Malawi Quotes

“Poor is the man whose pleasure depends on the permission of another.”
― Madonna

“Although Geoffrey, Gilbert and I grew up in this small place in Africa, we did many of the same things children do all over the world, only with slightly different materials. And talking with friends I've met from America and Europe, I now know this is true. Children everywhere have similar ways of entertaining themselves. If you look at it this way, the world isn't so big.”
― William Kamkwamba, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

“Mister Geoffrey, my experiment shows that the dynamo and the bulb are both working properly," I said. "So why won't the radio play?"

"I don't know," he said. "Try connecting them here."

He was pointing toward a socket on the radio labeled "AC," and when I shoved the wires inside, the radio came to life. We shouted with excitement. As I pedaled the bicycle, I could hear the great Billy Kaunda playing his happy music on Radio Two, and that made Geoffrey start to dance.

"Keep pedaling," he said. "That's it, just keep pedaling."

"Hey, I want to dance, too."

"You'll have to wait your turn."

Without realizing it, I'd just discovered the difference between alternating and direct current. Of course, I wouldn't know what this meant until much later.

After a few minutes of pedaling this upside-down bike by hand, my arm grew tired and the radio slowly died. So I began thinking, "What can do the pedaling for us so Geoffrey and I can dance?”
― William Kamkwamba, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

“Young girls frequently report that their early sexual experiences were coerced. In a study in South Africa, 30 percent of girls report that their first sexual intercourse was forced. In rural Malawi, 55 percent of adolescent girls surveyed report that they were often forced to have sex.”
― Njovana Watts

“My grandmother Rose was a tough woman, so tough she'd built the family home with her own hands while my grandpa worked as a tailor in the market. She'd even built the furnace and molded the bricks herself, which is not an easy job, and even today, not the job of a woman.”
― William Kamkwamba, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

“With the money my mother earned from selling cakes, my father cut a deal with Mangochi and bought one pail of maize. My mother took it to the mill, saved half the flour for us, and used the rest for more cakes. We did this every day, taking enough to eat and selling the rest. It was enough to provide our one blob of nsima each night, along with some pumpkin leaves. It was practically nothing, yet knowing it would be there somehow made the hunger less painful.

"As long as we can stay in business," my father said, "we'll make it through. Our profit is that we live.”
― William Kamkwamba, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

“If we were going to determine what was broken in the radios, we needed a power source. With no electricity, this meant batteries. [...] we'd walk to the trading center and look for used cells that had been tossed in the waste bins. [...]

First we'd test the battery to see if any juice was left in it. We'd attach two wires to the positive and negative ends and connect them to a torch bulb. The brighter the bulb, the stronger the battery. Next we'd flatten the Shake Shake carton and roll it into a tube, then stack the batteries inside, making sure the positives and negatives faced in the same direction. Then we'd run wires from each end of the stack to the positive and negative heads inside the radio, where the batteries normally go. Together, this stack of dead batteries usually contained enough juice to power a radio.”
― William Kamkwamba, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

“Maize is just another word for white corn, and by the end of this story, you won't believe how much you know about corn.”
― William Kamkwamba, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

“When you go to see the lake, you also see the hippos.”
― William Kamkwamba, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

“Papa, why are you selling our goats? I like these goats."

"A week ago the price was five hundred, now it's four hundred. I'm sorry, but we can't wait for it go any lower."

Mankhalala and the others were tied by their front legs with a long rope. When my father started down the trail, they stumbled and began to cry. They knew their future. Mankhalala looked back, as if telling me to help him. Even Khamba whined and barked a few times, pleading their case. But I had to let them down. What could I do? My family had to eat.”
― William Kamkwamba, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

“A man in the trading center was caught trying to sell his two young daughters. The buyer had informed the police. People were becoming desperate.”
― William Kamkwamba, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

“Chief Wimbe also loved his cat, which was black and white but had no name. In Malawi, only dogs are given names, I don't know why.”
― William Kamkwamba, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

“Don't worry about the water," said a man with a nervous grin. "This is hardwood, it won't ruin. You'll have this chair into your old years. How much do you have? I'll take anything. My children need to eat."

A few of the businessmen like Mister Mangochi bought things they later gave back. But most people had no money. They simply shrugged and shook their heads.”
― William Kamkwamba, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

“News came of Beni Beni, the madman of Wimbe, who'd always made us laugh in better times. He'd run up to merchants in the trading center with his raving eyes and snatch cakes and Fantas from their stalls. No one ever took them away because his hands were always so filthy. The mad people had always depended on others to care for them, but now there were none. Beni Beni died at the church.”
― William Kamkwamba, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

“Your Excellency," [Chief Wimbe] said, turning to face the president. "I'd like to congratulate you not only for what you've done in Malawi, but all across the great continent of Africa. We're having about all the things you're doing in Congo and how you'd had success. We're very proud of our president. But please understand, we're also at war here in Malawi, and that war is against hunger."

He then asked the president to stop funding wells and toilets and use the money to buy grain. (Because really, how can you use the toilet if you never eat?)

[...]

Shortly after, when the president got up to talk, several well-dressed officials approached Gilbert's father and asked to speak with him. Knowing the president's habit of giving handouts, the chief became excited. They're giving us money. My speech must've worked.

About six men led the chief behind a building near the stage, and once there, they confronted him.

"In what capacity were you speaking such nonsense?" one asked, looking very angry.

Before Chief Wimbe could answer, they knocked him to the ground and began beating him with clubs and batons.”
― William Kamkwamba, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

“It was common for my father to sit my sisters down and tell them things like, "I saw a girl working in the bank in town, and she was a girl just like you." My parents had never completed primary school. They couldn't speak English or even read that well. My parents only knew the language of numbers, buying and selling, but they wanted more for their kids. That's why my father had scraped the money together and kept Annie in school, despite the famine and other troubles.”
― William Kamkwamba, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

“Inside the maize mill, the owners no longer had any use for a broom. The hungry people kept the floors cleaner than a wet mop. At the beginning of the month, the mill was packed full of those waiting for fallen scraps. The crowd would part long enough to allow women to pass with their pails of grain. As the machine rumbled and spit a white cloud of flour into the pails, the multitude of old people, women, and children watched intently with eyes dancing like butterflies. Once the pail was pulled away, they themselves on hands and knees and scooped the floor clean. Afterward, old women would rattle their walking sticks up inside the grinder as if ringing a bell, collecting the loose flour that drifted to the floor.”
― William Kamkwamba, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

“In better times, we're celebrate Christmas Eve by attending the nativity play at the Catholic church down the road, watching Joseph and Mary and Baby Jesus try to escape from Herod's soldiers and their wooden swords and AK-47s (it wasn't the most accurate version, but it was funny.)”
― William Kamkwamba, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope