I do like victory lap stamps like the type the British often do just before when they send a colony off on it’s own. They show achievements left for the country. Belgium didn’t do such stamps for Rwanda. Getting out of Africa would not have seemed like a victory. But there were small ones, like leaving the capital Kigali with sustainable, non polluting hydroelectric electricity. Luckily Rwanda itself showed off what was done. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
This is a big well printed stamp for 1967. Why not a modern hydroelectric plant is not what you would expect to find in 1960s Africa where there was nothing resembling a power grid as such. Remember all of same era machinations in Egypt to get someone else to pay for the Aswan Dam they desired on the Nile.
Todays stamp is issue A33 a 20 Centimes stamp issued by Rwanda on March 6th, 1967. It was a 6 stamp issue showing off the Ntaruka power plant coexisting with area fauna. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused.
There was very little electricity in Rwanda during colonial times. Belgium had intended to make a profit on their African colonies so no investment was made without a quick rate of return. That changed a little toward the end. Two hydroelectric plants were built on the Mukungua and the Rusizi Rivers in the late 1950s to supply electricity at least to the capital.
Power generation has not been a strength of Rwanda. Even in 2019 only 51 percent of Rwandans have access to electricity. 90% of the energy for cooking in the country comes from burning firewood. There were no new power plants built in Rwanda between 1959 and 1982. The troubles of the mid 1990s lead to output falling to below the level of colonial days. This is even worse than it sounds as the population was growing very fast having tripled since independence.
The situation has begun to improve in this century. Three new hydroelectric power plants have come on line since 2010 and there are projects for four more. There are also new thermal power plants coming along that seek to extract natural gas dissolved in Lake Kivu. A domestically sourced coal fired electric station has also recently come on line. There is some solar but this is mainly solar panels on roofs of buildings that have no other power to access. The Government hopes to be able to offer electricity to 100% of the people by 2024. Most of the new power plants are owned by the Rwandan government and built and financed by China.
Well my drink is empty. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020,