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

Bryan and my article on Change Observer: The Doer's Club

Thank you to Change Observer editor Julie Lasky for this opportunity.

The Doers Club

How DIY design (1) gave a teenager from Malawi electricity, and (2) can help transform Africa.

William Kamkwamba & Bryan Mealer


William Kamkwamba with homemade transformer and battery system. Photo: Tom Rielly

In 2002, I built my first of several windmills to provide my family with electricity and irrigation. This was in Malawi, where a terrible drought and famine had destroyed our maize crops and killed thousands of people. The famine also forced me to drop out of secondary school because my father could no longer afford my fees. Determined to continue my education, I began visiting a local library, funded by the Americans, where I quickly fell in love with science. As the hunger clawed its way across our country, the library was where I escaped and became lost in discussions of electromagnetism, simple motors and electricity — my favorite topic, since only 2 percent of Malawi enjoyed such a luxury.

I didn’t read English well, so I mainly taught myself these things by studying the pictures and diagrams. By the time I saw my first windmill on the cover of an American textbook called Using Energy, I was able to apply all this previous knowledge and set out to build my own. Within six months, I’d constructed a windmill that provided my family with continuous electricity and completely transformed the way we lived. A later machine allowed us to irrigate a small garden to grow produce year-round. (You can read the whole story in my new book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, which I wrote with Bryan Mealer.)




People often ask me, “So how did you manage such a thing?” Well, I designed and built my machine in much the same way many Africans are getting by these days: by taking simple, everyday materials and being creative. All across the continent, people are using innovative solutions to address the biggest problems, such as lack of water and electricity, and to find ways poor people can easily make a living.

Most of the materials for my windmill were found in the scrapyard of a nearby tobacco estate. This place was filled with abandoned cars and trucks just rusting in the sun, in addition to old water pumps, coil springs and other random metals. Unfortunately, the school where I’d dropped out was just across the road, and as I went exploring, my mates would tease me from the playground, calling out:

“Ay, there goes William again, playing in the garbage!”

But where they saw garbage, I saw treasure and opportunity.

For example, I found a rusted tractor fan that was perfect for my rotor. I then discovered an old shock absorber. After banging it against a rock and knocking loose the metal casing, the piston inside made for a great shaft. For blades, I took plastic PVC pipe from my friend Gilbert’s bathhouse and cut it down the middle with a bow saw. I then held it over a small fire next to my mother’s kitchen until it began to melt and bubble. I quickly pressed the pipe flat, and then let it cool. After that, I used the saw to carve a set of four blades. For washers, I collected Carlsberg beer bottle caps outside the nearby Ofesi Boozing Centre, then pounded them flat and punched a hole through the middle.
 
I used my father’s broken bicycle as a frame, then welded the rotor, blades and shaft to the sprocket. When the wind blew, the blades acted as pedals and turned, causing the chain to spin the back wheel, where I’d attached a 12-volt bicycle dynamo (my most prized possession that took me months to find!). Wires ran from my dynamo down through my roof, where I’d attached a small bulb. When the wind blew, the light flickered yellow and bright. The copper wires themselves had been stripped from old radio motors.

It wasn’t only my windmill that required creativity. I didn’t have any tools, forcing me to make my own. My hammer was a thick piece of steel I’d discovered in the scrapyard. Screwdrivers were easily made from bicycle spokes ground to a flat edge, and plastic bags were melted and fashioned into handles (this was also how I made my hunting knives). For a drill, I stuck a long nail into my mother’s cooking fire until it became red hot. Even with my maize-cob handle, drilling jobs took hours and hours, as the nail would always have to be reheated.


Schematic of Kamkwamba's windmill. Design: WORKSHOP NYC for Moving Windmills Project

Read the rest of our article.

Gizmodo: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Persistance, Jerry-Rigging, and Ingenuity Against All Odds

We seldom post about books at Gizmodo, but if this story of a self-taught Malawian boy using junkyard parts to build windmills and bring life-changing electricity to his village doesn't make you misty-eyed, then you must be one cold-hearted bastard.

