WILLIAM KAMKWAMBA’S APPLE

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We were seated at a bar & grill and among us were friends, acquaintances, and one random person nobody really knew that well, but who has the right like everyone else in a bar & grill to order a drink and have a chat. Naturally he was the loudest. Fortunately for him and everyone else, he wasn’t annoying at all and threw snippets of wit and flashes of humour adding to the cheery mood. He was also conscious of his anonymity and as insurance to keep his place among semi-strangers he also threw rounds which is commendable. No problem. Shap! 

Conversation was initially pocketed, between groups of two to three people and as conversations go, the more interesting discussion swallows the blander, and at that time there was no conversation more scintillating than the death of Steve Jobs, so everyone soon joined in to comment. I hadn’t known Mr Jobs personally, so other than the general empathy I feel towards anyone who passes away and their bereaved families and friends, I had little to say so I just listened. Initially I listened passively, with divided attention, but as the discussion went on, I began to converge my thoughts on what was being said about the late Steve Jobs. There was a lot of admiration for the man and I hadn’t disagreed one bit (neither did the wider world) for he was after all a famous man and when famous men die, debate begins on the impact of their lives and the documentaries I had seen were in his favor. What I didn’t understand however was the context of their admiration and I unknowingly committed the unpardonable sin by asking “ Why was Steve Jobs so inspirational to you?”

My question was almost blasphemy, and I immediately became a leper as punishment. They chided me for my lack of detailed knowledge of Apple and Pixar and one of them, who still lived in his mother’s house at an age when this is inappropriate, even threw in a snide remark “maybe you have never owned an apple product.” In return I thought, “maybe you have never paid rent because you buy too many Apple products.”  But I let it slide. In fact, I actually have never owned an apple product - but so what? And that was my point.

“What I mean is why do we as Africans exclusively make heroes of foreign figures. This would be like Scandinavians having Nubian Thors.”

“What do you mean by that?” someone asked.

“Well, since we are speaking of inspirational figures, why do we always gain inspiration from so far away? I just don’t quite understand why you a black African in Blantyre Malawi are so overly inspired by this man to the point of offense when someone vaguely questions the source of your admiration. ”

They then regrouped and without even seriously considering what I was trying to convey, they verbally intensified the potency of Steve Jobs. Now I had had a long week and I wasn’t in the mood to be wasting my leisure moments hosting prizeless arguments so I conceded for the sake of my sanity.

“Ok Steve Jobs was one of the most inspirational men I ever heard of in my life.” I finally said to end the conversation. They ignored this and purposely continued to remind me of things I already knew, accomplishments he had achieved as though I hadn’t watched the documentaries. “Ok yes I agree” I kept repeating at regular intervals trying to change topic. When they finally finished, they had a look of mild triumph, iphones firmly planted in their pockets. Rent money not quite. I then withdrew from conversation and looked around the table.  The topic had changed and I waited a long while before I asked a question.

“Has anyone ever heard of William Kamkwamba?”

Nobody had heard of him. Then I asked if anyone had ever heard of the boy who harnessed the wind. After that extra information, two people confirmed that they had heard “something of that nature” in the past. Now to summarize, William Kamkwamba was born in poverty and decided to build a windmill to power electrical appliances from materials in a scrap yard after teaching himself science from books he obtained from a dilapidated library. I need not offer more details here. Look him up. He is famous. Not Steve Jobs famous, but famous nevertheless. TIME magazine named him one of the 30 under 30’s changing the world. But what struck me on this evening was why his contribution would not even be assimilated by the people he shares citizenry with. He should be a household name but isn’t quite so in Malawi. Then I remembered the words of a writer whose name I couldn’t pinpoint. “To look at a thing is very different to seeing a thing.”

They had looked at William Kamkwamba but they had not seen him.

For some reason we do not see the efforts, the industry, the hope, the ingenuity of our own people that live and work in our immediate surroundings. This is something I have also seen in other African countries. Now part of this is due to the selective nature of popular media, but a larger fault I feel is just a lack of affinity for our roots. No matter how high a tree rises, it is the roots that keep it in place and act as an anchor of strength. I personally can relate more to William Kamkwamba than to Steve Jobs, simply because he is more accessible. His story is universally rich and simple for it has heartfelt messages. Do not pity yourself. Look deep within and contribute. Where you begin does not have to be where you finish. Steve Jobs was a white American Man who achieved many things that maybe only a white American man can achieve. I can relate to that to a very small degree.

These were the words of Kamkwamba (almost trembling with nervousness speaking rudimentary English) at a TED talk.

“We are seven children in my family…before I discovered the wonders of Science I was just a simple farmer…my family ate one meal a day…because of the hunger I was forced to drop out of school... I looked at my father and those dry fields (due to a famine) and it was a future I could not accept.”

The rest is history. 

Now inspiration can come from many sources. And this is not to say one must localize inspiration, but it is to say that we need to look at everything within context for we have the habit of ignoring our own heroes who are unsung, unheralded. And I am not remotely suggesting that Kamkwamba is greater than Jobs, for such comparisons are inappropriate. All I am saying is that can such a man as Kamkwamba please be given a standing ovation and be discussed at bars & grills, in  houses, avenues and buses in the country of his birth. For there are others like him - ignored. Young, black and talented. And instead of focusing on the failures, the public purse looters, and the generally incompetent (which exist in every country) could we sing of the industrious and the hopeful. The salt of the Earth. The pillars of society.  That is all.