Globally, more than 660 million people still lack access to electricity — and 85% of them reside in sub-Saharan Africa.
Washikala Malango was one of these people.
Malango was born and raised in Baraka, a village on the shores of a vast lake in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). His off-grid childhood was not particularly unusual: even today, around 78% of the population in the country has no access to electricity, according to the World Bank.
He recalls spending mornings at school and afternoons playing soccer in the streets, and at dusk, returning home to share the light of a kerosene lamp in the kitchen, where his mother prepared dinner.
There was no reading or studying in the evening: “We wouldn’t even buy enough kerosene to even make enough light (to last) until 9 or 10 p.m. Then you spend the…