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence, and William Kamkwambahas it in spades. At age fourteen, while many of us were sneaking out of classrooms, William was struggling to sneak into them—his family was unable to afford the $80 annual tuition. As is bound to happen to most students, he was caught. But instead of being sent to detention, he was barred from the school. In a show of the driven man he would become, he didn't allow that to hinder him and instead started spending his days in the local library. While there, he encountered a book called Using Energy:

Using Energy described how windmills could be used to generate electricity. Only two percent of Malawians have electricity, and the service is notoriously unreliable. William decided an electric windmill was something he wanted to make. Illuminating his house and the other houses in his village would mean that people could read at night after work. A windmill to pump water would mean that they could grow two crops a year rather than one, grow vegetable gardens, and not have to spend two hours a day hauling water. "A windmill meant more than just power," he wrote, "it was freedom."

This book is what changed his life. And I don't mean that as an exaggeration. It was truly what made a difference in his life. Because of that book, and the potential he saw in its ideas, William began to build:

William scoured trash bins and junkyards for materials he could use to build his windmill. With only a couple of wrenches at his disposal, and unable to afford even nuts and bolts, he collected things that most people would consider garbage-slime-clogged plastic pipes, a broken bicycle, a discarded tractor fan-and assembled them into a wind-powered dynamo. For a soldering iron, he used a stiff piece of wire heated in a fire. A bent bicycle spoke served as a size adapter for his wrenches.

Imagine that. A young boy being so motivated by ideas and the sheer need to build something life-changing that he discovered materials and uses for them which most of us wouldn't even dream of.

Read the rest of the post. Thank you to Rosa Golijan.

Our first Book Event tonight at Barnes and Noble TriBeCa in New York City

Tonight Bryan and I presented at our first public event of the book tour at the Amnesty International lecture series at Barnes and Noble in TriBeCa. We had a great turnout and all the chairs were full. We were introduced by our host from Barnes and Noble. The Amnesty International representative spoke briefly about poverty as a human rights issue.

First we gave an expanded version of the presentation I delivered at TEDGlobal in Oxford. Then we answered questions from the audience. Finally we signed a lot of books and spoke to the audience. Thank you to Barnes and Noble for inviting us.

The woman from Amnesty International with Bryan and me. I didn't get her name but I will try to find it.

presenting with Bryan. On the screen is a photograph of my father Trywell.

speaking

signing books

Bryan's friends came out tonight to support us! We had dinner with them afterwards.

Buy The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind at Barnes and Noble.

Voice of America article: A Mission to Seek Out Young Liberian Innovators

I was happy to see this article today about Jefferson King. I hope to contact him and encourage him and his new organization.

A Mission to Seek Out Young Liberian Innovators
By James Butty  30 September 2009

William Kamkwamba of Malawi was just 14 years old when he built a windmill to provide his parents' house with enough electricity to read and listen to radio. 

Now, and with young people bearing the brunt of Africa's underdevelopment, the idea of youth innovation and entrepreneurship may be gaining some traction. 

Map of Liberia

Jefferson King, a young Liberian who has just earned a civil engineering degree from Cornell University in New York State, is co-founder of Youth Overcoming Underdevelopment Nationally and Globally in Africa. 

King leaves for Liberia next month to start a project that would encourage young Liberians to start dreaming about solutions to their national problems.

He said his project is motivated by the example of young Kamkwamba of Malawi.

"A 14 year-old kid in Malawi was able to build a windmill just by reading a general book about windmill. He was able to use that to build a windmill to power the radio and light bulbs in his home. I think, we, Liberians we have the mind to do that too. We just need the motivation to get there," He said.

King said his group would be encouraging all young Liberians to come up with any idea with the potential to better their communities.

Some Liberians in Monrovia

He said the project will be promoted in three steps – motivation, resources and competition.

"The first is motivation; we'll get an extraordinary young Liberian in Liberia who is going to basically serve as role model to the Liberians to show them we can solve our problems here too. We can think of brilliant ideas," King said.

Read the full article here.

Meeting Book Blogger Gaby Lapus tonight at Barnes and Noble book event

Tonight Bryan and I met Gaby Lapus, a wonderful writer, lawyer and blogger who has been a big supporter of our book. She came to see our book presentation at the Barnes and Noble in TriBeCa, New York City. She posted one of the earliest reviews of the book on her blog Starting Fresh and on BarnesandNoble.com (and tonight on Amazon, too).

From her blog bio: After spending years as a corporate lawyer in a big law firm in NYC, I'm looking into starting my own practice. I have time to explore NYC, learn to cook and eat healthier, exercise, garden (on my Brooklyn balcony), and read more. My interests are very broad from cooking and gardening to real estate, estate planning, tax law, investing and law to escapist fiction of all types to nonfiction and memoirs. I've lived in many countries and cities and love to travel.

