ATIVE

NARRICTION
NONF n that uses
tio s
nonfic y technique
lite r a r

CHASING How one teen brought light

to his village—and changed his world
By Allison Friedman

4 Scholastic Scope • May 2023

 Nonfiction

the
WIND
Illustrations by Taylor Callery


©2023 Scholastic Inc. All rights reserved. scope.scholastic.com • May 2023 5
 As You Read Think about the role electricity plays in our lives.

F
ourteen-year-old William small lightbulb. It was connected
Kamkwamba stood at the to the windmill with wires. Then he
top of a tall wooden tower. felt it: the beginnings of a breeze.
He was waiting for a miracle. His machine rumbled and
William lived in a small village groaned, like a caged beast waiting
in Malawi, a country in southeast to be set free. Here it goes, he
Africa. People from his village thought.
gathered on the ground below him. Suddenly, a strong wind knocked
The crowd buzzed with confusion William off balance. He clung tightly
and excitement. to a wooden rung. The tower swayed
What is this kid doing? back and forth. The windmill’s our everyday lives. Think about how
And what is THAT? blades began spinning furiously. many times you’ve used electricity
A strange machine was attached William stared at the bulb in his today. Maybe you turned on a light.
to the top of the 16-foot tower. It trembling hand, willing it to flicker Maybe you warmed up a breakfast
was an upside-down bicycle bolted to life. Would his dream of lighting burrito in the microwave. Maybe
to a rusted metal fan. Four long up his home come true? you have a Chromebook plugged
plastic blades stuck out from the into the wall right now, charging.
fan, making an X shape. Lighting the World Without electricity, none of those
This odd-looking machine was Electricity is one of the most things would be possible.
a windmill. That’s a device that powerful natural forces on Earth, But where does electricity come
converts energy from the wind and it’s all around us. It’s the flashes from, and how does it get to us?
into electricity. Like most people in in the sky during a storm. It’s the In the United States, electricity
their village, William’s family did spark you feel when you shuffle is produced at nearly 12,000 power
not have electricity in their home. your socked feet over a carpet and plants. Most of these plants use heat
William hoped this windmill would then touch a metal doorknob. It’s to release energy from fossil fuels like
change that. what makes your heart beat. coal, oil, and natural gas. This
For months, William had worked We use electricity to power energy is converted into
on the windmill,
searching in a AFRICA
INDIAN TANZ
scrapyard for parts ATLANTIC OCEAN AN
OCEAN
IA INDIAN
and poring over Area of
OCEAN
science textbooks. He
detail MALAWI
ZAMBIA

tinkered and tested. Lago

Shutterstock.com (road); Jim McMahon/Mapman ® (map)

Malawi
Now, finally, it was Wimbe
Kasungu
ready.
U E

Lilongwe
“Let’s see how
IQ
B

crazy this boy really

M
A

is,” someone called

Z
O

0 100
out. MILES
M

William gripped a

6 Scholastic Scope • May 2023

 William
working on a
windmill that
he built That's
William!

power plant to have electric stoves, kids—especially

electricity delivered girls—often spend a lot of time doing
to them. Even for chores. They have little time for
those who do live school. Farmers and business owners
William's parents,
close enough, the struggle to expand their businesses
Trywell and Agnes
Kamkwamba, at electrical grid can be without computers. Doctors often
their home unreliable. Getting treat patients in pitch-dark hospitals.
connected to it can And without internet access, people
electricity. There are other sources of be difficult and expensive. This lack cannot easily communicate with the
energy too, including windmills—like of access to electricity is known as world beyond their villages.
Ben Nabors/Group Theory Productions (William); Lucas Oleniuk/Toronto Star via Getty Images (windmills); Lucas Oleniuk/Toronto Star via Getty Images (parents)

William’s—and solar panels, which “energy poverty.”

use sunlight to create electricity. For William and his family, Famine Hits
A network of 600,000 miles of living without electricity was a daily William grew up without TV
power lines carries electricity from reality. Every morning, his sisters or video games. He entertained
power plants to homes and schools walked more than three hours to himself by taking apart devices like
and businesses in the U.S. (Stretch gather firewood to cook breakfast radios to see how they worked. He
those power lines out in a straight and heat bathwater. Every evening, dreamed of becoming a scientist.
line and they’d wrap around the family’s home would become “I was filled with the desire to
Earth 24 times!) This massive dark. When William wanted to stay understand, and the questions
system is known as an electrical up reading or studying, he had never stopped coming,” he later
grid. It powers our TVs, phones, to light a small lantern filled with wrote in his memoir.
refrigerators—basically, everything kerosene. Kerosene is a smelly fuel In the year 2000, William was
that makes modern life what it is. that can produce choking black 13. He was about to start secondary
smoke. Often, it was easier to just school. (That’s called middle
Energy Poverty go to bed when the sun went down, school in the U.S.) He was excited
Yet nearly 775 million people like most people in his village. to take science classes with real lab
around the world have limited or no In areas without electricity, the equipment for experiments.
access to electricity. Most are in rural lack of access affects almost every While he waited for the school
areas of Africa and South Asia. These aspect of life. Without items like year to begin, William helped
people do not live close enough to a washing machines, vacuums, and his dad prepare for harvest 

