Where Students Shape Their Own Light
Growing up between Harare and the rural areas of Goromonzi district, Aluwaine Manyonga experienced life in the dark. In the rural areas where his family had a small plot of land, electricity didn't exist.
"Living in Goromonzi, I had a first hand experience of how it was like to live in the dark," Aluwaine recalls. "Most of the time when we were there, we did not have any type of electricity. The most common type of light that was there was those fuel lamps that use kerosene."
He remembers how dangerous they were. "Sometimes you would just mix up the kerosene and it would even blow. Our parents didn't allow us to use them because they knew the dangers."
Aluwaine's experience repeats across sub-Saharan Africa. Over 80% of people without electricity live in rural areas.[1] In Zimbabwe, national electricity access reached 62% in 2023. Rural areas? Just 51%.[2][3]
The University Student in Crisis
Fast forward to his third year as an electrical engineering student. The loadshedding crisis hit in 2019. Power outages lasted twelve to eighteen hours daily. [4] Studying at night became nearly impossible.
"That same year, Zimbabwe faced the worst loadshedding," he remembers. "It was very difficult for me to study at night. So I went back to that light that I made the previous year, then I did some bit of modifications to it and decided to work some wonders. I used to use it for around six hours."
He could study again. Do household tasks. But one thought kept returning: "I actually thought that there were students who were in the rural areas, they did not have the privilege of having electricity. I was in Harare - we do have electricity, for maybe only six hours a day, but somebody was out there without having the electricity at all. So I actually thought that maybe I could like try to scale up this idea and try to benefit more students."
Research shows that lighting matters for educational outcomes. Students who can study after dark perform better academically.[5] Without it? No studying after sunset. No homework completion. Safety risks walking home from school.
At Manwa Swap Primary School in Goromonzi, the nearest electricity grid connection is three kilometers away. When night falls, learning stops.
The Spark
The Aluwaine’s story begins a year earlier in 2018. Aluwaine was in his second year of electrical engineering. "I remember that day. I was sitting in my room. There were a lot of nonfunctional LED solar lanterns, and my parents wanted to turn those lights on again, so they sent them to me."
He fixed the lights using the electronics basics he learned at school. "But there came a challenge of the housing, where I could put the parts—all of those were broken. So I actually thought maybe I could use a plastic waste bottle."
He took a bottle. Fitted all the parts inside. The light came on.
"The name itself—Chigubhu Lantern—in Zimbabwe translates to 'goblet' in Shona, which is a Zimbabwean language, translates to plastic bottle. So I took the components, then I put them into the plastic bottle, then the light came, then I just thought maybe we should just call it Goblet."
What Aluwaine discovered in his dorm room connects to a global challenge: electronic waste. Africa receives massive quantities of discarded electronics. Much ends up in landfills.[6] Zimbabwe generates significant e-waste, with informal recycling processes causing environmental and health concerns.[7] Plastic bottles flood communities daily.
The circular economy principle is simple: extract less, reuse more, design for repair. What if waste wasn't the end but the beginning?
The following year, during the crisis of 2019, Aluwaine went back to that light he made. Modified it. Used it every night. It worked. It kept working. "Maybe I could like try to scale up this idea and try to benefit more students."
Why Solar Matters Now
Solar technology has reached a turning point. For places the grid won't reach—rural Zimbabwe, informal settlements across Africa—solar isn't an alternative. It's the often the only option.
"One of the major challenges that we are having here in Africa is expanding our grids to the most remote areas," Aluwaine explains. "We have our biggest power station in Kariba. Then we have a place that's almost 700 kilometers away that does not have electricity. So it's very difficult for us to expand our grid from Kariba to come here. But with solar, we can actually deploy it."
He continues: "Solar energy is very crucial. I think solar is a big thing when we are looking at the climate perspective. Because one of the biggest contributors of climate change is the energy sector itself. There's a statistic that says like 19% of the world's energy is used for lighting. So just imagine if you're going to shift that 19% of that energy usage to solar, that is a big killer to reduce that."
Validation and Scale
2020 brought validation. "Fast forward in 2020, I pitched for an international competition called the SLL Young Leader award, which is done by the Society of Light and Lighting. So it was my first time to participate in an international competition."
Out of all his ideas around lighting, he decided to present the Chigubhu Lantern concept. "I presented it more or less to the education sector, because I'm a strong believer of the education system, of how education can bring change to communities. And I believe that this light can actually bring change to different communities."
He won. "In 2020, I was awarded the SLL Young Leader award. And it came with a prize money that actually helped me to try out different ideas. So I started to try out different containers because I wanted to find a way of how I could mass produce this lantern."
Individual innovation matters. But systemic change requires policy support. Sustainable Development Goal 7 aims for universal energy access by 2030. Zimbabwe, like much of sub-Saharan Africa, remains far behind this target. In 2023, 750 million people globally lacked electricity access, with 80% living in sub-Saharan Africa.[1] Grid expansion alone won't close the gap fast enough—especially not in informal settlements and rural areas.
Community-led, decentralized solutions must be part of the answer.
The Training Approach
Aluwaine developed a structured approach to teaching students. "We now have a developer's guide where we carry out a more structured training for the student. And this training is no longer talking about lighting only. It's covering issues to do with waste management—for the Chigubhu Lantern, we're using plastic waste and electronic waste."
The training also covers the circular economy. "We give them an overview of what the circular economy looks like. In a circular economy, we are talking about making products that last long, making products that we can repair. Once we extract resources, then we make certain products, those products should be designed with a long lifespan, so that they do not go to dump sites."
