Using little more than a broken bicycle, a tractor fan blade, an old shock absorber and gum trees, the 14-year-old William Kamkwamba created electricity for his village. The five-metre windmill that resulted from his efforts was copied from the cover of a children’s science book called Using Energy.
Now 21 years old, Mr Kamkwamba has become an inspiration to youngsters across Africa. His dogged determination and creativity in the face of huge obstacles is proof of what can be achieved through hard work and persistence. Born in 1987 in Malawi, one of the most poverty-stricken countries in Africa, Mr Kamkwamba has got used to overcoming obstacles.
“No one came to support me, instead they were laughing at me,” he says. “[But] I still had confidence on my own and I didn’t stop doing what I was doing.”
His windmill project was just the start. Despite being forced by famine to drop out of formal education in 1992, the young engineer built a radio transmitter for his village and constructed a bigger windmill using a car battery for storage and homemade light switches and circuit breakers.
His exploits soon attracted the attention of the Malawian authorities and it was not long before he was whisked across the country to provide inspiration to others. He has since worked on projects ranging from clean water provision, malaria prevention and laptop computers for schools.
Mr Kamkwamba is now one of the first recruits to the elite African Leadership Academy, a new pan-African school based in Johannesburg with a mission to create the next generation of leaders.
He says the secret of his success has been patience. “When people were laughing at me when I was building the windmill, if I did not have patience I would have dropped what I was doing,” he says.
Overcoming superstitious villagers was also a problem for the young engineer. “One January, the clouds began gathering and the wind started blowing the windmill – it was spinning very fast. The people started to point their fingers at me. They said that I was stopping the rain because they thought that the windmill was blowing the clouds away,” he recalls.
Looking ahead, Mr Kamkwamba feels the developed world’s attitude towards Africa needs to evolve. “Most of the time when the media writes about Africa it is about war, while there are many other good things that people are doing, which are rarely covered,” he says.
William Kamkwamba’s African hero: Fred Swaniker, founder of the African Leadership Academy (ALA).
“The image of Africa has been bad because we don’t have good leaders. When we, the ALA students, become leaders, we will change the image of Africa by doing the right things.”