Friday, October 11, 2024
Author: Sohaib Satti
Country: Sudan
Wikimedia (How African Boy Harnessed Wind To Light His House)
SUMMARY
In 2002, 14-year-old William Kamkwamba, a Malawian boy, built a wind turbine from scrap materials to generate electricity for his village, despite having no formal education and living in poverty. Inspired by a book from his local library, he used his invention to power his family’s home and gained international recognition for his ingenuity. His story, captured in his book *The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind* and a 2019 Netflix film, demonstrates how innovation and resilience can overcome adversity, inspiring people worldwide, especially in impoverished areas.
BACKGROUND
It was in the year 2002 when a Malawian boy named William Kamkwamba managed to put the people in the world in a kind of a trance. William was only 14 years old, when he built a wind turbine from materials abandoned as scrap to generate electricity for his village, he was an illustration of how technology can survive even in the toughest situations.
William had spent his childhood in the village of Wimbe, the poverty-stricken Malawi, the country with the frequent droughts. His family, as frequently happens, was dependent on farming for their support. On the other hand, 2001 brought to the area a very serious famine which destroyed the crops of the villagers and caused the people of the region to suffer from hunger. To make matters worse, the famine complicated even more the education of William's family because of the rise of the school fees to a level of unaffordability thus, this was the reason why the boy was forced to leave school.
Yet, William was resolute to bypass his infirmity due to the abolition of typical education. He was avid for knowledge, so he began to attend the local library where he read a book called *Using Energy*. It was basically about the wind pages and how they could produce power. He used the textbook and illustrations as stimuli for him, then he decided to have a go at constructing a wind turbine on his accord despite his limited background in science or engineering.
William went into local junk yards looking for trash—old cycle pieces, tractor’s fan blade, PVC pipes etc. His neighbors were looking at him skeptically at first but great surprise when he started fitting scraps into a wind turbine. Eventually after several months, the machine worked and was able to generate electricity to power only a few light bulbs and charge radios in his family’s house. It remained a small achievement but its importance was great: for the very first time, his family was able to use a perpetual and renewable source of energy.
William’s invention was not over with respect to just his household. In more advanced societies of Europe and North America, the name of the boy who made the windmill became famous. Several journalists made headlines as ‘the boy who harnessed the wind’ and in 2007 he was asked to speak at TED Global in which he persuaded on the importance of innovations and being resilient to change.
Such resourcefulness enabled him to acquire additional studies. For this reason, William was a student at the African Leadership Academy in South Africa and then at Dartmouth College in the United States. Musing on how to use technology in a more meaningful manner, he wrote The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind which is about him. In 2019, Netflix released a cinematic version of the book, which was another popular way of letting the world to see how someone can remain hopeful and keep fighting.
Although necessity must have played a significant part in the conception of some of William's inventions, it nevertheless revealed a deeper aspect. Innovation doesn’t have to be supported by any formal education or cutting-edge technologies. It is his tale that motivates people around the globe, particularly in very poor parts of the world, where it is shown that nothing is impossible even if one has very little.
William Kamkwamba’s life is a testament to the fact that every person can be an effective agent of change: that there are no limits to what one can do unless one curls up and desists from trying. He is actively involved in furthering projects aimed at improving education, agriculture and sustainable development in the continent of Africa. His story instils the belief that innovation knows no boundaries and limitations, but only a thirst to learn, a desire to dream and a will to do.
REFERENCES
1. Kamkwamba, William, and Bryan Mealer. *The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope*. William Morrow, 2009.
2. TED Global. “William Kamkwamba: How I Harnessed the Wind.” July 2007. [TED Talk](https://www.ted.com/talks/william_kamkwamba_how_i_harnessed_the_wind).
3. Mwendera, Edward. “William Kamkwamba: The Malawian Boy Who Built a Windmill from Junk.” *BBC News*, 5 March 2019.
4. The Guardian. *The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind Review – A Well-Meaning True Story*. 2019.
5. Moving Windmills Project. [Official Website](https://movingwindmills.org).
6. Wikimedia. “How African Boy Harnessed Wind to Light His House.”
Full access to PDF file:
PDF file:
Comments