What's Next for The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind?
by Dave Callanan
on July 27, 2010
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Not surprisingly, he provided a staggering list of accomplishments.
Dear friends at Amazon,
So many great things have happened since the last time we spoke. Our book tour took us all across the United States, into so many wonderful places and back out again that I remember it almost like a dream. Along this great journey, I got to meet Jon Stewart, speak with Diane Sawyer, and tell my story at such great institutions as Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry and the Seattle Public Library. But what stands out the most were the crowds of young people who came to each event saying how my book inspired them to learn science and encouraged them to think big. To me, that was as great an achievement as building my very first windmill.Another thing: over the spring and summer, I also achieved one of my biggest dreams and rebuilt my village primary school. I couldn’t have done it without the help of my friends at buildOn, a group who organizes community service projects for young people in American cities, while even recruiting them for their other mission: building schools in poor countries. So far, they’ve built 364 schools in five countries, including Malawi. In Wimbe, we added classrooms to accommodate 1,540 students, supplied them proper desks and chairs, and installed over a dozen computers donated by my friends at One Laptop Per Child. And of course, I built a hybrid system to produce the school’s electricity: two giant solar panels and a windmill powered by a 1500-watt generator that I built myself from big magnets and lots of wire.
Amidst all of this, another dream of mine was fulfilled: I finally graduated high school and was accepted into a university. After two fantastic years at African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa, I’ll be studying engineering in the fall at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. While on our book tour, Bryan Mealer (my co-author) and I visited several colleges who were kind enough to invite me to see their engineering programs. I visited Harvey Mudd in California, Virginia Tech, and Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and was amazed at the beautiful campuses and equipment available to students. But after seeing Dartmouth and meeting its president Dr. Jim Kim – who I admired for his previous work treating people with AIDS and tuberculosis in Africa and Haiti – I knew it was the place for me. In addition to having a cool project-based curriculum (meaning I can get my hands dirty the first week there), the Thayer School of Engineering even has a lending library for power tools! Seeing this, I couldn’t stop smiling.
So if you’re ever in Hanover and see me walking around with my stack of books and looking stressed and sleepy, say hello. But I assure you, I won’t be there long. After I graduate college, I’ll be going back to Africa. As I’ve always said, my heart belongs to Malawi, and so does my work.
--William (and Bryan Mealer)
To keep up with the always-moving William, visit his blog at www.williamkamkwamba.com.
King Rat on July 27, 2010 at 03:12 PM
Considering that his blog hasn't been updated since December, it's not exactly the best place to keep up with William Kamkwamba.
Michael Kennedy on July 29, 2010 at 04:15 PM
When I was at Dartmouth in 1994-95, there was an African student there who was also an inspiration, He worked in the dining hall at night (It is open 24/7), for his meals, and he could not get over the American students who would come in at 3 AM drunk.
I have had African and West Indian students in medical school and, believe me, there is no "acting white" hang-ups among them,
Shannon Love on July 29, 2010 at 04:53 PM
Kamkwamba is a remarkable individual but I find it rather sad that the relatively minor efforts of one bright teenager had such a major impact on the standard of living in his village. I grew up during the "Energy Crisis" of the 70s and I build all kinds of alternative energy projects. Yet nothing I ever did contributed much to a community already awash in energy.
It's so frustrating dealing with the 3rd world because it takes so little to make things significantly better yet you can't get people organized enough to make systematic sustained progress. Any improvements that require a system to function soon stop working. One extraordinary individual can make such an impact because they don't require the help of others.
In the end, Kamwamba's causes me more anger and frustration than hope. He's not really a remarkable person. Anyone who has worked in the 3rd world can tell you how many bright hardworking people live there. They don't lack for brains, determination or even education. They just need real freedom to create.
Ultimately, countries are poor because they cannot let their economically and technologically creative people work freely. If Kamkwamba lived in a country and culture that had rule of law and private property, he could have converted his ingenuity into a business. Profits from the business would let him expand and serve more villages. One person's mind and hard work could have raised the standard of living of millions.
That is what made America a rich and peaceful country of great diversity. To bad so many are hell bent on preventing a repeat of the American experiment.
business mailing lists on July 29, 2010 at 05:51 PM
So, will he really be going back?
MediaWeary on July 29, 2010 at 10:20 PM
William is an inspiration and seems to be quite a dynamo in his own right. I hope he is well prepared for his return to Africa, for he will have a difficult and dangerous road ahead when he does.
