The Subaltern Response to State-Mediated Development: A Case of Rural Electrification in Masinga Division, 1990 - 2019

Abstract

This study contributes to the understanding of state-centered development in post-colonial Africa. The existing literature offers an intriguing discourse on the state interventionist policies in planning and implementation of development schemes in the independence era. The underlying theme is that weak state institutions in post-colonial Africa contributed to the government's failure to engender significant development in the continent. The argument is that hegemonic planning and implementation of the development process is the principal reason for the failure of the post-colonial state in its attempt to provide tangible social and economic development in the independence era. Nevertheless, the existing literature does not highlight how rural residents appropriate state mediated development in ways that brings success to them, despite the aforementioned inadequacies. Taking a case study of the rural electrification process in Masinga Sub- County, from 1990 to 2019, this project paper offers a critical focus on the role of subalterns, as agents and architects of rural development. The study deliberately eschews conventional narratives on the rural population as lumpen elements in the development process. The study utilized both primary and secondary data. The research used purposive sampling technique and snowballing methods to identify respondents who were interviewed using a research interview guide. The data collected from the field was thematically analyzed. Thematic analysis enabled the researcher to establish the parameters of social change which were attributed to appropriation of electricity by the rural population in Masinga Division. The research findings knit evidence on how rural population utilized electricity in ingenious ways which changed the social and economic trajectory of the area in the Twenty- First Century. For example, this study reveals that electricity access in Masinga Division provided cheaper alternative sources of energy for the local population, which: enhanced food production through irrigation, supported small micro enterprises, and consequently reduced rural outmigration in this area.  These findings contradict the arguments by the scholars on the non-viability of the state funded projects in Africa. The argument is that rural population is capable of appropriating social utilities provided by the state in ways that work for their benefit despite their deficiencies