scope.scholastic.com • May 2023 7

 Producing energy from wind does
not. Plus, wind will always blow.
It can’t be depleted. Renewable
energy sources are exciting for areas
like William’s, where connecting
to the electrical grid is nearly
impossible.
As William read the textbook, a
lightbulb went off in his head—as if
Electrifying the World sparked by electricity itself. With a
Humans have always been fascinated by electricity. But it wasn’t until
scientific and technological advancements were made in the 19th century windmill, William could replace his
that electricity became family’s smoky lanterns with bright
more widely understood.
Above, famous inventor
electric lights. Even better, he could
Nikola Tesla experiments with use a windmill to power a pump.
electricity in the late 1800s. His work
It would pipe water to his family’s
helped pave the way for the electrical grid
we have today, which carries electricity maize fields. The family would no
over long distances. longer be dependent on rain to grow
their crops. They would be able to
season. Like most people in Malawi, to keep learning. He often visited a harvest twice a year. They would
William’s dad was a farmer who public library near his village. He never go hungry again.
grew mainly maize. This corn is the checked out the same textbooks that William knew he had to build a
backbone of the Malawian diet. It students his age were reading in windmill.
is eaten as a porridge for breakfast, school.
lunch, and dinner. One day, a book called Using A Treasure Trove
But a drought caused most of the Energy caught his eye. On the cover William couldn’t afford to buy
maize plants to die. Without their was a row of tall white towers, each any materials. So he searched

Bettmann Archive/Getty Images (electricity); Roger Viollet via Getty Images (Nikola Tesla); Shutterstock.com (electrical grid, bike)
staple crop, Malawians were soon topped with blades spinning like a through a scrapyard heaped with
suffering through a famine. Weeks fan. William opened the book and rusted pipes, dusty hoses, damaged
of hunger stretched into months. learned that these structures are car parts. To William, the scrapyard
William and his sisters often went to called windmills. Their spinning was a treasure trove. He gathered
sleep with their stomachs growling. blades capture energy from wind the parts he needed. He studied
Luckily, the next harvest was and feed it into a generator to textbooks at the library, figuring out
successful. But after a difficult year, produce electricity. how to fit everything
William’s parents could no longer Wind power is together.
afford the fees for William to go to a clean, renewable The final piece
school. energy source. of the puzzle was
His dream of becoming a scientist Producing energy something called a
would have to wait. from fossil fuels bicycle dynamo. A
creates harmful dynamo is a small
Sparked by Electricity gases that generator. You
The school year started without contribute to attach it to a bike
him. But William was determined climate change. wheel. It converts

8 Scholastic Scope • May 2023

 energy from the spinning wheel
into electricity that powers the How to Be a Problem Solver
bike’s headlight. What William Kamkwamba wants you to know
On William’s windmill, the
dynamo would be hooked What would you tell readers who want to solve a
up to his dad’s old bicycle. problem in their communities?
Never be afraid to start. When you are starting something
The bicycle would be bolted
new, a problem can seem too big or a plan can feel
to the top of a wooden tower incomplete. Do not let fear keep you from taking the first step.
and connected to the windmill’s
What qualities are most important for a problem solver?
long plastic blades. When the wind Humor and curiosity. The challenges we face are big, but joy, fun, and
spun the blades, the bicycle’s wheel happiness can help open our minds to solutions we wouldn’t think of
would start turning, and the dynamo otherwise. As a problem solver, you also have to be curious. You never
would produce electricity. want to be in a place where you are tired of learning or think you know
everything.
Or at least, that was the idea.
Would it work? What advice do you have for when things get tough?
Don’t let anyone discourage you. If you have a dream, work hard to achieve
it. You can receive help from others on your journey, but don’t let negativity,
A Burst of Light fear, or shyness stop you from achieving your goals.
As he clung to the top of his
windmill on that gusty day, William
feared his months of hard work had to speak at prestigious technology past sundown.
been for nothing. conferences. He met scientists from Now in his 30s, William runs a
But then—a flicker. around the world. To his great joy, nonprofit organization in Malawi
The crowd below watched in he was offered the opportunity to go called Moving Windmills. It has
awe as the flicker became a glorious back to school. brought clean energy and low-cost
burst of light. Then he built a bigger windmill— water wells to communities across
“Look!” someone shouted. “He’s and a solar-powered pump—to the country. One of the group’s
made light!” pipe water to his family’s farm and main goals is to mentor young
William laughed triumphantly. garden. changemakers and inspire them to
“I did it,” he said. “And I’m going come up with solutions to problems
bigger now. Just wait and see!” Looking to the Future in their communities, just like
Over the next months, William’s Today all the homes in William’s William did.
windmill allowed his family to fill village glow with electric lights, William’s advice to them is
their home with electric lights. News thanks to solar panels that he simple. “Do not let fear keep you
quickly spread of the young inventor helped install. He also helped from taking the first step,” he says.
and his incredible electricity-making expand the area’s schools and “You never know what help you will
machine. outfit them with electricity. Future find along the way or what lessons
Eventually, William was invited students will be able to study long you can learn.” •
Writing Contest
Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

In a well-organized essay, explain the impact William Kamkwamba has had on his family, his village, and
his country. Use text evidence. Send your work to Chasing the Wind Contest. Three winners will
each get The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer.
Get this
activity
online.
Entries must be submitted by a legal resident of the U.S. age 18 or older, who is the teacher, parent, or guardian of the student. See page 2 for details.
—

scope.scholastic.com • May 2023 9