Let us nurture our geniuses

On Thursday July 17 2014, I had the joy of meeting the young innovator or inventor from Kasungu,

William Kamkwamba. You have heard of him, if not what a pity for Kamkwamba’s name has hit the

headlines worldwide. This is because of his memoir which he co-authored with Bryan Mealer titled

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.

I met him at the Jacaranda School for Orphans in Blantyre. I went there following the invitation by

Mr and Mrs Luc to go and listen to a lecture by Kamkwamba on how he performed the very difficult

task of using cast away materials at his home to build a windmill that generated electricity and

pumped water for irrigation. He has just returned from America where he has completed a four-year

degree at Dartmouth College. At the time he made this achievement, he had not yet entered secondary

school in Malawi because his parents, peasant farmers, could not afford to pay for his fees.

His story reminded me of other eminent figures in the history of innovation. The most famous

inventor, Thomas Alva Edison, was a primary school dropout. Natural curiosity about scientific

matters led Edison to burn candles at both ends (before he invented the incandescent lamp),

delving into the books and notes of such scientists as Michael Faraday and there found clues for the

inventions he made.

At Jacaranda, we were shown a slim booklet on the harnessing of winds which Kamkwamba had

read at his primary school. It did not look the sort of book that catch the attention of visitors into

bookshops and libraries. Yet reading that book had put Kamkwamba on the road to worldwide fame

though apparently little noticed in his own country.

When his book was read abroad, eulogies and accolades followed in droves. Here are a couple of

examples:

a) “William Kamkwamba is one of the bright young stars of the future and serves as an inspiration for

other young people to know what they can do to help. “—Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu of Cape

Town, one of the most famous and influential South Africans.

b) “The Boy who Harnessed The Wind is the inspiring story of a young man in Africa who used the

only resources available to him to build a windmill and elevate the lives and spirits of those in his

community. William Kamkwamba’s achievements with wind energy should serve as a model of what

one person with an inspired idea can do to tackle the crisis we face. His book tells a moving story.”—Al

Gore, Nobel Prize laureate and former United States vice president.

The principal and proprietor of Jacaranda had invited Kamkwamba to try and inspire their students

to think of doing the same thing; try and become inventors and innovators. Already, students at that

school are making solar lamps of their own following a visit by a Kenyan young man. I congratulated

them for indirectly acting in accordance with what Dr Robert Laws of Livingstonia said was a German

aphorism, namely that what you want to see done in the country first put it in schools. Do we want

Malawi to be a country of innovators and inventors? If so, inculcate the idea in schools.

William has visited a number of countries in North America, Europe and Asia by invitation from

those who wanted to learn how he had performed his miniature miracle. How many institutions have

already done what Jacaranda did on July 17 2014?

We Malawians are lamenting the economic backwardness of our country and our poverty. What we

should know is that in those countries which are now developed and prosperous, men and women

with special talents, especially inventors, were given encouragement by their governments or wealthy

patrons.

At the time we heard of Kamkwamba of T/A Wimbe, Kasungu we also heard of a young man in

Mulanje who had built a radio station. Instead of marvelling at the humbly educated young man’s

ingenuity, he was fined K50 000. Let us welcome the unusually gifted among us and give them a

helping hand.

Kamkwamba told us he is working on a new project and intends to set up a centre in Lilongwe.

Thomas Edison received some assistance in setting up an invention centre at Menlo Park. In order

that William’s energies are not diverted to routine jobs, he must be given a kind of bursary to live on

while he works on his projects. A lot of money has been donated to football teams which have failed

time and time again to reach the finals or semi-finals in the African Cup of Nations. Only a quarter of

that amount, if donated to Kamkwamba’s team of investors, might yield dividends for the country.

The first step to bring Kamkwamba’s achievements to the attention of more people is to reprint his

book in cheaper edition. The Central Bookshop at Chichiri Shopping Centre in Blantyre is selling it at

close to K7 000. Valuable and inspiring as this book is, not many Malawians would prefer spending so

much on it to spending the same on imported beer.

Kamkwamba and other potential geniuses deserve the patronage of the State, millionaires and non-
governmental organisations.