The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba is a memoir about the author’s struggle to build a windmill in his village in Malawi. Beyond that, it’s a story about hope and determination. The book opens with a prologue that shows William turning his windmill on for the first time. With this success in mind, the reader is then thrust into a world of superstition and government corruption that creates obstacles to such innovation.

William begins his story by talking about his father, Trywell, recounting anecdotes from his own childhood as well as from his father’s youth. He talks about eating some stolen gum, which his father then convinces him is cursed in order to teach him a lesson about accepting and using stolen goods. Trywell pays for the gum and tells William that he’s paid to have the curse lifted, but then, when he laughs, William understands his father never believed in the curse anyway. William’s childhood is filled with fear of wizards and magic, until his own attempts to practice magic prove that he was cheated.

Trywell was a trader, but when his brother John invites him to come and work on the family farm, he accepts. William befriends his cousin Geoffrey, and two other boys named Gilbert and Charity. When John dies of tuberculosis, the Kamkwambas are left with a smaller farm to work, and William’s other uncle, along with his many daughters and his dog Khamba, move in with them. Soon afterwards, drought leads to famine, and the whole village suffers. Even Khamba perishes from starvation. Despite having gotten into a secondary school, William and many of his fellow students are forced to return home.

William continues to have trouble pursuing his education because he can’t afford the school fees. Instead, he studies independently at the library. There, he learns all about magnets and electricity, and most importantly, how to generate electricity. He’d been curious about it before, having seen a bicycle dynamo that his father’s friend owned, but it wasn’t until he read about electricity that he truly understood how it worked. He and Geoffrey had, for some time, been dissembling and fixing radios, so he knew how to get electricity out of batteries, but harnessing it in a dynamo or windmill was a new idea for William.

William uses this new knowledge to construct a windmill. It’s a small model, but he’s able to get an electrical charge out of it. After blowing out his father’s radio, he learns how to adjust the windmill so that he can harvest just the right amount of electricity. From there, he builds a larger windmill with the help of his friends. Gilbert, whose father was Chief Wimbe, helps him buy the parts he cannot salvage. The memoir then repeats the scene from the prologue, which showed the first successful use of the windmill. Reaction among the villagers is mixed. Some of them are eager for the advancements it can offer, such as electric light, a way to pump water, and a method for charging mobile phones—in fact, William starts a small business for the latter. Others think the windmill is blowing the clouds away and threatening another drought-induced famine, though William and his friends are able to convince them otherwise.

William starts to get more and more involved in the community, working to raise awareness about AIDS and educate children about the sciences. One day, his windmill is discovered and starts to gain publicity to the point that he’s noticed by Soyapi Mumba, who invites him to a TED conference. The conference is a huge success, and kick starts William’s education and provides funding that he uses to continue improving his village.

After that, William travels to the United States and to England where he observes wind farms and centuries-old architecture that continue to inspire him. He knows he can do anything if he tries, and that includes making improvements to his home village. William’s final message in the book is one of hope for Malawi and for Africa. He believes scientific advancement can combat famine and disease, two hurdles that hampered his own ability to attend school—but that he overcame in order to realize his dream of harnessing the wind.

Throughout the book, government corruption is a recurring theme. At the beginning of the story, Malawi is ruled by President Muluzi, who had himself elected Life President. He rules with an iron fist, imprisoning anyone who speaks out against him or his regime. Over time though, he comes to admit that there was a famine in Malawi, and the government starts supporting the farmers in and around William’s village.

Major themes in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind include magic versus science, hope and determination, and corruption. For William, hope, determination, and science often go hand-in-hand, whereas he often pairs corruption and magic together.