I was invited to be a speaker at an antinuclear, progreen conference. The organiser told me that it was funded by European antinuclear groups and that about 15 countries were represented by the 70-odd delegates. I met representatives from African countries, such as Senegal, Tanzania and Mali, and also people from Switzerland, Germany, France and Canada.

A South African antinuclear activist spoke to the assembled audience and explained how South Africa has a Minister of Energy who lies to the public. She said that the Minister says in public that she supports wind and solar power but then, behind the backs of the people, goes and supports coal and nuclear power. She spat out the word ‘nuclear’ with disgust.

Then we had some European speakers who explained how Africans should be living in harmony with the land in order “to save the planet”. One speaker, in complimentary tone, said: “You Africans have got it about right – do not become like Switzerland; stay as you are.” He conceded: “Maybe you can use a little bit more electricity, but not much.”

The patronising, offensive attitude of these people was mind-blowing. Let me tell you of the German fellow who marched in to give his presentation, carrying a wooden cube, about 50 cm edge length. It had a carry handle on each side and a single 220 V bayonet light bulb socket on the top, with one 60 W incandescent light bulb (note, not a compact fluorescent light or light-emitting diode – LED – light). He grandly announced that this ‘power block’ was the answer to Africa’s electricity problems. You just put it in the sun and charge it up, carry it indoors at night, flick the switch on it and you get light. With great flair, he demonstrated how you press a switch, and light comes out of the bulb. If he expected gasps of amazement from the African audience, he did not get them.

It got worse, much worse. He showed slides of how, if you “have one for each hut”, then you can link them together with cables “so that the whole village is connected”. To make this concept clear, he projected a diagram which showed a red square in each hut (the box, you understand) and then a red line between each box (to make this clear to you, this means joining the boxes together – get the picture?). He then explained that the boxes were cubes, so you could stack them on top of one another if you wanted ‘more power’. A diagram was projected showing red cubes on top of one another. (Bless him for making that totally clear to me.)

Then, blow me down, a greenie from the audience puts up his hand and asks: “If you connect enough of them, can you produce megawatts?” The German ‘expert’ answers: “Oh, yes; no problem, you can produce megawatts.” Nobody asks any questions like: why do you want megawatts in a village or why do you want to produce megawatts so that people can subdivide this back down to 60 W light bulbs, or maybe a toaster?

The Swiss speaker just before him had explained that items like electric stoves were really a no-no for Africa and had shown an “improved wood-burning stove”. He held one up; it was the size of a 5 ℓ paint tin. He said that the exhaust gas from the top was captured and fed back in at the bottom “to improve combustion”. He did not explain how extra carbon dioxide improves combustion, and nobody asked. He said that the wood stove was so good at burning that it produced almost no smoke, “so, you can even take it indoors and cook indoors”. Wow, what a revolutionary concept – cooking indoors!

Now back to the magic cubes. At tea break, I went over to the table where the German stood with four boxes on display, painted red. There were six people from other African countries as well. I asked him: “What type of battery is in the box?” The answer: two 50 A hour lead acid motor car batteries. He explained that it now weighed 40 kg and so they could not add a third car battery. (Bear in mind that a bag of cement is 50 kg). There was also an inverter in the box to produce the 220 V ac. I had decided that there was no need to make an issue of this, so I did not ask why one would want to light a 60 W ac bulb when you could light 12 or 24 V dc bulbs from 12 or 24 V dc car batteries. In modern times, one would light LEDs anyway and not 220 V incandescent bulbs.

I then I asked: “How do you actually charge this up?” There was no visible solar charging input. He replied: “Oh, each box comes with a 1.5 m × 1.0 m solar panel, but they are too big to carry so, I did not bring one.”

Then I asked my final question: “How much does a box cost?” He answered that they were not at all expensive, quite reasonable, in fact, and he could supply them right now if I wanted some. I then replied: “Thanks, but I actually want to know how much one costs in an actual money number.” His reply: “Only R15 000 each.”

The half-dozen African-country representatives around me turned around and melted away. The German stood there beaming in triumph, waiting for excited applause. I decided that I could use my time much better getting a cup of coffee rather than trying to explain to him that his power box was just so dumb that it did not even warrant discussion.

For me, it was a spiritual renewal, realising yet again that we, the residents of Africa, need to solve our own problems and stop thinking that foreigners like Swiss and Germans understand us or our conditions. I did not even tell him how offensive and patronising his attitude towards us, the residents of Africa, was.

Even worse was that local members of extreme green and antinuclear groups had given such speakers a round of applause after their presentations.

It was clear that their vision of the future and my vision of reality were nowhere near each other.