I am not a hero

May 28. 6pm. We were at our weekly Sauder Africa Initiative meeting when Martina announced that we had a guest speaker. To be honest, just scrambling out from my regular class and into this meeting, I didn't have the least idea of what was the agenda or who our guest might be. What I also didn’t know is that I would be completely struck by him and his speech.

He was in casual wear, and didn’t speak one word prior to the start of the meeting. He tried to hide his big eyes behind glasses but failed as he carefully surveyed the room. A meek individual with an astonishingly honest expression was my first impression. He began by asking us, "What do you know about Africa? What do you think you can do in Africa?" While everyone was still in a minor shock by the blunt question, Anoushka took the challenge and answered for us. She wanted to do her best to help, in any form or shape. Our eyes turned to our guest. He nodded but didn’t directly comment on it, which made me even more curious. Was the answer not what he was looking for; was he not satisfied with it?

He started to talk about his MwangaBora® (Swahili for 'better light') project in Kenya, in a very loose flow, breaking the narrative with first-person opinions, third-person comments and occasional long pauses. He grew up in the rural area of Kenya and had suffered from the smoky kerosene and lack of light for study since he was little. When he was studying agriculture and technology in university, he started to build a prototype of a solar lamp. He was so determined to make it work that he used his scholarship and savings for materials and kept on trying, As he got more successful with the lamp and gathered more help and donations, he founded the “USE SOLAR, SAVE LIVES” program in 2004. “To date, over 65,000 people have benefited directly from the program, out of which over 60% are school-going children. Some 15,000 lamps have been turned out since production started in 2004, and the goal is to hit 100,000 by 2015.” He was later crowned as one of the top 10 heroes of CNN in 2010.

The room was so quiet that I could have heard a pin drop, because we wouldn’t be able to hear him otherwise. He talked in such a soft tone that almost as if he was talking to himself. There were times that he would “emerge”, look around the room and said, “That’s all.” But quickly he would keep going. I noticed that his voice also emerged from softness as time went by. As he got comfortable and fluent with his story, his spoke gently but with resolution and perseverance. His eyes lit up. I sensed persuasion in a delicate way.

Many people had asked, what was his inspiration? What does he want to achieve? How did it all happen? What kept him going? To him, there were never so many questions or thoughts. He simply wanted to make a LED lamp. So he did. That’s all.

He left us not only a frugal story of a social entrepreneur, but also much poignant intelligence: Don’t prejudge Africa. Don’t go there thinking you are the helper. Stay close with the people. Think about what you can do here and now, and nothing else.

He is not a hero. He is Evans Wadongo. He is only 25.
http://www.justonelamp.com/our-story/