Moïse Williams POKAM KAMDEM

Lecturer and researcher in the University of Dschang

Fellowship : October 2019 to June 2020

Discipline(s) : History

Pays : Cameroon

Research project: "internationalizing the question of Africa’s electrification: issues and initiatives"

In recent decades, many initiatives have emerged outside Africa to try to decisively increase the electricity access rate on that continent. In fact, electricity is a vector of development but remains a luxury for many Africans.

This project does not directly intend to discuss the process and the experiences of electrification of the continent. It instead relies on the analysis of international public policies to determine why and how governments, institutions, associations and individuals outside Africa promote the electrification of this continent.

Several objectives emerge from this research proposal: to understand the international interest in the electrification of Africa; to analyse the mobilization strategies used to justify and implement these external interventions; to assess the contribution of these initiatives in increasing the electricity access rate in Africa; to raise the discussion on the coordination of these initiatives.

Biography

Born in Cameroon in 1983, Moïse Williams Pokam Kamdem is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Dschang. He studied history at the University of Yaoundé I and the University of Dschang. From 2010 to 2012, he was a recipient of a research grant from the EDF Diversiterre Foundation. In 2015, he defended a PhD thesis on the relationship between the State and the private capital in the energy sector in Cameroon, from the colonial period to the beginning of the 21st Century. His research focuses on the history of energy (mainly electricity and hydrocarbons), the business history, the history of public policies, economic integration and more broadly on economies and societies in contemporary Africa.

Bibliography

POKAM KAMDEM, M. Williams & BOKALLI, Émile Sédar. « L’État et les sociétés privées de sécurité au Cameroun », in Coup d’œil sur la sécurité humaine en Afrique centrale (YOGO, E.E.), Paris, Edilivre, 2018, p. 237-256.

POKAM KAMDEM, M. Williams & FOUELEFACK TSAMO, Christian. « La controverse dans l’histoire récente du Cameroun. Quelle perspective historiographique ? », in Nka’ Lumière. Revue interdisciplinaire de la Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines de l’Université de Dschang,  n°17, 2017, p. 75-94. 

POKAM KAMDEM, M. Williams. « Origine et perspectives de l’électrification rurale au Cameroun », dans Electric Worlds/Mondes électriques. Creations, Circulations, Tensions, Transitions (19th-21st C.) (BELTRAN A., LABORIE L., LANTHIER P., LE GALLIC S.), Brussels, P.I.E. Peter Lang, 2016, p. 295-316.

POKAM KAMDEM, M. Williams. « La  question  des  dépôts  pétroliers  au  Cameroun :  enjeux  économiques  et  impérialistes  (1947-1952) », in Outre-Mers. Revue d’histoire, tome 103,  n°388-389, 2015, p. 203-219. 

POKAM KAMDEM, M. Williams & KOUOSSEU, Jules. « L’électricité  et  le  fédéralisme  au  Cameroun :  la  West  Cameroon  Electricity  Corporation (POWERCAM)  1962-1975 », in Journal  gabonais d’Histoire économique et sociale (JGHES), n°1,  January-June 2013, p. 27-42.