William Kamkwamba
Malawian inventor and author · Malawi · On the map · Scientists · Born 1987 · age 39
William Kamkwamba is a Malawian inventor, engineer, and author. He gained renown in his country in 2001 when he built a wind turbine to power multiple electrical appliances in his family's house in Wimbe, 23 kilometres (14 mi) east of Kasungu, using blue gum trees, bicycle parts, and materials collected in a local...
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William Kamkwamba is read about 474 times a day, in 26 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 11 November 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 116 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?A life in dates
Media & music
In their own words 9
, Thank you. Two years ago, I stood on the TED stage in Arusha, Tanzania. I spoke very briefly about one of my proudest creations. It was a simple machine that changed my life.
Before that time, I had never been away from my home in Malawi. I had never used a computer. I had never seen an Internet. On the stage that day, I was so nervous.
There was a story I wouldn't tell you then. But well, I'm feeling good right now. I would like to share that story today. We have seven children in my family.
Awards
About this person
He gained renown in his country in 2001 when he built a wind turbine to power multiple electrical appliances in his family's house in Wimbe, 23 kilometres (14 mi) east of Kasungu, using blue gum trees, bicycle parts, and materials collected in a local scrapyard. Since then, he has built a solar-powered water pump that supplies the first drinking water in his village and two other wind turbines, the tallest standing at 12 meters, and has built two more, including one in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. He also wrote a book about it called The Boy who Harnessed the Wind.
Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0