WILLIAM WILLIAM WILLIAM KAMKWAMBA’SKAMKWAMBA’SKAMKWAMBA’SWILLIAM KAMKWAMBA’SELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WIND

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Here’s one person who knew how to use the wind at his back! William Kamkwamba built windmills to bring power to his village in Malawi.

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electromagnets produce electricity; how batteries yield direct current; how magnets concocted from everyday objects make alternating current. A natural mechanic, W illiam powered a radio by connecting one to the dynamo on a bicycle. While he pedaled, his cousin Geof frey danced to African reggae music.

“Of course,” he thought. “This is how spinning motion generates power!” William wrote in his book The Boy Who Har nessed the Wind. And, power could pr ovide lighting and move water from the stream to fi elds. Studying a book on energy, William realized wind could power pumps better than bicycling! All he needed to do was build a windmill.

He rigged a small, test windmill from a plastic bottle, pipes, bamboo, an old battery, wires, and a rubber shoe. When he connected the wires to a radio, he heard music!

“With that success,” W illiam wrote, “I started planning for an even bigger windmill.”

GOAT POOPThis one r equired

heavier materials—a tractor fan, shock absorber, vats of gr ease—which William scrounged from a scrap yar d. It wasn’t easy, though. Students at his old school nearby called him a madman for digging in garbage. Not understanding why he wanted it, his father almost r efused to give

by Cynthia Levinson

When William Kamkwamba was growing up in Masitala, a far ming village of

about 60 families in Malawi, the best day of the year was Christmas. Then, he, his par ents, and his six sisters ate meat with their usual maize porridge and gr eens. Meat was so rar e, his Chichewa [CHIH-cha-wah] language has a word, nkhuli [n-KOO-lee], meaning “great hunger for meat.”

During the rainy season, young William hunted for bir ds, using traps he fashioned fr om a hoe, a scarf, bicycle tires, bricks, his mother’s clothesline, and ropes made of blue gum tr ee bark. With his ingenuity and steady hand, W illiam brought home meat.

But, between 2001 and 2006, drought and famine hit Malawi. Even maize wither ed and blew away. Limited to one tiny meal a day, the Kamkwambas starved. One Christmas, W illiam ate only boiled goatskin. In 2006, William, 14, dr opped out of school; he couldn’t pay the fee of 1,200 kwacha (about $80). His family was desolate. If only he could help.

MUSIC TO PEDAL BYWilliam headed to the library, a small

room with three walls of books from America and electric lights. Although he knew little English, he fi gured out from diagrams how water wheels and

Here are some handy termsshould you go to Malawi:Muli bwanji (MOO-lee BAHN-gee) = How are you? Ndiri bwino (n-DEER-dree BWEE-no) = I’m fi ne.magetsi a mphepo (ma-GET-see m-PEP-o) = electric windnsima (SEE-ma) = maize porridge

A dynamo converts mechanical rotation (like pedaling) into electricity.

WILLIAM KAMKWAMBA’SELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WINDELECTRIC WIND

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him his br oken bicycle. T o pay a welder , William stacked wood. He accidentally blew up his father’s radio and later ruined his mother’s favorite cooking pot, boiling goat poop to extract biogas!

Months later, he had fi nally collected all the pieces—except the dynamo he needed for a generator. Then, a friend, Gilbert Wimbe, son of Masitala’s chief, gave him 200 kwacha to buy o ne. The next day, he started connecting the parts.

“HE’S MADE LIGHT!”William spent hours heating a handmade

drill to bore holes into plastic blades, each four feet long. He strengthened the blades with bamboo poles, bolted on with washers fashioned from bottle caps. He attached the bicycle, then the dynamo, then chains. W illiam, Gilbert, and Geoffrey felled blue gum tr ees and constructed a tower, 16 feet high, wrapping its legs in plastic to keep out termites. With a makeshift pulley, they hauled the 90-pound windmill up the tower.

Finally, William inserted a light bulb into a socket handcrafted from a hollow r eed and wir e. Here goes, he thought, setting the blades in motion. A wind gust nearly knocked him of f the tower but spun the blades “like furious propellers…I held the bulb befor e me, waiting for my miracle. It fl ickered once. Just a fl ash at fi rst, then a surge of bright, magnifi cent light. My heart nearly burst.”

A neighbor shouted, “He’s made light!” William answered, “Electric wind. I told you I wasn’t mad!”Soon, he dangled a bulb from his bedroom ceiling and installed a switch.

In Malawi, where only about fi ve percent of the population has electricity, William “could touch the wall and get lights!”

This wasn’t a miracle. It was his resourcefulness, confi dence, and persistence. “If you want to make it,” he said, “all you have to do is try.”

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“If you want to make it, all you have to do is try.”

Windmills were widespread in Europe from the 12th to the 19th century. They ground grain and pumped water. Today, wind turbines produce electricity by driving a generator. Worldwide, the small country of Denmark generates the largest percentage of its electricity from wind.

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SAVED FROM DESTRUCTIONWilliam wasn’t done yet. He built a transfor mer

with a socket and battery; then, people paid him to char ge their mobile telephones. After nearly bur ning down the house, he fabricated a circuit breaker. He built a transmitter, creating his own radio station.

Best of all, in 2007, W illiam, now 24, drilled a well that provides fresh drinking water for his village and irrigation for crops. His mother says, W illiam “saved his family fr om destruction.”

Word of W illiam’s achievements spr ead. He was asked to speak at a TED (T echnology, Entertainment, Design) conference. TED is a non-pr ofi t organization devoted to “ideas worth spr eading.” With more hard work and help from donors, he fi nished high school and now gives speeches around the world and studies engineering at Dartmouth College. Through his or ganization, the Moving W indmills Project, William continues to work toward providing villages throughout Malawi with access to clean water and school and building supplies. Bryan Mealer , the co-author of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, says William’s message “really resonated with a lot of people.”

Thanks to William’s windmill, change is in the air for the people of Malawi.

Cynthia Levinson is a former social studies teacher who writes fi ction andnon-fi ction for young people.

To learn more about William and his projects, go to:Movingwindmills.org/projects

Williamkamkwamba.typepad.com

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At fi rst William’s neighbors thought he was crazy, but

once the windmill was up and running they realized how

valuable his machine was.

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