The Boy Who Followed The Wind Analysis

According to the World Bank, more than fifty percent of citizens in Malawi were living beneath the poverty line in 2010. This widespread poverty often forces African citizens to utilize cheap materials that more fortunate people might view as worthless. The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, written by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, tells the story of how William Kamkwamba, an ordinary Malawian boy, creates electricity for his entire town simply by recycling old materials and teaching himself to build a windmill. William constantly faces negativity and challenges in his journey to make his dream a reality. However, the adversity he faces pushes him to keep going and make the best of what he has. While William struggles to achieve his goal, he utilizes every resource available to him in order to build a better life for himself and his community. Over the course of William’s journey to create the windmill, he takes advantage of the few materials he has available to him in Malawi. He comes from a family of farmers who constantly struggle to pay to

He provokes change when he stumbles upon challenges, and instead of discouraging him, they only motivate him more to continue his journey to better the future for himself and his country. By being resourceful and determined through multiples of obstacles, he turned what others view as junk into a revolutionary work of science. As a man said at William’s TED talk, “Where the world sees trash, Africa recycles. Where the world sees junk, Africa sees rebirth.” This quote epitomizes William’s mindset throughout his struggles as he recycles “trash” to create a future for himself and his country. Like William Kamkwamba, other innovative minds are able to “rebirth” other African villages into an advanced age by overcoming their poverty and taking advantage of every opportunity available to