Modern Times Legal Patent Blog

Occasionally, you come across a story that makes your day and inspires you. The construction of power-generating windmills by Malawi's self-taught William Kamkwamba (starting at the age of 14) is beyond inspiring. I don't think you'll regret for a moment watching this six-minute clip:

 

This young innovator with little education, little money and almost no tools powers his family's home with renewable energy and makes them energy-independent. Meanwhile, in America, with all our resources and with the benefits being clearly evident for decades, we still cannot muster the discipline and will to make the sacrifices needed to make ourselves energy independent.

 

Ultimately, though, what attracts me most to this story is that it reminds me of what I love about Africa. While William's talents are indeed exceptional, this remarkably resourceful, ambitious, eager-to-learn and determined drive to improve one's lot and to better one's community is found all over the continent. Indeed, I have met at least one other windmill innovator in my travels (an inventor in Ethiopia). In Wiliam's case, "[a] windmill meant more than just power," he wrote, "it was freedom." Many Africans are remarkably resourceful in solving problems with limited resources. This is the Africa that I think gets far too little attention in the west. We are far more likely to see reports of suffering and famine, though that is a very small part of what Africa is about.

 

With the WIPO/ARIPO patent-drafting training program, we help to build a core group of trained patent professionals who can provide a platform to better enable African innovation to compete in world markets. Though it will be Africans such as William who will lead Africa as the next great frontier of development (post-Asia). If you have not heard that forecast before, recognize now that you are likely see remarkable changes and development in Africa in the next couple decades. In Africa today, you will find both hope and despair, though I find the sense of hope (no matter the suffering) to be the more powerful and resilient force.

 

Read more about William at African Dynamo on the good.is/blogs and hear more from him at this presentation from the TEDGlobal Conference:

 

 

Thanks to my friends at EGG-Energy in Tanzania/Cambridge for introducing me to this remarkable story.