An African Giant William Kamkwamba, who gained notoriety for his innovative wind turbine, is known today as The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind. William built an electricity-producing windmill from spare parts and scrap to save his Malawian village from famine. The Netflix Movie ‘The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind’ is based on his autobiography and his story has also been immortalized in a book by the same name.
William Kamkwamba was born in a small village in Malawi, Africa which relied primarily on farming to survive. At the age of 14, he taught himself how to generate electricity from wind and built a windmill from junk. He brought power to his dying village and saved many lives. William Kamkwamba is an African hero and an inspiration to all. He is a true example of African talent and ingenuity. He is proof that Africans can accomplish anything they put their minds to, even in the face of adversity.
William Kamkwamba was born in rural Malawi, where farming communities are struggling to adapt to the effects of climate change. extended droughts and erratic rains have made it difficult to grow crops, and many families are forced to live in poverty. When William was 14 years old, he stumbled on a library book called “Using Energy” and saw a picture of a windmill. Inspired by what he saw, he set out to build his own windmill using materials from the junkyard.
William’s windmill provided enough energy to power lights and irrigate crops, and it quickly became a symbol of hope for his community. Today, William is a global advocate for renewable energy, and his story shows that even the most remote communities can find ways to adapt to climate change.
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Although Kamkwamba gained fame swiftly in Malawi in 2002, his wind turbine made headlines in 2006 when The Daily Times in Blantyre wrote a story on it. The story quickly circulated through the blogosphere, making Kamkwamba an overnight sensation. In fact, Kamkwamba also received an invitation to talk at TEDGlobal 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania as a guest by TED conference director Emeka Okafor. His speech moved the audience, and several venture capitalists at the conference pledged to help finance his secondary education. He had also been on The Daily Show on 7 October 2009 and at the 2011 Google Science Fair introductory meeting.
William Kamkwamba, who gained notoriety for his innovative wind turbine is known today as the Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, and his story has been immortalized in a book by the same name. He had even gained a scholarship to the African Leadership Academy and in 2014 graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.
William gained fame swiftly in Malawian in 2002 when he built a wind turbine to power multiple electrical appliances in his family’s house in Wimbe, using blue gum trees, bicycle parts, and materials collected in a local scrapyard. Since then, he has built a solar-powered water pump that supplies the first drinking water in his village and two other wind turbines, the tallest standing at 12 meters (39 ft), and is planning two more, including one in Lilongwe, the political capital of Malawi.
African Giant Kamkwamba is the subject of the documentary film William and the Windmill, which won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature at the 2013 South By Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas. That same year, he was named one of the “30 People Under 30 Changing The World” by TIME magazine
In 2014, Kamkwamba received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Studies from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire where he was elected to the Sphinx Senior Honor Society. In 2019, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind was adapted into a film with the same name, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, who also wrote and directed it.
An African Giant is someone of African origin who has achieved enormously in a lifetime and is recognized for it — Africa Giant
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