The Bicycle

The Bicycle

A bicycle, often called a bike and sometimes referred to as a "pushbike", "pedal bike", "pedal cycle" or "cycle", is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist.

Cycling is a big part of my life but not a way of life as we have seen in Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique. In these three countries that we have visited, it is obvious to see how useful the bicycle can be as an aid and tool in everyday life other than a form of exercise as it is so often used in the western world. I have been attempting to capture images of these fantastic contraptions, each individually modified to the user’s needs for whatever is being carried. The best number of people on a bicycle so far I think has been four, very rarely with just one person! Pigs, chickens, goats, water containers, oil drums x 3, charcoal, cotton, maize, fish, just a few of the things we have seen carried. 

In Blantyre, Malawi I noticed more second hand Royal Mail Pashley bicycles than any other town or country. A fantastic site to see someone cycling along with a dozen live chickens in the handlebar basket is far more productive than a bag full of mail!

Travelling through Salima, a rural town close to Lake Malawi seemed to be the highest density of bicycles and bicycle taxi’s lined the streets as we went through. We dropped off someone in the centre of town and the surge of taxi riders with a potential client was incredible, people jumping and clambering over each other with bicycles to get the business!

There have been schemes set up by various charities in the UK to help send second hand bicycles out to Africa for adults and children. A Rotary International charity, Bikes4Africa.

bikes4Africa refurbishes donated second-hand bikes and delivers them from the UK
to African schools, where they enable children to...

•    get to school, and arrive on time, instead of late
•    begin the school day alert, instead of exhausted
•    stay for extra lessons at the end of the school day
•    remain safe by travelling home from school in daylight
•    reach higher academic achievement

http://www.jolerider.org/index.php/programmes/bikes4africa

Re~Cycle is a UK charity committed to providing cheap, sustainable transport in Africa. We believe that bicycles offer poor people the best means to improve their lives, giving them opportunities to travel to work and school. They can also be adapted to carry goods and passengers giving small scale farmers and traders the opportunity to reach customers further afield. They are also an invaluable resource for traveling health workers coping with the AIDS epidemic.

I am very keen to work with one or both of these charities on my return to the UK and aim to send a container of bicycles out to the countries that we have visited.