ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to set the 1983 work in a broader context or at least to relate some of the features described to other aspects of social and economic change. In so doing, particular attention is paid to the role of energy in urban-rural interchange. The chapter confines itself to tropical Africa, with a range of socio-economic conditions and of energy resources rather different from those of northern and southern Africa. The urban proportions of population are shown, indicating a marked contrast between west, west-central and east Africa. Urban areas are not necessarily the chief centres of energy consumption in tropical Africa, but they do consume the greatest variety of different kinds of energy and provide the greatest concentration of demand. The flows of fuel and electricity create an urban-rural energy interface, especially marked between kerosene and wood as each penetrates the other's base. Woodfuel commercialisation has encouraged innovation and its diffusion.
