Jonathan Ball

William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer’s The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind has taken the literary world somewhat by storm. Here’s an excerpt from this inspiring book:

THE next day after lunch I began putting everything together. I took the fan, blades, bolts, and the dynamo outside behind our kitchen and arranged them in a neat row along the hard, barren dirt.

It was a wide, clear space to work and the perfect place to build my machine, close to both my room and the kitchen, which doubled as my laboratory, storage, and work sheds.

It was also the best place for shade. When the midmorning sun was blazing, a big acacia tree behind the latrine cast a long enough shadow so I could tinker in comfort. Once the sun shifted in the afternoon, the kitchen provided good shade of its own. It was also the best place in the compound to receive the eastern winds that rushed over the mountains from the lake. As I began to work that afternoon, the Dowa Highlands were wrapped in blue sky and looked quite majestic.

The first thing I needed to do was connect the blades to the tractor fan, so I went to the kitchen and prepared my drill. I took the long nail with a maize-cob handle and stuck it into the embers of the fire. Once it was glowing red, I used it to bore four holes in the top of each plastic blade, then two more holes down the centre. This process of heating, melting, and reheating took nearly three hours.

Taking a smaller bike wrench, I proceeded to fasten the blades to the tractor fan with the nuts and bolts Gilbert had purchased. We didn’t have proper washers to help secure the bolts, so I spent the next hour collecting bottle caps outside Ofesi Boozing Centre to use instead.

“Ah look,” said one of the drunkards in the doorway, his corkscrewed eyes ready to tip his body over. “The government is finally cleaning the roads. Hey boy, how about a drink for an old man? I’m an orphan, you know.”

“Sorry, I’m busy.”

• Complete excerpt in the Sunday Independent
• More information on William Kamkwamba and his book

Book details

• The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba, Bryan Mealer
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9780007316182
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

The book that’s taken the United States by storm – now available in South Africa!

A moving tale of one boy’s struggle to create a better life, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is William Kamkwamba’s amazing story – a journey that offers hope for the lives of other Africans—and the whole world, irrefutably demonstrating that one individual can make a difference.”

Using scrap metal, tractor parts, and blue-gum trees, William forged a crude yet working windmill, an unlikely hand-built contraption that would successfully power four light bulbs and two radios in his family’s compound. Soon, news of his invention spread, attracting interest and offers of help from around the world. Not only did William return to school but he and was offered the opportunity to visit wind farms in the United States, much like the ones he hopes to build across Africa.

• For more information and links, see BOOK SA’s William Kamkwamba Sunday Read

About the author

“William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi, Africa, a country plagued by AIDS and poverty. Like most people in his village, his family subsisted on the meager crops they could grow, living without the luxuries—considered necessities in the West—of electricity or running water. Already living on the edge, the situation became dire when, in 2002, Malawi experienced the worst famine in 50 years. Struggling to survive, 14-year-old William was forced to drop out of school because his family could not afford the $80-a-year tuition.

Though he was not in a classroom, William continued to think, learn—and dream. Armed with curiosity, determination, and a library book he discovered in a nearby library, he embarked on a daring plan—to build a windmill that could bring his family the electricity only two percent of Malawians could afford.

• Visit William’s homepage

Book details

• The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba, Bryan Mealer
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9780007316182
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!