To Shannon's comments, I could not agree more! The rule of law and the derivitive protection of personal property is a unique combination which is invariably at the forefront of a prosperous and peaceful country. Africa's problem, and the huge issue William will face on his return, are the forces for whom real rule of law means their demise. Needless to say, those forces would keep millions in illiteracy, proverty and squalor before they will concede even an inch at the expense of their power. They are also not above the killing of one upstart or hundreds of thousands of others to cement their position.
Worse for William is that those who should be assisting him and his fellow innovators in raising the lives of his fellow villagers and citizens will, in the end, make no contribution of prestige, money or blood to his cause. In a Catch-22 of epic and tragic porportions, the opressors of William, his countrymen and the co-inhabitants of his continent, are black men and in the "oh so correct" world of the 21st century West it is impossible for black people to be opressors. Thus, William, and Shannon's multitude of "bright hardworking people," will be condemmed to more of the same or worse.
White-controlled South Africa killed by the dozens and was condemmed from pulpit to university campus and board room to polling place through out the West. Native son Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe decimates his country and kills thousands to preserve his power, Rowanda kills hundreds of thousands and Sudan kills or puts to flight millions and seldom is heard a western discouraging word.
End of rant. I wish William only the best, but suggest he turn his success at the village level into political hay or he, too, will become another depressing stastic on the road to what could have been.
Don't Politicize Him on July 30, 2010 at 04:01 PM
Are you trying to get him killed? He's a brilliant young Engineer, Africa needs Engineers.
MediaWeary on July 30, 2010 at 05:28 PM
No, the powers that be in Africa will do that quite well, all by themselves. He needs to know that:
a. He is shaking a big apple tree when he tackles the problems of even a single community in Africa and what falls out probably won't be winesaps.
b. He may get a little money and perhaps a few of his classmates will show-up for a couple of weeks, but if William believes for a second that any of his new US and/or European friends will go to bat for him when things "go wrong," he will be sadly disappointed.
Get him killed? Heck no! But I don't wish for him to be wiped out while he's reaching for his slide rule either. The African problem, as Shannon said above, is only fractionaly a people/technology problem. It is a political problem and if William isn't at least aware of that he will be run down the first time a town he helps dares ask the local machine for more on top of what William provided. He will be percieved as the catalyst; to stop a reaction, remove the catalyst.
Cindy Maxey on August 04, 2010 at 06:52 PM
I think Mr. Kamkwamba probably knows the reality of life and how things get done in Malawi much better than anyone commenting on this page. I very much admire him and wish him and his community well. God speed, Mr. Kamkwamba.
Jon on August 08, 2010 at 09:46 PM
I've just read his book and there are many sections where it is very obvious William knows about the political corruption rife in much of Africa. It starts at the president and goes all the way down to the guys sacking govt surplus grain.
怀淰＠＾过厾 on August 24, 2010 at 11:03 PM
When I was at Dartmouth in 1994-95, there was an African student there who was also an inspiration, He worked in the dining hall at night (It is open 24/7), for his meals, and he could not get over the American students who would come in at 3 AM drunk.
I have had African and West Indian students in medical school and, believe me, there is no "acting white" hang-ups among them,
ColinS on October 04, 2010 at 01:40 PM
Shannon and especially MediaWeary, how to you replace an old reality with a new reality? I offer one answer: imagination.
Indeed grime political strifes are the current situation in Africa (including Malawi, for sure.) William knows what hunger is. During a time of devestating famine, he hungered for food, he hungered for means to pay for basic needs to be clothed, to be sheltered, to sustain a small farm business (certainly mostly his dad's burden for the farm, to sell crops for BASIC household subsistence), and he hungered with a burning desire for real knowledge (not being able to afford to go to school.) In all of these areas William tried to help his family, with nothing but his own will and imagination. Most people, including his own parents, in his village thought this young boy was going crazy with his power generating windmill obsession, just from pictures of a basic science book for youngsters (he could not read English). But against conventional thinking, he prove you can make something out of nothing and imagination. "I tried, and I did it," is my favorite quote from this remakable, humble, human being, William Kamkwamba. The odds have been continually stacked against him, in many ways (only one of them being political), yet I am not betting against him. I dare not, for I will be giving up on the best of ourselves on planet Earth.
We still hunger for an Earth with an overwhelming majority of William Kamkwambas. Imagine with me.
Jordan Sneakers on November 03, 2010 at 07:08 PM
I read the detail you said,and many good information from life,and I think your life is good and health,so I will try my best to live as yours.thanks for sharing them to me,enjoy yourself and good luck!
OTCBB on April 02, 2011 at 04:21 AM
Interesting I think, Looking for a new book not sure of this one.