ONE is turning to its community of artists, friends, members and staff for their top picks on creative works that have enhanced their knowledge and understanding of the richness of African culture and arts. Today we have a recommendation from Peter Griesar:

The truth about revolutionary thought is that to others it appears akin to madness. This is just one of the many obstacles that William Kamkwamba overcame to realize his vision of wind powered electricity and irrigation for his village.

William is the co-author with Bryan Mealer of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, the story of William’s experiences growing up in Kasungu, Malawi.

It was inevitable William would follow in his father’s footsteps as a farmer. Drought and famine had halted his formal education early and it was the path so many like him had already traveled. But William always had the spark of an inventor, always innovating and never satisfied until he understood how things worked.
“If solving such mysteries was the job of a scientist, then a scientist is exactly what I wanted to become” he says in his new book with reporter Bryan Mealer, “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.” “Before I discovered the miracles of science, magic ruled the world.”

And so this 14 year-old scientist set out to build his family a windmill that would produce electricity. This electricity would allow him and his family to read into the night, save money on lamp oil, and earn money from neighbors as a phone charger. And it is no exaggeration to say that this light he created with his Windmill would eventually be seen around the world.

I had the honor of meeting William and Bryan briefly here in DC a few weeks ago. I learned that William had been a fan of ONE for some time now. The photo here is from his blog.

William Kamkwamba is now 22 and will be heading back to school in January where he is studying science and working to continue bringing wind energy and hope to Malawi and beyond.

If you’d like to know more about William Kamkwamba please check out “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind”, his non-profit Moving Windmills Project, his blog here, and Bryan Mealer’s blog here.