20/09/2023
A Malawian boy named William Kamkwamba from the Kasungu region who witnesses a terrible drought in 2001 build a windmill out of junk. Driven by desperation William starts searching in books for a solution until he comes across the picture of a windmill. Since he lacks resources, he goes to the nearby garbage dump and uses a tractor fan, shock absorber, bicycle frame, and PVC pipe to build a windmill that generates enough energy to pump water from the ground for his family's cornfields.
William reduced the technology and concept to the essentials and, thus created a low-tech product which is cheaper, easier to operate and more resource-efficient. Furthermore, William adapted the innovation to the specific cultural and social context rather than adopting the local conditions so that they fit the innovation. After the windmill became accessible to Williams home village, he created a whole new market for the innovation which became accessible to many other low-income countries and regions.
William Kamkwamba took a complex, expensive innovation, the windmill, and developed a cheaper, frugal version. He turned old into new, transformed complexity into simplicity, and made the impossible possible by creating something valuable out of trash. As William states: 'Where the world sees trash, Africa recycles. Where the world sees junk, Africa sees rebirth'.