The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind

William Kamkwamba grew up on a farm near Masitala village in Malawi. The early part of the book deals with his upbringing in a loving family, showing how hard life is in that part of Africa. A particularly harrowing chapter describes the effects of a famine. His parents could not afford to send him to secondary school, so any spare time he had away from tending the fields of maize was spent reading books from the primary school library.

People used magic to explain events in their lives, but William became interested in science. Using the textbook Explaining Physics by Stephen Pople, he discovered how his friend’s bicycle dynamo worked.

Then, frustrated by having to go to bed at 7pm when it became dark, he used the power of the wind to make the dynamo turn, building a windmill from scrap wood, metal and plastic. The windmill turned the bike wheel, which was suspended 16ft up, next to the windmill blades. Much to the amazement of the villagers, the pile of junk produced a flickering light, and he could read at night.

William continued to improve his windmill, to the point where it could light the whole house, and even pump water from a well, enabling his family to harvest two crops a year instead of one, reducing the risk of starvation. He also recharged the locals’ mobile phone batteries.

His ingenuity earned him fame, not only in his village, but in the country and eventually internationally; this in turn led to the secondary education he craved and a place on the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg.

William’s story is uplifting, an enchanting tale of human spirit and ingenuity. It ought to be included in our National Curriculum, as an example of what can be achieved with limited resources and the application of basic scientific and technological principles.