William Kamkwamba: How I Harnessed the Wind

I am telling you this is one of the most inspiring stories I have heard.  Kamkwamba is not even close to the education level of the other presenters in this series, yet he is one of the most encouraging.  After abandoning school because of lack of school fees, he went on to educate himself by reading in the village’s library. When he was fourteen, he read about energy production. He made a plan, collected scrap metal and a bicycle, and succeeded in making a windmill that produced energy for his families home.

Kamkwamba took part in the first event celebrating his particular type of ingenuity called Maker Faire Africa, in Ghana in August 2009.

Look at his official website: William Kamkwamba: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.

Click the pictures below to watch both of Kamkwamba’s two TED speech.  Together they total less than ten minutes. on the video below.

If you are unable to watch the video, a written transcript of the speech is also available, click here.  In the right hand column, click on Interactive Transcript.

If you are unable to watch the video, a written transcript of the speech is also available, click here.  In the right hand column, click on Interactive Transcript.

I was impressed by William Kamkwamba’s determination to continue to learn and quickly apply what he had learned.

• There are seven children in his family, all girls except him.
• His father was a poor farmer in a country of poor farmers.
• He was forced to drop out of school because there was a drought and no school fees available.
• He learned how to make a windmill from books he read in the library.
• When the windmill was completed, it produced sufficient electricity for light bulbs and radios in his family’s house.
• He built another windmill that pumps water from a deep well.
• He wants all Africans who see this talk to be brave and go after their dreams with faith.

What impressed you about William Kamkwamba’s young life thus far?

A review of “On Becoming an Activist” by Kenyan Ory Okolloh at a TED Conference, June 2007

Oyo Okolloh received an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh and earned a doctorate from Harvard Law School in 2005.

Okolloh is a Kenyan activist, lawyer, and blogger.  In 2006 she co-founded Mzalendo (Swahili: “Patriot”), a website to hold Kenyan parliamentarians accountable.  She is more widely known for writing one of the most popular blogs concerning Kenya, the Kenyan Pundit.

Okolloh is part of the new generation of young Africans who are using the power of blogging, SMS and web-enabled openness to push their countries forward and help Africans to truly connect.

Watch the video below of Okolloh’s TED speech “On Becoming An Activist.”

If you are unable to watch the video, a written transcript of the speech is also available, click here.  Then, in the right hand column, click on “open transcript”.

Here is what I heard Ory Okolloh say:

• The media focuses on the negative things in Africa.
• Okolloh is influenced by the western and private school education she received.  How much she identifies with poor Africans is another matter. (my own observations)  Very few American students get to go to Harvard.  Harvard Law school, where Oholloh got here law degree, has produced American Presidents.
• Her father died of HIV/AIDS.
• If you only knows the sad things about peoples’ lives, then you look at them with pity.  This is how outsiders look at Africa.  It is a damaging view.
• Africans need to do a better job of telling their own stories.  (I would love for you to tell your story right here on Stories of Africa.  Write me if you would like to tell your story.)
• Africans who live overseas should return and contribute to Africa.
• Africans need to challenge their leaders to take more initiative. There are websites and blogs that can help people talk to or make comments about their parliamentarians.

What do you think about Oyo’s speech?  Do you agree or disagree with her?

Over the next few weeks I want to share with you an outstanding menu of African speakers.  They a new breed that rejects the negative publicity about Africa and offers inspiration and clear proposals for the future.

The annual TED conferences, in Long Beach/Palm Springs and Oxford, bring together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).  There are over 700 talks available online.  Speakers are from all over the world.  Africa is well represented.

TED says they “believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we’re building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.”

The first talk I want to share with you is, “Cheetahs vs. Hippos” by Ghanaian George Ayittey.  Ayittey was  born in Ghana in 1945.  He is an economist, author and president of the Free Africa Foundation in Washington DC.  He is a professor at American University^, and an associate scholar at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

He says “Hippos” (lazy, slow, ornery, greedy) have ruined postcolonial Africa.  Why, then, does he remain optimistic? Because of the young, agile “Cheetah Generation,” a “new breed of Africans” taking their futures into their own hands.

Listen to this outstanding talk.  Press the play button below.

To read a written transcript of the talk, click here.

Ayittey challenges all to be cheetahs:

• not tolerate corruption
• not wait on government to give them something.
• The hippos benefit from the rotten status quo.  They get fat on it.
• Africa’s begging bowl leaks into the mouths of the hippos.
• African governments failed their people.
• It is time for a no-nonsense generation to take over.

What do you think?  Is Ayittey speaking truth and making appropriate challenges?  Please your comments below.

In my next post, I will highlight a talk by Nigerian writer,Chimamanda Adichie. She speaks on “The Danger of a Single Story.”

Of course this is not the beginning of stories of Africa. There have been multitudes of articles, stories and books written about Africa. I do welcome you to the beginning of Stories of Africa website and blog which is a home for we who reading and writing about Africa.

Reporters share the daily events from the continent: the challenges, disasters, victories and lessons. We will carry a daily RSS news feed from BBC’s Africa service, but our emphasis will be on the reporters themselves. We will highlight the stories behind the stories, the careers of those who write the new.  Jeff Koinange, Hilary Ng’weno, and Amin Mohamed are the first of many we will feature.  We encourage you to give your own observations and ratings of these reporters in the comment boxes. Suggest other reporters for us to feature.

The scholars of Africa help us remember the past and plan for the future. On the Stories of Africa we will be looking into the life work of some of these scholars and detailing much of their writing. The initial featured scholars (Kwame Appiah, Ali Mazrui, and John Mbiti) are only a toenail of an elephant compared to the entire wealth of scholars who have written of Africa, her people and land. We will be adding new scholars periodically, further we solicit you to give us the names of your favorite scholars, who might even be yourself.

Through fiction and poetry, the story tellers of Africa carry us into the heart and soul of what it is to be African or to live among Africans. The light of their insights has flashed a light on what others have ignorantly referred to as the Dark Continent. Some readers may be familiar with the story tellers we present this month (Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Wole Soyinka, Njabulo Ndebele, Nadine Gordimer, Leopold Senghor, and Mazisi Kunene), but most of Africa’s fiction writers are unknown to the rest of the world. Our task is to give their work exposure. No doubt, you have a favorite fiction writer or poet.  Tell us about him or her. If you are one who is blessed with a muse from Africa and wish to share your fiction here, we may feature you and your work.

I lived in Africa for more than twenty-five years. Sixteen of them were in Kenya among the Kipsigis people. Nine were among the Aja people of Benin. I researched and traveled in more than a dozen countries. I am an avid reader of reports, articles, and stories from Africa and have written over a hundred of myself.

Lets begin to share the stories of Africa.

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