 |
A photo essay on bicycles in a remote African village
In the summer of 2005, I went back to the village where I was a Peace
Corps volunteer 20 years ago.
Mbouyi, Gabon is at the end of the road, just over the next hill is the
Congo. The terrain is gently rolling hills of sand over an area of 5000
sq. km. (1800 sq. mis.) called the Plateau Bateke. The last five
kilometers of road have never seen a grader. Its just two tracks
through the bush, and during the dry season, four-wheel drive vehicles
bog down in deep sand.
|
|
|
Of the eight operational bikes I saw there, six were of this style.
Similar to the roadster found in Ghana, but with 26 X 1 3/4 wheels,
which gives them a lower profile and better handling on paths and sand.
They have rod brakes, non-adjustable handlebars and weigh about 60
pounds. Also made in China.
Sosten is on the left, his nephew Joachim on the right. |
The bikes come from Ewo, Congo, about
35 miles to the east, and cost about
$150 new.
I was told that all parts are available
in Ewo. Given that Ewo is 400 miles
from the capital Brazzaville, I think
we can safely assume they are widely
available throughout Congo.
|
|
|
|
The bikes are used for travel to farms, as far as six miles from the
village, moving large objects like the dead goat pictured here,
visiting other villages, and commerce. |
Mbouyi and neighboring villages have this particular design of rack.
All the bikes had them. Even the new red bike pictured above, which
had just been bought and was ‘still in the wrapper,’ already had the
beginnings of a rack.
Sticks from the forest are shaped by machete, then lashed to the bike
with vines or strips of old inner tube. The large flat surface is
handy for sacks of cassava flour or goats (dead or alive) but not
passengers. |
|
|
|
Mbouyi has evolved its own repair techniques. Pieces of blown-out
flip-flop sandals are used as spacers to reduce the play in loose
cranks. I once rode one that had no crank bearings at all, only these
spacers holdin it together. I had to pedal gently or I’d wobble the
crank and make the chain fall off. |
Two of the eight bikes I saw in Mbouyi were European mountain bikes,
like Apili Norbert’s, here. We’ve been friends since he helped build
the school when he was a teenager in the mid 80’s. He got his bike
from his brother, who bought it seven years ago in Moanda, a Gabonese
mining town. Bikes bought in Gabon are generally twice the price of
the 26” roadster from Congo. Norbert prefers his bike to the roadster,
and roadster owners thought theirs were better too.
Norbert long ago removed the brakes and derailleurs. The brakes only
slow you down by rubbing against the crooked wheels. I found the front
wheel so bad that it was rubbing against the fork. I offered to
straighten it and with a couple of little turns, popped the nipple
through the rim. “We can fix this if we can find a washer,” I said. |
Norbert took his machete out from where it was wedged in his bike,
found a tin can and cut a 2 square centimeter piece of scrap metal from
it.
He folded it in half and pounded it flat, then poked a hole with the
machete tip. Voila! a washer!
|
With the spoke held in place by the new washer I was able to straighten
the wheel enough to keep it from rubbing the fork. We didn’t feel up to
making more washers, so I stopped long before actually getting the
wheel straight. |
Norbert’s front tire didn’t fit well on the rim. They were mismatched.
He had stitched reinforcement in the sidewall to help it seat better,
but still had to wrap rubber strips around the tire and rim, (left side
of the photo) to hold it on. He wasn’t able to put much air in the
tire, but since it is mostly ridden on sand the damage is slow. |
The other mountain bike in Mbouyi belonged to Patrice. The rear
derailleur is long gone, and the freewheel has been replaced with a
single speed. The brakes are working. |
This bike also belongs to Patrice, but the frame is broken. He devised
this clever replacement brake shoe from blown-out flip-flops.
Finding mountain bike brake shoes is a serious problem, even in the
cities. |
The same bike, has already had the rear dropout repaired, by welding in
another. |
So, even in an isolated distant corner of Africa we see people using
bikes and keeping them running in spite of tremendous odds, a testimony
to their determination and resourcefulness. And no western development
agency had anything to do with it. When I was there as a Peace Corps
volunteer I had a truck.
(DP)
Special thanks to dvee.net for technical web
assistance
|
