William Kamkwamba, author, "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind," and Malawi Windmill Maker

Spark Radio Show interview, CBC Canada

You can listen to the interview here. Nora York, the host, interviewed me over the phone.

From their website "Spark is your guide to the Next Big Thing. On-air and online, join Nora Young for a surprising and irreverent look at tech, trends, and fresh ideas."

 

Article in Plan Magazine in Ireland

The Architecture of Invention

from Plan Magazine.

What would you do if your house were lit by just one paraffin lamp? If you live in Ireland, you could
pay off your electricity bill. Or perhaps you could
buy every candle from the local hardware store.
Failing that, maybe you could simply live in
perpetual darkness. But what if you lived in Africa?
Hmm, now that’s a little harder, isn’t it? How
about designing a giant windmill from scratch?
That’s what teenager William Kamkwamba did -
and his invention is quickly making him famous.
The youngster, hailing from Mastala Village in the
Kasungu district of Malawi, began making
windmills when he left school at 14 because he
couldn’t afford the fees.
He started with a five-metre  structure, which
he fashioned from plastic piping, his father’s
bicycle and chunks of wood. Referencing a basic
design outlined in a schoolbook he had borrowed,
the inventive teen would heat pieces of cut-up
plastic piping and then fashion them into propeller
blades. The handmade electricity generator was
enough to power one light bulb in his family
home. But he wanted more. Reaching for the
skies, he decided to construct a 12-metre version.
This towering structure soars above the village and
creates enough electricity to power four bulbs and
two radios. The world found out about his
achievement after he was invited to a Technology,
Entertainment and Design global conference in
Tanzania. There, he used the Internet for the first
time and set up a blog showcasing his handiwork
and since then, his name has generated tens of
thousands of hits. “Our family is poor like many
families in Malawi and Africa, and as a result, we
A Malawian teenager has designed an elegant 12-metre windmill
from a bike, a pipe and bits of wood
have no electricity in our village or my home. I
decided to try to get as much education as
possible by reading as many books as I could
find, ”he says on the blog. “An organization called
the Malawian Teacher Training Activity (MTTA)
contributed a large quantity of books to the
primary school library near my home. I read
many of them. One of the books I read was
called Using Energy, a primary school textbook
about how energy is made. Inside the book there
were plans for a windmill. I decided to build a
windmill to provide power for my family, ”he
explains. But the plans didn’t make the job a walk
in the park: “When I was making [the windmill],
all these people were mocking me that I was
going mad but I had confidence in what I was
doing because I knew if it was written in the
books then it was true and possible, ”he says.
Since the 12-metrewindmill has gone up,
William has replaced broken plastic blades with
metal ones. To make these, the enthusiastic
innovator “took an old oil drum to the tinsmith
at the trading center and asked him to help me
cut it into new blades”. William’s neighbors now
have their batteries charged at the windmill and
he is further upgrading the structure using a
treadmill motor. Donations made on his site have
helped William get back to school.
Donations have flooded in from North
America, Europe, Asia and Australia. William lists
the first names and last initials of donors and
their cities in a blog post. He adds that he is
“very grateful” to all who have contributed.
“These funds will also pay for the enhanced
lighting and power in my home as documented
on the blog. I’m working on a project right now
to benefit my extended family, many of whom
live in the five homes in my immediate
neighborhood. I am eager to tell you about it, but
want to wait until it is finished first.”
See:http://williamkamkwamba.typepad.com

“Due to your generosity, I have received many donations so far,
which I shall apply to the projects that I am doing to improve
the life of my family”

Download architecture_of_invention.pdf

My sisters and cousins with their first books

My sisters Tiyamike, 6 (Hiding behind Guess How Much I Love You?) and Rose, 12 (Holding Katie the Windmill Cat) and my cousins with their first books. Because most people can't afford private books in Malawi, children can go through all of primary school without reading anything beyond their school primers and textbooks. Some well-wishers sent many childrens' books that are written or take place in countries around Africa in addition to English and American classics such as Where the Wild Things Are. All the children in my neighborhood, most of whom are cousins or sisters share these new books.

Soyapi Mumba and his wife Miriam

Soyapi Mumba is my friend and colleague at Baobab Health Partnership. We met in June on the plane from Lilongwe to Nairobi on the way to TEDGlobal. In many ways he's responsible for many of the good things that have happened recently, as it was he who brought the newspaper article about me to work last November, and our mutual friend Mike McKay posted about it on his blog Hactivate, part of the African technology blogosphere. Soyapi has been very kind to me, helping me at the conference and being a great friend and mentor since we got back. He's helped a lot with some of the journalists with whom I've been corresponding. I'm very grateful.

At secondary/high school at ABCCA

Here is my school classroom. It's unusual in that everyone works at a computer at their own pace. We also share the desks in the middle. Mrs. Maclean is our coach, helping us with assignments. Because we have only about a dozen students, she can give each of us individual attention. We have two students from Ethiopia, one from Korea, me from America and the rest are Americans.   

Working on English with Mrs. Maclean.

My classmates work at their computers on self-directed lessons (left to right, John-John, John, Sung, and Tsega

My classmate Mahlet, who was born in Ethiopia, wears headphones and listens to music so that she can concentrate.

Mahlet, Americans John and John-John joking around. Sung, who was born in Korea, and Tsega, from Ethiopia are in the background.

The team from Baoabab Health looking at the iPhone in Malawi

A friend brought his iPhone on a recent trip to Malawi. What's amazing is that Baobab's HIV patient care application just works right away over the Wifi connection and because of the interface elements built into the phone, it looks even better than in Firefox on a touchscreen PC.  Gerry is on his way back from the United States with an iPod Touch that we can experiment with even more. Boabab is the NGO where I help out after school, time permitting.

Mwante, Soyapi and Oliver with the iPhone

Alex, Rashid, Gerry and Soyapi looking at the Boabab Health eART application running on Safari on the iPhone.

My secondary school head teacher Mrs. Lorilee Maclean and me

At ABCCA, I am enrolled in an unusual kind of high school called distance learning where I am taught by teachers from the United States and Canada over the Internet. I'm also being tutored in math by the school headmaster Mr. Chuck Wilson to catch up on mathematical concepts not taught in my previous schooling, such as fraction. I'm also taking American History and English. Soon I will begin studying for my JCE and MCE Malawian secondary exams which I plan to take in the future.  Mrs. Maclean has high academic standards and cares about reading.

At home I am reading some of the books that one of my mentors brought from the states, such as A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Because the English from Dickens' time is challenging, I read with a Dictionary at hand.

Obstacles in the Road

 


Goats and Cows cross the highway on the way to my home in Wimbe

In Malawi most people don't have automobiles, so the roads in the rural areas aren't especially crowded with vehicles. Most people travel in minibuses that often have a few too many people in them. The minibuses can break down or get stopped by police for being overfull. Sometimes these situations cause major delays. Baobab Health does have a couple of vehicles, but I don't know how to drive just yet.

Cars and Land Cruisers share the road with people, bicycles, dogs, and farm animals. At any time an animal can dart into the road so you have to be extra careful. It's especially dangerous to drive at night, so most people try to avoid it. Many trucks drive slowly or have missing lights. If you have an accident far from town, it's very hard to get emergency assistance in time.

A recent visitor told me he thinks of progress in Malawi as a lot like the road— to move forward, you have to clear a lot of goats out of the way.