Here is her review: 

"Even if you don't usually read nonfiction or memoirs, I still think that you'll love this book for the writing, the story, and because of William Kamkwamba. 

William tells the story of his childhood in the small agricultural village in Malawi. From the the general bias towards magic and superstition over science, the crippling impact of the drought, and the isolation and difficulties that William, his village, and Malawi, the obstacles that they face are huge and clear. Reading the book, I first thought that my experiences in the "Third World" helped me understand the William's life from the superstition to the the impact of the drought and the opportunistic price gouging during the famine. But that interpretation fails to give enough credit to William and his book. The power of his story and the clarity of the writing surely guarantee that The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind will speak to people regardless of their experience and their home country. I cannot recommend this book more! I look forward to more news from William Kamkwamba and to meeting him during his book tour stop in NYC. "

Read her full post here. Thank you Gaby for believing in the book.

(A Change In) How To Write About Africa? by Change.org's Nathaniel Whittemore

If you've never read "How to Write about Africa," I recommend it. Thanks again to Nathaniel for his incredible support for the book.

"Always end your book with Nelson Mandela saying something about rainbows or renaissances. Because you care."

So ends Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina's brutal satire "How to Write About Africa."

The piece, which first appeared in Granta a few years ago, viciously lampoons a particular way of seeing (and talking) that been has the dominant narrative about Africa since the days of imperialism.

Wainaina's harping was particularly satisfying for many because of the age of celebrity humanitarianism we've been living through, in which people like Angelina Jolie become spokespeople for the cause d'jour. All too often, this leads to the media's endlessly repetitive characterization of Africa as a dismal place, full of nothing but war, famine and disease.

Yet there is something happening right now, and a new narrative is forming. As more and more people actually spend time in Sub-Saharan Africa, and as the internet allows more and more voices from the continent to stream out, the counter-narrative of a continent bursting with talent and potential is slowly but surely taking hold.

This is the type of story that Malawian windmill maker William Kamkwamba embodies so wonderfully, but he is - thankfully - just one of the most prominent examples of a new generation of African success stories.

Change.org's Nathaniel Whittemore reviews The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Today Change.org was very kind to put me on the cover of their website. I'm so grateful. The editor of their social entrepreneurship blog Nathaniel Whittemore wrote a thoughtful review of the book.

The Exceptional Story of the Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

In the early 21st century, Malawi was gripped by one of the worst famines the nation had ever seen. Around the country, crops fell and subsistence farmers were forced to migrate, wandering in search of work and food. As resources dwindled, more and more families were forced to make the desperate decision to pull their children from school to help at home. One of those students who could no longer afford school was William Kamkwamba. Yet as is so often the case, from the tragedy of the famine came an incredible story of a young person whose persistent creativity and indefatigable spirit led to incredible things. This is the exceptional story of the Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.

The Africa of William Kamkwamba's youth was a place still caught between tradition and modernity. As he put it in the first lines of his wonderful new book "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind," "Before I discovered the miracle of science, magic ruled the world."

The first part of the story is about his world before that discovery. It's a world in which the characters are the friends he got into trouble with, the towering adults who commanded his understanding of the world, the landscapes that form his playground, back yard, and first school. The early part of the story is notable not just for its evocative depiction of African village life, but because it feels so resonant with the experience of growing up anywhere - particularly for young boys for whom every day is a new exploration and a new adventure. Read full review.

my TEDTalk featured on Reddit.tv

Reddit.tv is a cool website that features videos that viewers can vote on. Reddit also conducted an interview with me in Malawi that will be going up soon.

Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika asked about me in AllAfrica.com interview

Malawi: President 'Determined' to Lead Country Out of Poverty

Today I read that the president of my country was asked a question about me. I didn't believe it at first and thought that someone was joking. 

"I want to ask you about a young Malawian whose ingenuity and determination are attracting worldwide attention. William Kamkwamba's new book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, recounts his creation of a windmill from scraps, which not only brought electricity to his village but has brought him access to education, when that seemed a remote possibility only a few years back.

I know the story and I'm going to see him soon. I am always thrilled to see this kind of innovation. From time to time you get young people with bright ideas. There was also someone who had his own small hydro-power plant for his village. It's encouraging to see that kind of innovation among the youth."

Read the full article