Traditional aid models distribute products. Solar lanterns handed out, used until they break, then discarded. This adds to the e-waste problem they were meant to solve.
Aluwaine's model differs. "We are offering skills to the students on how they can repair and how they can produce like the plastic waste that they're already here. So that at the end of the day, we create a long-lasting lantern."
When batteries fail, students know how to replace them. "Most of the times when the battery fails, like the whole light is dumped, but it still has functional parts. So for our model, we train the students on how they can make lights, so they have an understanding of how they can test their batteries. If a battery is no longer functioning, they know how to dispose it."
This approach addresses the growing e-waste challenge in Africa, where mounting electronic waste poses environmental and health risks.[8] Teaching repair and reuse embodies circular economy principles that countries like Zimbabwe are working to implement. [7]
The Impact
The results speak clearly. "This school that we are at right now—last year, they recorded an increased pass rate for their examination classes. And that's something that's really motivated my journey."
"Lighting is very crucial for the education sector," Aluwaine reflects. "If you give every student an extra two hours study time every night, this can really improve their grades and improve their performance."
Research backs this up. A study mapping over half a million schools across Africa found that electrification—particularly through solar—could reduce travel times, improve learning outcomes, and significantly reduce CO₂ emissions.[5] European researchers found that investing in solar power for African schools would deliver returns in literacy, economic growth, and climate benefits.[9]
The impact extends beyond grades. Lighting means safety walking home from evening activities. Community spaces can function after dark. Small businesses can operate longer hours.
Energy access isn't just about electricity. It's about possibility.
What Keeps Him Going
"Ever since I started, I have been getting some positive response, which kind of gives me some energy to carry on on this journey," Aluwaine says.
"What makes me happy is just turning on the lights. Every time I'm out there with these students, just letting them turn on their lights, it gives me energy to keep on improving on this."
Africa has the world's youngest population and the highest number of students. Aluwaine's goal is ambitious: "My long term goal is ensuring that every student has access to reliable lighting, and lighting that is sustainable."
He's thinking beyond Zimbabwe. "The ultimate goal of this whole work is ensuring light for every student—looking beyond our borders, looking beyond the Zimbabwean borders. We still have a challenge of electricity across the whole African continent, where we still have over 60% of the rural population living without electricity. And Africa right now is the youngest population. So we have the highest number of students."
Five Years from Now
Aluwaine's vision for the future is clear. "Five years from now, I think we can be having young people who have better care for the environment, who know how waste is valuable. I'm looking at something where a student used a light made from waste, and that student is able to pass, then they have a good life at the end. Then that student is going to impart the kind of knowledge that they have to the other student. There's going to be a chain reaction."
He's talking about mindset. About seeing possibility where others see trash. About agency—young people as problem-solvers, not recipients.
Achieving SDG 7 in Africa won't come from a single solution. It will require grid expansion, off-grid solar installations, community energy projects, skills training, policy reform, international investment.
It will also require what Aluwaine demonstrates: local innovation, circular design, youth leadership, and the belief that communities closest to problems are closest to solutions.
The Work Continues
At Manwa Swap Primary School in Goromonzi, the grid still stops three kilometers away. Students now study under lights they built themselves. They understand circuits, solar charging, waste as resource.
Aluwaine continues training students, one school at a time. The manual he developed—covering waste management, circular economy, basic electronics, assembly—travels from community to community.
"I've been getting some positive response which kind of gives me some energy to carry on on this journey," he says. "I keep on trying to improve this idea."
The light spreads.
This story is part of the Metropolis interactive learning experience for students in Denmark. Learn more about it at Metropolis.education
Story & Film: Simon Sticker, Dreamtown
Sources
International Energy Agency. (2024). "Access to electricity – SDG7: Data and Projections." https://www.iea.org/reports/sdg7-data-and-projections/access-to-electricity
World Bank. (2024). "Access to electricity (% of population) - Zimbabwe." World Bank Open Data. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.ELC.ACCS.ZS?locations=ZW
Trading Economics. (2024). "Zimbabwe - Access To Electricity, Rural (% Of Rural Population)." https://tradingeconomics.com/zimbabwe/access-to-electricity-rural-percent-of-rural-population-wb-data.html
World Bank. (2023). "Country Economic Update: Electrifying Zimbabwe's Growth Through Reliable and Universal Energy Access." https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/zimbabwe/publication/country-economic-update-electrifying-zimbabwe-s-growth-through-reliable-and-universal-energy-access
Szabó, S., et al. (2024). "Empowering quality education through sustainable and equitable electricity access in African schools." Joule, Cell Press. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2542435124005403
African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET). (2024). "Turning Africa's e-waste crisis into a circular economy opportunity." https://acetforafrica.org/research-and-analysis/insights-ideas/turning-africas-e-waste-crisis-into-a-circular-economy-opportunity/
Shabani, T., Jerie, S., Mutekwa, T.V., & Shabani, T. (2024). "Electronic Waste: 21st Century Scenario in Zimbabwe—A Review." Circular Economy and Sustainability, 4(2), 1269-1284. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43615-024-00368-8
ScienceDirect. (2025). "Electronic wastes in sub-Saharan Africa: A critical review of environmental and health impacts, regulatory responses, and future perspectives." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772416625002840
European Commission Joint Research Centre. (2025). "Solar power offers a brighter future for African schools." https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and-updates/solar-power-offers-brighter-future-african-schools-2025-02-03_en