Summary
Following the period of difficulty over the past few years, William longed to go back to school, especially as the new term drew near. He listened to a radio ad for Kaphuka Private School, which offered low costs of attendance and gifted teachers, but unfortunately, his family still did not have enough money to send him to school. Because their tobacco crop failed, they had to replant it with new seeds and fertilizer, both of which were no longer subsidized by the government and therefore more difficult to acquire. It would be several years until they were able to afford maintaining the tobacco plant again, so for the moment, the family harvested crops that didn't need fertilizer and could be easily sold, but which were often valued much less than tobacco.
Because he dropped out of school, William constantly worried that he would end up adrift and purposeless in life. He often went to the markets and saw people there who led unfulfilling lives, starting from when they dropped out of school. They worked ganyu, but never saved up money because they spent it immediately on drink. To prevent his life from becoming like that, William spent all of his free time at the library, reading more about science, as well as consuming the many donated novels.
One day, he came across the concept of a transmitter, which uses radio waves to send out messages, effectively creating a radio station. William got Geoffrey to help with this project, and they took two radios to test out different methods of manipulating the frequencies. Reconnecting the radio's condenser, William figured out how to broadcast the music from his walkman to radios within a 300-foot radius. If the boys also had an amplifier, they could have broadcasted even further, but fearing the retaliation of ESCOM, they stopped experimenting for the day.
William was constantly trying to better the lives of his family, and he tried to do this with other experiments, such as the water pump and biogas. Not all of these experiments were successful—the water pump eventually got stuck and became unusable due to the amount of friction created. Unfortunately, this was a project that he had to give up on. Additionally, he tried to harness biogas to aid his family cook, but when he tried to boil goat droppings and light a fire from the liquid fuel, he was scolded by his mother for using her pot instead of actively helping her.
William's mother caught malaria at this time, which created a time of intense worry for the entire family. The healthcare system was not able to hospitalize her until she fell into a coma, and Trywell had to rush her to the nearest hospital. By this point, the malaria had gone to her brain, and she hallucinated, begging for her daughter Tiyamike until reassured of her safety. Eventually, however, she got better and returned home.
Also during this time, Gilbert's father, Chief Wimbe, fell ill. Since his infraction with President Muluzi, he had not been the same, and eventually passed away. The funeral was a large, long, and sorrowful affair, with many people mourning for him because of his impact on the community. The Gule Wamkulu showed up, and the entire community sent their leader off as he was lowered into the ground.
Following this incident, the threat of a second famine came to Malawi. However, President Muluzi had since stepped down, and the new president, Bingu wa Mutharika, adopted much more favorable policies towards the farmers, reinstating government subsidies for fertilizer and seeds. Each family was supposed to get coupons for reduced rates of fertilizer, but many local leaders hoarded the coupons and sold them to the highest bidder. The weather did not facilitate agriculture, but with slightly more government aid this time, the famine was not as devastating as the last.
However, one of the byproducts of this famine was that, instead of blaming the government for causing it, the people of Malawi began to blame magic and supernatural forces. Stories of vampires and witch children forcing other children to kill their grandparents began to circulate, and though there's never any official proof of these stories, people began to develop a suspicion towards the windmill in William's yard. They blamed it for blowing away the storm clouds, even though many had used its services for their own needs. Eventually, with government aid however, the famine resolved and no one died from it.
Another problem sweeping Malawi at the time was AIDS, which killed thousands and infected thousands more. There were many stigmas and magical solutions to the disease, but also a lot of misinformation circulated. William joined the Wimbe Youth Friendly Health Services Club, where a group of kids around his age gathered each week to discuss AIDS-related issues and awareness. William was tasked with writing a play on AIDS, which was a local success and encouraged many people to get tested, reducing stigma and opening up new opportunities for William.
Analysis
William's scientific explanations continue as he starts a radio station in this chapter with his cousin. This is another experiment William undertakes with his cousin Geoffrey, one of his closest friends, yet curiously, William sometimes refers to Geoffrey as "Mister Geoffrey" (226). This is an example of the joking tone that the two of them put on, especially in the face of their strangely serious experiment, in which William hosts his very own radio station. When William gives his cousin a title, he acknowledges the equal contribution that Geoffrey put into these projects.
For William's two failed projects, he describes the process of their creation just as thoroughly as his other experiments, and acknowledges their failures from the perspective of the time he was in. For example, he describes the friction that the rubber valve created with the plastic pipe, which he was unable to fix due to a lack of materials. This gives the reader the sense that, if William only had the correct materials, he could accomplish so much more. This lack is soon to be addressed, but for now it is an aspect of his life that sticks out.
In this chapter, William's encounters with death also remind the reader of the comfort of religion, and how tradition is often just as important as science and progress. When Agnes, William's mother, is sick with malaria, William "had never prayed so hard in his life" (235). This reliance on prayer, as well as the observance of Chief Wimbe's funeral, remind the reader that there is a balance to strike between science and religion. Prayer can often be the only control that powerless parties have over a situation, and so the Gule Wamkulu are constant presences at funerals, despite the fear around them in other aspects of life.
Superstition constantly haunts William, but especially with the potential for a new famine. When in dialogue with his neighbors, and hearing the imagined dialogue of Gilbert reassuring the community, William's perspective is constantly questioned. However, William makes the source of their suspicion abundantly clear—they are worried for their well-being and the potential lack of food just around the corner. With this very real problem, however, there is a very real solution, in which the government provides the aid it should.
William describes the response to the AIDS epidemic first in terms of magic, then in terms of science. The hypothetical dialogue between a normal person and a "wizard" exposes the ways in which magicians trick people into paying exorbitant amounts of money for ineffective treatments (244-245). This conversation, when compared to the conversation in the play, is much more of a show, ironically, than the play. The doctor in William's play is very calm and measured, addressing the hysteria of the patient by saying simply "You can still live your life if you play by a few simple rules" (247). Compare this quote to the exploitative "Brother, you've been bewitched. Luckily, I have just the thing," and the clarity of modern medicine is evident (244). The wizard uses more friendly, intimate vocabulary to try and put the patient at ease, whereas the doctor boils down his advice into "a few simple rules."
