To whom it interest:
AnnualMeeting of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT)New Orleans,
Louisiana18-21 November, 2021
Session Title: Beyond the Deficiency Narrative: PostcolonialHistories of LTS
in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Description In the 1960s and 1970s, technology was seen as anavenue, through
which Africa could beequal among ‘gods’, a platform to build hubris
narrative. The nations were stillnewly independent full of euphoria and vigour
to denounce the long colonial underdevelopmentepisode. On one hand, the new
independent nations had a missionto disprove the former colonial powers that
they were capable of unbridling underdevelopmentby themselves. On the other
hand, they had a mission of showing andmobilizing their masses towards a freer
and a people-centred development. This two-prongedmission would utilize
technology, especially the large technical systems (LTS), asthe means to the
end. Urban environments served as platforms of flaunting andexploiting new
technologies, especially roads, water, sanitation and power network.Despite
the introduction or expansion of such networks, colonial deficiency
persistedthrough the post colony. As observed by Akallah and Hård (2020), the
perpetuationof the kind of ‘deficiency narratives’ in LTS and Urban
Studies derive frominadequate theorisation and biased methodologies.
Overlooking the daily use of technologyand various groups’ experience of
their material surroundings, established storylines end up as unilateral
accounts that fail to provide insight into the complexityof the urban
landscape (ibid). In this session, we seek to explore the
cross-sectionalstories of the early postcolonial LTS projects in Sub-Saharan
Africa from the vantagepoint of history of technology and locate the different
trajectories thatinform theprocesses of appropriation. How does space,
national developmental philosophiesandpolitical praxis shape adoption and
production of technical knowledge? In attemptingto answer such questions, we
seek to appreciate the stories themselves and theagency of the local people.
We seek to develop new avenues of historiographicalinterpretationson
technology from the South. This contributes greatly to the
internationalizationof History of Technology. As such we invite session
abstracts of not more than 300 words of thefollowing themes;- Power generation
and distribution - Roadand drainage building - Water andsanitation systems
-Mobility in urban areas - ColdWar Politics and LTS -Appropriation of
technological knowledge Kindly submit abstracts together with short biosand
institutional affiliations to the conveners Dr. J. Akallah
atayumbajetty@yahoo.com based at Maseno University, Kenya and F. Edward
atf38edward@yahoo.co.uk based at University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Thedeadline for submission is April 6, 2021.
Regards,
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Frank Edward, M.A.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8510-7082
View my publications here.
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