| Chris | Anderson | The TED curator. |
| Andrea | Barthello | Bill's wife. |
| Blessings | Chikakula | William's tutor. |
| J.J | Chikankheni | Trywell's loyal customer. A preacher. |
| Mwase | Chiphaudzu | A legendary chief of chewa people. Aka: Killer Grass. |
| Peter | Chirombo | Baobab's hardware technician. |
| Yembe | Dodo | A boy who was abducted by aliens. |
| John | Doerr | One of the most succesful venture capitalists in the world. |
| Gerry | Douglas | A British-Canadian computer scientist who founded Baobab. |
| Cornelie | Ewango | Botanist who saved endangered animals during the war. |
| Michael | Faraday | The inventor of the first Transformer. |
| Robert | Fumulani | Trywell's most favorite singer. |
| John | Gage | The chief scientist from Sun Microsystems. |
| Monica | Gillette | A famous dancer. William's friend. |
| Mr. | Godsten | Owner of a welding shop. |
| Ayanna | Howard | A robotics engineer who worked for NASA. |
| Mr. | Iponga | A barbershop owner. |
| Mr. | Kabisa | The head prosecutor in Dowa. |
| Peter | Ka-Manga | William's friend. |
| Agnes | Kamkwamba | William's mother. |
| Aisha | Kamkwamba | William's sister. |
| Annie | Kamkwamba | William's sister. |
| Chrissy | Kamkwamba | Trywell's sister. |
| Doris | Kamkwamba | William's sister. |
| Enifa | Kamkwamba | Gilbert's mother. John's wife. |
| Fannie | Kamkwamba | John's eldest son. Gilbert's brother. |
| Geoffrey | Kamkwamba | William's cousin. |
| John | Kamkwamba | Trywell's brother. Geoffrey's father. |
| Mayless | Kamkwamba | William's sister. |
| Musaiwale | Kamkwamba | Trywell's brother. Aka: Mdzimange. |
| Rose | Kamkwamba | William's sister. |
| Ruth | Kamkwamba | William's cousin. Socrates's daughter. |
| Socrates | Kamkwamba | Trywell's brother. |
| Tiyamike | Kamkwamba | William's baby sister. |
| Trywell | Kamkwamba | William's father. |
| William | Kamkwamba | Protagonist and Narrator. |
| Hastings | Kamuzu-Banda | The dictator of Malawi. |
| David | Livingstone | The Scottish Missionary. |
| Paul | Lorem | William's war survivor friend. |
| Lorilee | MacLean | William's teacher at ABCCA. |
| Mr. | Mangochi | A trader. Trywell's old friend. |
| Everson | Maseya | A famous journalist who interviewed William. |
| Hartford | McHazime | The head of MTTA. |
| Mike | McKay | A blogger who blogged William on Hactivate. |
| Noel | Mkubwi | A journalist from Zodiac. |
| Gilbert | Mofat | Geoffrey and William's friend Chief Wimbe's son. |
| Bakili | Muluzi | The new dictator of Malawi. |
| Soyapi | Mumba | A software engineer and coder at Baobab Health. |
| Joseph | Munyambanza | William's friend whose family lived in a camp. |
| Dana | Myers | The inventor of electric cars. |
| Chief | Nawambe | The Chief of Ngoni people. |
| Mr. | Ngwata | Chief Wimbe's bodyguard. |
| Chuck | Norris | An American martial artist. |
| Emeka | Okafor | A program director of a big conference called TEDGlobal. |
| Bola | Olabisi | Nigerian woman. Started a woman's
investment group. |
| Mr. | Phiri | A seasonal worker that John hired who has superhuman strength. |
| W.M | Phiri | The headmaster at Kachokolo Secondary School. |
| Tom | Rielly | Man in charge of organizing the corporate sponsors at TED. |
| Bill | Ritchie | A man who runs a company called thinkFun. |
| Sam | Ritchie | Bill and Andrea's son. |
| Dan | Shine | William's new friend. |
| Edith | Sikelo | An English teacher at Wimbe. |
| Mr. | Tembo | William's teacher in Geography. |
| Githiora | Thuku | William's roommate. |
| Bingu Wa | Mutharhika | The new dictator of Malawi. |
| Eileen | Walker | Jay's wife. |
| Jay | Walker | An inventor and the founder of Priceline.com. |
| Jay | Walker | A man that William befriended at a TED conference. |
| Chuck | Wilson | The founder of ABCCA. |
| Chief | Wimbe | The Chief of Wimbe district. Gilbert's father. |
| Ari | | Agnes's brother. William's uncle. |
| Bakili | | William's uncle. Agnes's brother. |
| Banda | | A farmer. |
| Beni Beni | | The madman at Wimbe. |
| Charity | | William's cousin. |
| Christopher | | William's friend. |
| Daud | | A trader William bought a dynamo from. |
| James | | Phiri's co-worker. |
| Kafu | | Trywell's friend. |
| Kalino | | A trader. |
| Kennedy | | William's bedmate. |
| Khamba | | Socrates's dog. |
| Maggie | | A tomato seller. Agnes's friend. |
| Mankhalala | | One of Trywell's goats. |
| Maxwell | | John's former worker. |
| Mese | | William's friend. |
| Michael | | A top student. William's classmate. |
| Mike | | Annie's husband. A teacher. |
| Mizeck | | Charity's friend. |
| Rose | | William's grandmother. Agnes's mother. |
| Shabani | | Phiri's nephew. |
| Shaka | | The Army of Zulu King. |
