About the title

William Kamkwamba is a Malawi boy who was born in a town called Kasungu (south-east of Africa), greatly affected by poverty and where most houses are hand-made of mud bricks and straw; and whose main industry, tobacco-growing, is dangerously affected by the lack of nutrients and water. 

Kamkwamba had to leave school due to the severe famine he was suffering from, and was then unable to keep up because his family could not afford the tuition fees. Trying to retain his education, he started to frequently visit the village library, interested by engineering and electronics. 

Not much later, at the age of only 14, Kamkwamba constructed a makeshift turbine which, taking advantage of the wind blowing, permitted to power some electrical appliances in his family's house. This he did just by using blue gum trees, bycicle parts, and materials from a local scrapyard.

Kamkwamba's invention not only set a lighted a candle of hope for Kasungu and some villages in the same poverty-situation, but also made him famous to the point of being able to graduate in college thanks to some scholarships and finance helps given by venture capitalists and important authorities. His aspiration was to improve the technique in order to construct a greater turbine which could cover the entire village with energy supply.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is the title of his autobiography. By using it (although with some variation) as the title of this blog, not only am I trying to evocate the many poverty-affected regions in Africa which, as Kasungu, are set in a desperate need of electricity and water supply to irrigate the crops and farms whose families' survival depends on; but also to point out how the effort of a one single, humil person can lead an amazing change in many other lives. 

Imagine then if all the people, both in the developed and non-developed countries, just by helping and supporting each other, got to be a community in its real meaning... and if it were that community, by wisely using intelligence and political laws and efforts... The One that Harnessed the Wind.