The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind

William Kamkwamba begins the first chapter by recounting a story from when he was six years old. Some boys had come through the village where his family lived and farmed, and they gave him stolen gum. He comes to believe that the gum is poisoned, and thinks that he will suffer. He tells his father the truth about eating the gum, and his father goes to pay the trader for the stolen treat, convincing William that the curse has been lifted. William then discovers that his father didn’t think the gum was poisoned at all.

William shares a number of stories that describe interactions between humans and animals and magic. He talks about how a wizard once saved a man from a deadly cobra bite and how a magical hunter defeated a giant black rhino. During William’s youth, he and other children believed that witches and wizards possessed children and used them to fight, luring them by feeding them human flesh.

William and his friends, Geoffrey and Gilbert, play together. They talk about movies they’ve seen—Rambo and Terminator—and play army games with two teams: America and Vietnam. In their games, America always wins. They also make trucks out of cardboard boxes discarded outside a bar, along with other supplies that would be considered rubbish by adults.

William reminisces about getting his haircut. The electricity would run out mid-cut, leaving patrons with half-buzzed hairstyles that they would have to hide under a hat until the next morning, when the power would return. He also writes about the tales his father would tell at night, sometimes passed down through generations, sometimes created on the spot. William thinks of his father’s stories as magic in their own right, and describes his father’s life as a “fantastic tale.”  

William begins chapter two by describing his father’s days as a trader, before he became a farmer. His father, Trywell, earned the nickname “the Pope” because he didn’t use prostitutes, unlike other traders. The nickname stuck; so much so that people don’t even remember why he is called that. Trywell also became known for his physical strength. William provides some history of the area, a history full of oppression, first by the Yao (who are now friendly with the Malawians) and then by Banda, who was named Life President and ran a tyrannical regime. William tells the story of how, one year, on Independence Day (July 6 in Malawi), his father had a ticket to attend a concert. But he’d had some alcohol, and was drunk. The police tried to arrest him, but he fought off twelve men before he finally agreed to spend the night in jail—but only after he’d sampled some of the barbecue.

After marriage to his wife Agnes, and the birth of their first child Annie, Trywell continued to drink and get in fights. One night, he was arrested and threatened with prison, but he was told that the arrest would be overlooked if he would become a man of faith. He had a dream that he took to be a sign, and began following God. He stopped drinking, and his relationship with Agnes improved.

Trywell then became a farmer with his brother, John, and moved his family to the village where they flourished; after a few years, William had four sisters.

At school, William is bullied. Another child, Shabani—the nephew of Phiri, a farm worker—offers to get William some mangolomera, or magic, to make him stronger than anyone else at school. William agrees, and Shabani cuts his knuckles and rubs the mangolomera into the wounds. William picks a fight with another boy who is twice his size, and loses.