The Boy who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba: book review

The Boy who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope (2010) is the memoir of William Kamkwamba.

Born in Malawi, he left school at 14 to work on the family maize farm. He maintained his rudimentary knowledge by going to the local library.

In 2001, the maize plants were dying after years of persistent drought. William’s family had nothing – no water, no electricity, no light at night, nothing to sell, and nothing to eat. Only 2% of homes in Malawi had electricity, so he was as poor as everyone else. All the possessions the family had was their father’s bicycle for transport, and their small rural home.

What William had was a love of science, a love of books, perseverance, resilience, and faith in himself. From a library book, he learned about wind turbines that can create energy – energy to pump water from the ground. He would build his own windmill, he thought. But that meant using parts from his father’s bicycle.

His father’s anger and his community’s ridicule did not stop William’s windmill dream. With no rain in sight, tension is high and hope is low – but William persists.

This is his story of how he built a windmill and made a lightbulb glow. Electricity! Electricity for light, for the radio, for the water pump.

His story is now a film (2019) starring Maxwell Simba as William Kamkwamba and Chiwetel Ejiofor as his father Trywell Kamkwamba. Both the book and the film are wonderfully inspirational, showing trust in knowledge, innovation, and application, when there is nothing left to lose.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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