We’ve written about young Malawian William Kamkwamba a couple of times here on AfriGadget, so it’s great to see him getting recognition in the WSJ! The article is titled “A Young Tinkerer Builds a Windmill, Electrifying a Nation“. Take a look at the video:
First off, I’d like to thank the thousands of readers who visit AfriGadget every week. It’s been great to see the amount of interest that innovation Africa-style engenders. I’d like to give a little update on what’s been happening and where we’re going with AfriGadget in the near future. If you’d like to help in some way, please contact me.
Some AfriGadget Groups
AfriGadget Facebook Group - Just started this month, the AfriGadget Facebook group is a place that you can talk to other AfriGadget readers and find like-minded friends.
Website Redesign
This has been a long time coming. The current site has some problems that we’d like to “fix” via a redesign. We’ll still be using WordPress, but want to make it more accessible and increase the breadth of information available. Feedback indicates that people like the look and feel of the current site, so we’ll try and stay pretty true to what you see now.
There has been an ever increasing number of emails asking for more information on specific projects, as well as a great deal of interest from people who want to purchase some of the items that we’ve shown on AfriGadget. We’re going to be building in some of those features into the new site.
Helping Micro-Entrepreneurs
I’ve had a number of interviews by different media outlets over the last couple months, and one specific interview by a South African radio company really hit me. They asked, “How does AfriGadget help the Africans who are beings showcased?”. I didn’t have an answer - or, I did, but the answer was “not at all”.
In the new site, we would like to work with an organization like Kiva, and their partners, to create ways for people to invest in some of the entrepreneurs that we talk about. In the cases where it makes sense, we’ll also help the entrepreneurs sell some of their items via our website.
Growing AfriGadget
The website initiative is only one of the three that we’re planning for this year. If we can find the right partners, we’ll be announcing some projects that a couple AfriGadget editors will be leading that are, quite frankly, much more exciting and “big” than a website redesign. As we grow AfriGadget we’re looking for partners who can help us. Contact me if you’d like to know more about those initiatives!
All of us do AfriGadget on the side. The growth of the site that I have outlined above is meant to benefit the innovators in Africa, not those of us who manage and create content for this site.
I found a story about a young Malawian who had built a windmill from scratch to help power the lights in his rural home. When I showed up at TED Global in Arusha in June, I had no idea that I would meet him. At that point, he hadn’t been introduced to the larger TED community, so I was this lone excited voice squawking about how thrilled I was to meet him.
2 Days later, William Kamkwamba was introduced to the TED community on stage:
The last couple weeks have found myself, and a couple other AfriGadget team bloggers (1, 2, 3), traipsing across East Africa on our way to and from TEDGlobal. We were able to source a few really good stories that you’ll see coming online in the next couple of weeks.
While at TEDGlobal, I had the chance to talk on stage about African ingenuity and innovation at the most micro level. Needless to say, it was exhilarating. I gave examples of the stories we’ve published here over the last year. It was a lot of fun and I think people enjoyed it.
Of course, this high-flying adventure couldn’t all go smoothly. In fact, on Thursday, the last day of TEDGlobal and the day that some pretty big sites linked to us, our web host was hacked and we went down in flames. I was off to Uganda and had a terrible connection, and it wasn’t until today that I’ve been able to fix things.
So, thanks for your patience in all of this, and thanks for reading! We’ve got some pretty exciting ideas about this next year and will keep you informed as they happen.
[update: here's a short audio slideshow of what I think I said...]
An all-in-one cooker, energy generator and fridge could soon be improving quality of life in developing countries, thanks to an international project launched this week.
According to a press release by Paul Riley, SCORE Project Director, the £2m Stove for Cooking, Refrigeration and Electricity (SCORE) project aims to work with rural communities in Africa and Asia, where access to power is limited, to develop a versatile domestic appliance powered by biomass that will significantly improve health and welfare.
The SCORE device, which is still in the concept stage and is shown in the picture below, will work through the conversion of biomass to sound energy for heating and cooling.
This technology is far more efficient and less polluting than burning wood in an open fire, currently the primary cooking method of two billion people around the world. Dr Pullen(Research team leader) adds:
“Using this technology while ensuring that the device is relatively low-cost and can be produced using local materials and labour is one of the great challenges of this project. Thermoacoustic systems have always been expensive and high-tech - a great deal of the first stage of this project will be taken up with translating the technology into something that can easily be mass produced.”
The SCORE project website can be found here
( via Timbuktu Chronicles )
Rajan Harinarain, a South African entrepreneur and inventor has come up with a temporary foldaway house for use in emergency situations complete with electrical wiring and fittings, doors and windows that can be erected by a small team in 5 minutes.
The patented structure weighs less than a ton, collapses to under a foot in height and can be modified with insulation/ventilation for hotter or cooler environments.
Links to the complete story at:
GeekCorps has a story about a Mali radio station that is using wifi to stream video content to TVs run on car batteries in the village of Bourem Inaly in Mali. What is particularly cool about this project is that the wi-fi antennae are all made locally by recycling local materials including cans. The only imported part is the audio/video receiver that is imported from Canada. The radio station currently has 15 subscriptions to the service that make it $45 a month.
For DIYer’s who may want to try this project, here is a copy of the project guide.
You can watch the video on the making of one the antennae here on YouTube
Have you taken a picture of some great African solution to everyday problems? Maybe you’ve got a picture of some other type of gadget that could be used in Africa.
Well, in order to get rid of the pictures in the right margin, we’re asking you to upload and tag your Flickr photos “AfriGadget”. A Flickr Group has been created at: http://flickr.com/groups/afrigadget/ and we’d love to have you start populating it when you have something to share.
Better yet, think of becoming a contributing author on AfriGadget! If you’re interested, email us at: main at afrigadget dot com
MAKE magazine is the epitome of Western gadget and technological home-made ingenuity. MAKE magazine is very much the American version of AfriGadget. I love the magazine, it’s one of two magazines that I subscribe to.
What’s different about African mechanics and gadgetery is that it’s generally made with much fewer, and more basic, materials. Where you might find a story on how to make high-tech robots at home in MAKE, it’s counterpart in Africa might be how to create a bicycle out of wood. No less ingenuity needed, but far more useful for an African’s everyday life.
A post by Emeka Okafor of Timbuktu Chronicles was the catalyst for this post (and from which I stole the title). He makes the point that Africans are already doing what their counterparts in the West have a sudden new found interest in. They might be doing it in a rather rough way, but with some nurturing it could create a “climate of interest” and growth in African industrialization.
A MAKE for Africa will be a non-limited set of values and practical ideas that evolve, germinate, propagate and replicate with informed nudges…
So, there is a “MAKE philosophy” already present in Africa, one that continues to grow and evolve in sophistication. What we need to do is showcase that ingenuity. Doubtless, many Americans and Europeans will be amazed at some of the simple answers to everyday problems coming out of Africa.
AfriGadget is just getting off the ground. It is a team-blog, and at this time that means we need more people as part of our team.
We would particularly like some more authors who live in Africa on the team. No matter where you are located, you’ll see (and hopefully take pictures of) some intersting gadgets or mechanical wizardry. Even if you don’t have your own blog, or have never done anything like this before, you can easily get started here.
AfriGadget will cover these categories:
Lastly, this is not a full-time commitment. If anyone just happens to come across something that shows African ingenuity we’d love to have the link, pictures, or your write-up on it.
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