King of Africa

After William Kamkwamba shot to fame with his windmill (TED, Afrigadget), we loosely connected African ingenuity with a few more things that spin around.

From Dreaming
Self taught artist Sibusiso Mbhele who was so thrilled to see a plane circling above the mountains in his native Kwazulu Natal that he went home determined to build one out of oil drums, wire and scrap. He earned his living creating scrap metal sculptures of planes, cars, and bicycles, and, after making the headlines in the local newspapers, Mbhele’s neighbors, jealous of his recognition and success, destroyed his creations and his beloved life-sized, hand-built ‘fish helicopter’ which he had called home.
Sibusiso Mbhele and His Fish Helicopter by Koto Bolofo is published by Power House books.
Book review by Wayne Ford, eye magazine.

To Doing
24 year old Mubarak Muhammad Abdullahi has built his own helicopter using scrap metal and a second-hand engine from a Honda Civic. The four seater aircraft is fitted with seats from an old Toyota saloon car and some of its other parts come from the shreds of a Boeing 747 which crashed near Kano some years ago.
It was first reported on Yahoo News, but the link has gone off the radar, try here.

To getting paid
Jelani Aliyu, who hails from Sokoto, Nigeria, is currently General Motors’ lead exterior designer and designer of the Chevy Volt concept car. After schooling and studying in Nigeria, he was accepted to the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, to study Automobile Design, and, the rest, they say, will be history.
Editorial on Jelani Aliyu.
Chevy Volt site. 

Also of interest:

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