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FEATURE
THE REAL BREAK Is In These Wheels Of Sustainability By Zeina Otonjo
It is quite easy to assume this article is about your gasket or some combustion speed process that happens when
you accelerate and step on the breaks or how car troubles make up for 45%
of an unplanned budget and cars in themselves seem like a necessary evil. I cannot even start to stress or emphasise the uncanny disconnect between arti- san mechanics across Africa and their assumptions and theories around a bad car just from listening to your engine rev. Call it ‘workers intuition’ but they are often right and more often than not, prof- fer lasting solutions.
But let us take it back in time before pol- lution from these car fumes were centre of sustainable development problems, before the emergence of fast cars and furious drivers, before road rage and road blocks, a much simpler time that many advanced countries have established as a valid means of transportation - Cycling.
There are more than a billion bicycles worldwide, making for a sizeable com- mercial market. Until around 1970, the numbers of bicycles and cars produced globally were about equal, but in the 1970s and 1980s, the production of bicy- cles exploded, and in 2013, the produc- tion of bicycles was about two and a half times as great as the production of cars. The bicycle is particularly popular in China, where the producer Flying Pigeon alone churns out about 800,000 bicycles every year. Since the 1950s, Flying Pigeon
has produced about 500 million bicycles; making their bike the most popular and widespread serially produced means of transportation ever.
As ridiculous as these facts sound, the big question for us on the continent is why are we not all Cycling? Your guess is as good as mine. Severe road issues, unstruc-
tured bike placements, status un savvy, socio-cultural let downs and the biggest myth- they are hard to ride. The truth is bicycles or cycling is not a tedious task, it is one when, mastered leads the way for an elimination of many numerous health risks including a fat body, a beer belly and even an unstructured pose.
For centuries in rural communities all across Africa, cycling was the major means of transportation, the local gong masters sported exciting customized bikes to spread the Kings message, school chil- dren, business men and women carrying the day’s produce from farms, rode bikes for simplicity and ease of access. With the emergence of technology, cultural differ- entiation and expansion of cities along coastal cities in Africa, automobiles took over and cycling became somewhat extinct.
Fast forward to the millennium, a new and seasoned niche crowd have adopted
this former century mode of transporta- tion and are evolving it into a sport and health and fitness aid. Cycling clubs like Cycology of Lagos, Coccoon, Qbertha in
34 | The Lion King | April - June 2019
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