro’s twinning up with the French town of Limours (Essone). These volunteers belong to one of the Development Co-operation clubs set up by the Electricity Board’s employees to help developing countries. Yet, aside from the hundreds of pylons and miles of electric cables connecting to powerful generators, this project has social and political implications for the Nioro townspeople. The French technical project coupled with the complexity of the social environment has given rise to strained relations, which are further amplified by feelings of doubt and lack of understanding.