Kamkwamba celebrates science and engineering as the way in which he was able to travel the world, obtain scholarships, and obtain the platform from which he writes. When he talks of magic, it is primarily as the indigenous belief systems of the people of Malawi which come into conflict with Western science. Kamkwamba paints a picture in which, despite the presence of a school and library, most people do not understand or believe in science.
Through his hands-on approach, Kamkwamba is able to obtain a level of understanding beyond that possessed by most people in his village. While initially others mock him for operating based on science rather than the traditional belief systems of his people which focus more on ideas of magic, they eventually come to respect him when they see his windmill functioning.
More than merely exploring tensions between science and magic, Kamkwamba explores the way in which competing systems of knowledge clash in colonial contexts. Western science—despite being a better system of knowledge to use in building technology such as windmills—is an foreign system of knowledge that was spread to Malawi through the violence of colonialism. Kamkwamba is able to bridge these two worlds in large part because he focuses on hands-on learning, making Western science his own so that he can use it in a way that makes sense in his specific context.
William Kamkwamba, the author, writes about the way in which his childhood belief in magic, passed down to him by his father, gives way to a belief in science when his family is faced with starvation and privation. He writes about the sway magic held over him as a boy growing up in Malawi before he turned to science. He says, "Before I discovered the miracles of science, magic ruled the world" (page 3). His father teaches him to believe in magic and explains the way in which magic operates "as a third and powerful force" that intervenes in the world because gods and men have too many troubles (page 6). His father explains to him that while magic is invisible, it is still all around him. When William is little, he believes in many forms of magic, such as magic lions who are sent at night to kill debtors (page 13).
William begins to turn to science in part to help himself and his family. For example, William and his friend Geoffrey begin taking apart old radios so they can repair them. Radios are critical because "the radio is the only connection to the world outside the village" (page 68). The boys become very interested in finding out the mechanics that make things run, but they don't consider what they are doing to be science. When the village starts starving, William realizes that magic can be of no help to them. After finding some discarded science books, he begins to construct a windmill. He writes of the forest where he once thought magic ruled: "now I was back there to cut down trees to build a ladder to science and creation—something greater and more real than any magic in the land" (page 199). Hunger and his family's need for electricity cause him to discard his traditional belief in magic in favor of embracing science. The conflict between magic and science is the conflict between traditional and modern belief, and necessity causes William to embrace a belief in science to help his family and his village.
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