A real-life story proves that everyone can make a difference in saving save the planet
by Alberto Sclaverano for Citiplat
In 2019, British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor made his directorial debut with the movie The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, featuring Malawian inventor William Kamkwamba’s life and how he saved his rural village. After being screened at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival in January, it was released a few months later by Netflix worldwide.
The film was inspired by the book published in 2009 that Kamkwamba co-wrote alongside American journalist Bryan Mealer (The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope). The story takes place between the 90s and the early 2000s in Malawi, in a village near the town of Kasungu. It chronicles the real experience of Kamkwamba, who was born into a poor family that relied on farming and traditional agriculture to survive and struggled to find the money to send their children to school. The young boy had an extraordinary talent for engineering and electronics. While forbidden from attending school, Kamkwamba succeeded in studying these subjects by himself. When a devastating drought risked destroying the village, with the famine threatening the lives of several families, including his own, William built a windmill that restored the capacity of the village water pump.
The most incredible aspect of Kamkwamba’s story is that he constructed an efficient machine from waste material, often using components recycled from other things. The movie also helps us to reflect on the topic of climate change through the real account of William’s family experience.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind shows the devastating consequences of the climate crisis on developing countries. The film describes the progressive increase in drought’s intensity in the poorest areas of Malawi, and the catastrophic humanitarian effects of the destruction of crops.
As we all know, while the climate crisis is mainly caused by pollution created by developed countries, the most devastating consequences can be seen in the global South. There, climate change has led to the desertification of entire regions that were once fertile. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind makes us think about the unfair relationship between the rich countries and the poor ones. But it is also a movie full of hope. Its core message is that even the smallest person in the most remote place can make a real difference, and actively contribute to change things.
After the event portrayed in the movie, Kamkwamba became an engineer, building a solar-powered water pump for his village, and then many others in his country, thus proving the potential of renewable energy to improve people’s lives and to provide economic development to the global South. He then rose to prominence as an international figure, turning also into a speaker and becoming an activist who promotes projects for economic growth in Malawi and other nations in the Global South.
His extraordinary life story is told by Ejiofor with a very realistic approach, that forces the public to see the harsh life conditions of the Malawian villages, but also with the power of an inspiring tale. Everyone can play a part in the fight against poverty, famine, and the climate crisis, and people like Kamkwamba show us what it is possible to achieve when determination remains always strong.
Kamkwamba is played by actor Maxwell Simba, while Ejiofor starred in his movie as Trywell Kamkwamba, William’s father, with whom the protagonist had a complex relationship at times. Ejiofor was already a well-known and respected actor at that time, having starred in several prominent films, from Steven Spielberg’s Amistad (1997) to recent successful blockbusters such as The Martian (2015) and Doctor Strange (2016). He received worldwide critical acclaim, and an Academy Award nomination, for playing the main character in the biographical drama 12 Years a Slave (2013), which also won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2014.
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