A small company in Madagascar is working to get electricity to rural areas of the island. This video shows them taking the solar panels around in a van to show people how it works and educate the children on solar power. It’s an interesting video, especially near the end where Bill hooks up his computer to the internet through a satellite connection at night - all powered by the solar panel’s stored energy.
4 brothers in Western Kenya have begun solving water problems by creating waterpump windmills out of old bicycle parts and roofing materials. They have created 30 of them and are making good money doing it. This is another story of Africans solving their own problems using local materials:
The four Ututu brothers had inherited a large area of fertile farmland, which had been terraced by their father in the late 1950s. Despite this resource, they were experiencing problems because they lacked water both for drinking (meaning wasted time, fetching water from 15 km away in the dry season) and for irrigation (thus low yields from the meagre rainfall).
(via Timbuktu Chronicles)
Most African children are forced to create their own toys from scratch. Below are some samplings of what they make with what’s available. Old tire inner-tubes, soda cans, mud, bailing wire and sticks are just a few of the materials used to create imaginative toys.
In just about every country in Africa you’ll find the boys making cars, motorcycles and airplanes out of tin cans and bailing wire:
In Southern Sudan children use mud to create animals to play with. Below is a picture of a Cape Buffalo:
Another great picture and story from Mark Steudal who sends this image and description:
This is a motorized bicycle, made in Kisumu, Kenya and purchased in Kakemega. They hold about 2 liters of petrol and can get theoretically around 50 km a liter. They cost around 7,000 Kenyan shillings. To start the bicycle you start pedaling manually, then you flip a switch on the left handle that starts the engine. Then you have a normal motorcycle throttle control on the right side.
[Note: Send in your pictures and stories showing African ingenuity using our Contact Form.]
Marlies sends us a bunch of pictures and an interesting story on how bio gas toilets in Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya are being used:
Just the other day on a visit to Kibera Slum I came across this interesting bio gas latrine which is being set up for Kibera people as a response to lacking community toilets. The sanitation situation in Kibera is really really poor! There are a couple of community toilets which where set up after the shooting of the Constant Gardener but only a few years later these are in bad shape! Again, they cost 3/= per visit which is really above of what a typical Kibera inhabitant can afford. Just sum up what it will cost for 5 visits per day for a family of five! So the bio gas latrine is a really good option, since it will generate a little income to make the toilets free of charge.
Here are some pictures:
IslamOnline.net has a great writeup on how these work.
[NOTE: If you have any images, stories or reports you'd like others to know about, you can contact us through the AfriGadget contact form. - Thanks Marlies!]
New images! (July 17, 2007). Thanks to Christian Rieck and Marlies:
Mark Steudal, a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya, sends us this:
This is a picture of a Bio Gas generator. It is basically a 9 foot deep well that is filled with manure and water from the nearby cows. A huge drum is then placed into the well. The drum catches the methane gases that are generated from the manure decomposing, which due to the pressure of the large drum are pumped into the house by a underground hose. This family did most of their cooking on the gas, didn’t need to use firewood or buy charcoal (except when making chapatis of course).
[NOTE: If you have any images, stories or reports you'd like others to know about, you can contact us through the AfriGadget contact form. - Thanks Mark!]
A young man has created a windmill out of spare parts in Malawi.
William Kamkwamba says one day while reading he came across two books, Using Energy and How it Works, which are about generation of electricity using a windmill.
On a trial and error basis, he managed to make a small windmill which generated electricity enough to light his dorm. Seeing its success he planned for a bigger one so that his parents could benefit and some well-wishers gave him money to get some of the materials he needed.
In total, he spent a total of 2200 Malawi Kwachas, which is equivalent to $16. William is saving his family money on home lighting expenses, recharges people’s mobile phones and radio batteries, and also charges his own automobile battery for backup power.
Unlike most windmills, where the propellers turn the spindle connected to the turbines directly, William added pulleys to his machine to increase speed thereby generating more energy.
There are three pulleys and the last is connected to a bicycle wheel. When this wheel turns, it spins a dynamo which in turn generates electricity.
Story Link (via Hacktivate)
Marlies sends an email and pictures of a water buoy that has been converted into a water tank for drinking. Ingenious uses of materials that might seem odd to Westerners at first glance are common place in Africa. The picture was taken in Lamu, a small island off the coast of Kenya.
She says,
“I recently had a chance of spending some time in Lamu where i came across an interesting observation which made me think of AfriGadget. Here is a picture of a water suspender made out of a buoy - very neat idea!”
If you have any pictures or stories of African ingenuity, send them to us at “main [at] thisdomain [dot] com”
There’s an interesting story on the BBC about an Ethiopian gentleman who is taking war’s leftovers and converting them into coffee machines.
He uses old mortar shells, which stand about one metre high, to make his coffee machines.
He cuts off the pointed ends, seals them and puts holes into the aluminium cylinder. The cylinder channels the water, coffee and milk.
(hat tip Elizabeth)
Tools for specific needs can be expensive or hard to come by in some places in Africa. It could be something as simple as a certain sized wrench that is needed to remove a particular bolt.
I decided to take a short walk in Nairobi and just see what caught my eye. Bernard runs a small engine repair shop on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. Mostly, he fixes lawn mower engines for the wealthy people living nearby, however he also fixes about any other small engine that you can think of.
The tools shown below are just what he works with. Many times he has to fabricate pieces that would be impossible to buy, or to expensive for him to make a profit on. It is really amazing to see him work, and to watch the problem-solving take place. As Bernard shows us in this video and pictures, your imagination and ingenuity are the only things holding you back.
Below, a piece of rebar is bent, and the end hollowed-out to make a specific sized wrench:
Below, a bolt from a truck tire is welded to a piece of metal to make a specific sized Allen wrench for small engines:
A video explaining how Bernard created the tool.
