Malawi is where William Kamkwamba, inventor and author with Bryan Mealer of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, is from. The book is the selection for Piedmont's new citywide reading club.
Kamkwamba's story about how he constructed a windmill to power his family’s homestead takes place in his hometown, Masitala village in Kasungu District, in central Malawi north of the capitol Lilongwe.
Malawi's first president, Hastings Kamuzu Banda, was from Kasungu district too. After leading the nation to independence from British colonial rule, Banda held on to power for 30 years. Kamkwamba was a little boy when Banda's autocratic regime gave way to multi-party democracy in 1993.
Rural Kasungu is the heart of tobacco country. There the smell of drying leaves is the smell of money–nearly everyone in the district, including the young inventor’s father, makes their living growing the cash crop on small plots. Electricity is a rare luxury.
Less than 10 percent of Malawi is electrified, and most of the electricity comes from hydropower fueled primarily by Lake Nyasa (a.k.a. Lake Malawi) and the Shire River, which collectively run the length of the country.
So, before he became enchanted with science and endeavored to light his home with wind power, Kamkwamba, like most Malawians, grew up fearing both the Christian God and the magic of Gule Wakulu tradition and listening to his dad tell folktales by lamplight.
What do you know about Malawi? Share your experiences and discoveries by posting a comment below.
Some of these were taken in Kasungu province. Malawi is filled with passionate people, large hearts and huge faith in the gifts they are given. Many struggle, 1 in 6 babies make it to age 5 and 17% of women die in childbirth, with Malaria, Aids and Malnutrition are everyday facts of life and with all of this they face each day as if it is a blessing, we have a lot to learn from them. There are many outreach/mission networks that pour their heart, souls and resources into helping where they can. The resourcefulness of William of the windmill is very telling, they are doing themselves proud.
When I was there it was illegal for women to wear pants, so you had to wear a dress everyday.
"Gilbert, bo?" "Bo!," Kamkwamba wrote. In the Zimbabwean villages and townships where I stayed the refrain was: "Muribho sha?" "Bo." Meaning: "How are you, buddy?" "Cool." That exchange was usually accompanied by a hand slap that integrated a thumb-to-thumb snap, which I could never quite master.