William Kamkwamba

Who He Is

William Kamkwamba was born in 1987 and grew up in the village of Masitala in Malawi, in southeastern Africa. In 2001, a severe famine wiped out his family's crops, and at 14 he had to drop out of school because they could not pay the fees. He kept learning at a small library, where he found a book called Using Energy with a picture of a windmill. Using that picture and with no instructions, he built a working wind turbine from a blue gum tree, bicycle parts, and scrap from a junkyard. It powered four lights and two radios in his family's home, which had never had electricity. The windmill drew attention across Malawi and then the world. Kamkwamba became a TED Fellow, finished high school at the African Leadership Academy, and graduated from Dartmouth College in 2014, where he studied environmental studies and engineering. His memoir, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, written with Bryan Mealer, was a New York Times bestseller, was adapted into versions for young readers and a picture book, and became a 2019 Netflix film directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor. He co-founded the Moving Windmills Project, a nonprofit that supports young innovators in rural Malawi.

Why He Matters

Kamkwamba's story is the whole job in miniature: understand how a turbine works, build or fix it with what you have, and keep it running so people have power. He did it at 14 with scrap and a library book, which says something about what curiosity and persistence can do. His books are among the best introductions to wind energy written for young readers, and his career since then shows that a hands-on start can lead to engineering school, a nonprofit, and a platform for teaching others.