‘Dumsor’ goes on Wikipedia

Over the weekend, ‘Dumsor’ found its way to Wikipedia – a free online encyclopedia.

Wikipedia defined ‘dumsor’ as: “… a popular Ghanaian term used to describe persistent electric power outages which has resulted due to the insufficient power production to meet the population growth of the country.”

According to Wikipedia, “the term started gaining prominence late in 2012 when the Electricity Company of Ghana started a load shedding exercise due to insufficient power generation from the Ghana's main hydro electric dam”.

“The word has been used by the general public in expressing anger at and disappointment in authorities. It has also gained popularity via social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #Dumsor. The term is a compound word generated from two Akan ( a language spoken largely in Ghana) words 'dum' (to turn off or quench) and 'sor'( to light),” Wikipedia stated.

Wikipedia made reference to a Graphic Online story, which quoted President John Mahama on a trip on Germany as saying that he had been nicknamed  ‘Mr Dumsor’ in Ghana.

It also sourced a Graphic Online article titled ‘Ghana’s power crisis: What about renewable energy?’.