There are tons of books about Africa. The Fate of Africa. Blood on the Trail. The Survival of Africa. Wildlife Wars. Blood River. You get the picture. Doom and gloom, perpetuating Joseph Conrad’s Dark Continent.
A recent book by William Kamkwamba called The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is about the hope of Africa. It is a must read. Truly inspirational and true. This is a boy who grew up in rural Malawi in a village, like most remote villages in Africa, with no power. He suffered through one of the worst droughts in Malawi, which crippled the country with starvation. William had a thirst for education, but with a food shortage and crop failure, there was no money to pay for school fees. I do not want to give the story away, but William read any book he could get his hand on, and eventually found his way to a physics book at a small local library donated from abroad. From there, he read about technology and wind energy. He copied models in the book by using scrap metal and other things like bottle caps and bike wheels and to the shock of his entire village (they thought he was nuts collecting all this "junk")—he harnessed the wind and created power.
It’s an awesome story of hope, ingenuity and perseverance. On the heels of a drought, this boy creates what is magic to his fellow villagers. It leaves you smiling and wanted to lend this boy a hardy congratulations.
It’s inspiring that a young boy with an education up to 8th grade, facing starvation and living in a remote area can create power out of scrap metal. Leaves one wondering how it is that we, the great western world, with all of our technological skills, equipment, wealth, innovation and education have failed so miserably in adopting alternative energies like wind and solar.
