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Leroy Dzenga Features Writer
“I would like to build a plane and take my mother to China,” Tatenda Mapako declares as he peels open an electric wire with his teeth.
Like any other child who has endured the itch of life besides his mother, the 13-year-old hopes to change his family’s circumstances with his hands.
The dream, to him is not a far-fetched fantasy of an exuberant teen, but an achievable reality.
He prays resources will permit him.
In the meantime, the work of his hands has made him an Internet sensation. He is the child whose innovations have gone viral.
With a knack for improvising, he has worked on many model electrical systems, assembling miniature versions with anything he can get his hands on.
He has become a sensation in Chivhu town, where he lives.
Right now, his latest work is an irrigation centre pivot which works on solar and can sprinkle a one metre radius.
“I walk around picking up radios, televisions and asking people for their broken appliances. I disassemble them and take what I feel I need,” Mapako says.
The pivot is made of wires, shoe polish containers, a re-purposed metal rod, juice container caps, recycled propellers, and a former car water reservoir.
“I only saw a pivot once in Hwedza. I was attracted to the way it worked and I told myself I would assemble mine, with a few improvements. Unlike most pivots which use electric power, drawing water from the ground, I have modelled mine with a windmill and with solar power, so even when there are electricity problems, it won’t stop working,” Mapako explains.
The Grade Six pupil, who goes to Jairos Jiri Primary School in Gweru, has had to contend with dismantling some of his creations midway as the resources would not allow.
The inspiration comes from things he gets to see in his day-to-day life.
“Recently I was in the process of building a network booster, was looking for tanks to put rotting plant matter but I unfortunately could not find them. The person who had promised me some components from his generator later changed his mind and I could not proceed,” he says.
His work, involves an appreciation of complex scientific principles which other esteemed engineers take years to grasp.
“I just know these things. Sometimes I ask but I somehow have an idea of how things are supposed to work. I am sure that if I get training like what others have received, I will be better at assembling these things,” the aspiring systems engineer tells The Herald.
Mapako also says he was in the process of building a small plane, which he wants to run on coal but has failed because he cannot secure the requisite parts.
He has now set his sights on a drone, which he says will help farmers starting from those at the plot where they currently lodge.
“I am about to start putting together a drone which will be used to apply fertilizer in fields. This should take me not more than three days if I get everything I need,” he says.
“I would like to help my country with the skills I have,” Mapako adds.
His mother, Victoria Garakasha, used to get incensed whenever Tatenda opened their appliances to study them or when he brought home broken radios, which had spent weeks in garbage spaces.
However, as time progressed, she understood that the child is gifted and she too began picking up wires, radios and anything she felt was useful to the emerging genius.
“I used to threaten him with a beating every time he brought junk home but his persistence forced me to pay attention to what he was doing,” she says.
Garakasha, a security guard, who sometimes has to work late nights to fend for her family, hopes that Tatenda’s prowess will be enough to rewrite the script for their family.
“I have been struggling to take care of the boy since his father’s death in 2013. We struggled. He lost two years of progress in the process, and we had to take him back to Grade Three when he was in Grade Five due to constraints. Now he cannot participate in school sporting events despite being gifted,” she says.
Tatenda made a promise to his mother, at the two-roomed cottage they share on a plot about a kilometre from Chivhu town.
“He has always promised to fly me to China and to build me a house upon return, I believe he will do it.
“Tatenda’s work does not come as a surprise to me. When he was two, he was nearly electrocuted at a traffic light in Bulawayo after I had put him down and he immediately reached for the open cables,” she explains.
From then, he has not looked back on utilising his nifty hands.
Like any other artisan, he too felt he needed a safe pair of hands to assist in the work they were doing.
He recruited seven-year-old Lotto Shonhai, who is in Grade One at Northwood Primary School in Chivhu.
Over time, he has morphed into a reliable assistant, assembling critical components on his own during their processes of work.
Like many other great stories in Zimbabwe, which have gone unheralded, it took a good Samaritan to use their own Facebook page and social media to publicise the gift Tatenda possesses.
Benjamin Gwelo, a sociology PhD student at Stellenbosch University in South Africa took it upon herself to ensure that Tatenda’s talent is known by those who matter.
“I met him when he was carrying his work in town and I decided to follow him. He told me about his impressive work. I then approached his mother, who consented to us publicizing his work and I started sharing his work on my online pages. The responses have been massive,” he explains.
Gwelo is of the opinion that perhaps Tatenda needs to be sent straight to a polytechnic as he has already shown ability to apply engineering principles.
With interest growing in his abilities, time will tell what stands on his horizon.
Chivhu, is fast becoming a paradise for child stars.
In 2019 it gifted the country with the Chivhu queens, a chess team that represented Zimbabwe at the African Youth Chess Champions in Namibia.
It must be something in Chivhu water.
Online Reporter