The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is, in its simplest description, a memoir of author William Kamkwamba's early life as a poor (poor!) boy in rural Malawi, his hunger for knowledge, and his experiments to build an entire windmill for his home. This is all the more impressive as he faces famine, scavenges for the parts, and is forced to leave school because his family can no longer pay the fees. This book could just as easily have been titled, Improvisation 101.

Beyond the memoir aspects, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is a fascinating look at life in Africa, written by an African (and in that sense is a wonderful contrast with Dark Star Safari). Kamkwamba succinctly relates the realities of life in Africa to his (presumably mostly Western readers) with candid and clear language, such as his passage describing a life without light. "Once the sun goes down, and if there's no moon, everyone stops what they're doing, brushes their teeth, and goes to sleep. ... Who goes to bed at seven in the evening? Well, I can tell you, most of Africa."

Beyond the voyeuristic pleasure of peering deeper into another culture, Kamkwamba's story is also incredibly inspirational. He built a windmill. Using a relatively ancient, English-language text designed for individuals with both fluency in English and advanced education, neither of which he possessed. And he did this because he hoped to expand upon his invention in order that his family could have water on their farm (rather than a two-hour walk from it), not so that he might become rich or famous, or make his life vastly different, but so that they would not starve in the next famine.  As in literally perish of hunger, something he knows too much about.

Kamkwamba also minces no words in describing the situation in his country, and to a certain extent, in Africa more broadly. He understands the scope and scale of the corruption, he knows how this directly impacts him, and he is determined to simply do what he can to bring positive change to his very small piece of his country. In this sense, he reminded me of Abdel Kader Haidara, whose story is recounted in The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu).

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind ends on a hopeful note, with Kamkwamba in South Africa at an academy with other equally gifted and visionary young Africans. One can but hope that together they will achieve Kamkwamba's goals of bringing Africa out of the darkness.