William Kamkwamba

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William Kamkwamba (b. 1987) is a Malawian secondary student and inventor. He gained fame in his country when, in 2001, he self-built a windmill to power his a few electrical appliances in his family's house in Masitala, a hamlet in Kasungu District, Central Region; he built this windmills using such components as blue-gum trees and bicycle parts. Since then, he has built two other windmills in his village, and the tallest stands at 39 feet, and has planned to build two others, including one that will stand in Lilongwe.

Kamkwamba is self-taught, and learned how to build windmills after having looked at a photograph of one in a library book. He started to build windmills after he left school because he couldn't pay the USD $80 tuition.

[edit] International notoriety

When the Daily Times newspaper in Blantyre wrote a story on Kamkwamba's windmills in November 2006, the story circulated through the blogosphere^[1], and TED conference director Emeka Okafor invited Kamkwamba to speak at TEDGlobal 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania as a guest^[2]. His speech moved the audience, and several venture capitalists at the conference pledged to help finance his secondary education. His story was covered by Sarah Childress for the Wall Street Journal^[3]. He is now a student at African Bible College Christian Academy in Lilongwe.