William Kamkwamba: Lessons from an Emerging Light in the Midst of Malawian Darkness

When you enter the village of Wimbe, in the country of Malawi in the night, all you perceive is darkness, except a compound of houses where outdoor fluorescent light illuminates the surrounding. The power source is not the national electric grid of Malawi, but one generated by William Kamkwamba at the age of 13, off the three “rickety” windmills built by him.

The windmill power source has elevated Kamkwamba from starvation and obscurity to plenty and fame. Kamkwamba’s rise to prominence began shortly after finishing his primary school. During this period, Malawi was undergoing recession. Famine caused him to drop out of secondary school. His parents could not afford his tuition let alone the family of nine. During this period of recession in Malawi, boys in Wimbe who had nothing to do looked for day job, drink, smoke marijuana and laze about the trading centres.

 

Having lost the opportunity of attending secondary school, Kamkwambe, born August 5, 1987, started visiting the new library at the Wimbe primary school. There in the library, a book published in the US, titled, “USING ENERGY” caught his attention. The cover of the book showed a long row of windmills which he learned was powered by wind – an abundant resource in Malawi. Following the instructions and diagrams, he erected, experimented and tested his windmill with a cheap dynamo (a bicycle frame, a pulley and a plastic pipe). 

As he was busy looking for material to construct the windmill, people jeered and ridiculed him. According to him: “A lot of people were telling a lot of things that I was smoking marijuana or that I was lazy. I was hearing all kinds of negative things.” Instead of getting discouraged, he redoubled his effort. 

Initially, the villager thought he was crazy, but after he had built his windmills at his farm in Wimbe, and the lights went on, it became glaring to the inhabitants of the tiny village of Wimbe that he was in his right senses after all. The windmill generated power which powered some electrical appliances in his family's house in Wimbe. 

Kamkwamba’s power is more reliable than the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM), the only power source in Malawi. Kamkwamba’s outstanding feat is a reason why a global village is yearning to assist him. His autobiography co-written with Journalist Brian Mealer, titled, THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND, has become a bestseller on Amazon.com. He has been a guest on The Daily Show with Jon Steward and Good Morning America.

Education

TED conference director, Emeka Okafor, once invited Kamkwamba to talk at TEDGlobal 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania as a guest. His speech moved the audience, and several venture capitalists at the conference pledged to help finance his secondary education. He became a student at African Bible College Christian Academy in Lilongwe. He then went on to receive a scholarship to the African Leadership Academy.  He was courted by the best engineering universities in the US, but he eventually opted for Dartmouth College in the US and in 2014, he graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. 

 

While there, he continued to participate in speaking engagements at various universities, colleges, high schools, and conferences around the US. He not only spoke about his experiences building the windmill, but he also informed audiences about the work that he was doing as he sought to bring development to different rural areas in Malawi.

Philanthropy

Through his organisation, Moving Windmills Project Foundation, Kamkwamba is making great impact in Malawi. He had worked extensively in Kasungu district, particularly his own home village, Wimbe. He had been able to build three classroom blocks with two classes each for the local primary school, Wimbe primary school. These new classrooms have solar panel installations that allow the students to study late into the night. He has also introduced a one-laptop-per-child initiative, which enables him to expose these youngsters on how to use computers at an early age. His local high school too has been a beneficiary. 

 

He has also installed solar panels and systems in Kachokolo high school, which allow the students to use computers for their studies. In fact, he has created a local network through the use of egranary, a box that stores academic information within a local network. It is like a digital library. This means that students don’t need to be online to access academic material. They simply need to access the local network using a router!

He has also piloted a biogas digester project in Masitala village. This digester uses cow dung to generate gas for cooking, thus providing an alternative energy source to firewood. 

He also saw it fit to create a soccer team for both girls and boys to provide a space for school drop outs to engage in meaningful activity, rather than remaining idle. The matches also create small business opportunities for women and families in the area, who bring food items to sell to the spectators.

In all, he has built a solar-powered water pump that supplies the first drinking water in his village and two other wind turbines (the tallest standing at 12 meters (39 ft)) and is planning two more, including one in Lilongwe, the political capital of Malawi.

Lessons

The story of Kamkwamba reveals that your background does not matter and when God wants to elevate you, He will lead you to discover ideas that will lift you from obscurity to stardom. Kamkwamba’s story also teaches us not to be lazy. Regardless of the recession that Nigeria undergoing, we can always find something to do. Let us not sit down idle. Let us go out and find something to do. It is the work of our hands that God will bless.

Until I come your way soon, go and live victoriously!   

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