Text | Dedee
Imagine that you suddenly find a 28-bar speed of more than 70 yards per hour speeding on the road; what's more, this 28-bar is not only a cyclist, but also full of hundreds of pounds of bananas; the most important thing is that this bicycle is accelerating downhill between winding mountain roads, and the cyclists are still happy and calm...
immortal? monster? Indian?
Thank you! Neither.
He was just an ordinary African youth struggling on the subsistence line. In Africa, there are countless cyclists who are so indifferent to life and death. Their daily job is to carry hundreds of pounds of bananas, bricks and even humans at the fastest speed, speeding through mountains and mountains, villages and villages, towns and towns.
If they could, they would also use all the motor vehicles around them – in the most labor-saving and dangerous way to achieve the fastest speed.
Yes, the 28 bars that once overwhelmed the mainland 30 years ago have now become the big treasures of African brothers who sweat and vent their hormones.
A few years ago, Gordon Pirie, a professor at the Center for African Cities Studies at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, published a survey study, mainly for all kinds of finished products imported from Africa for Asia in the past 20 years, mainly rice, palm oil, various household appliances, and various means of transportation.
"In 2005, total shipments of finished products from Asia to Africa were 187,000 TEUs. This number has tripled in a decade, reaching 605,000 TEUs in 2014. Of these, at least two hundred containers are specially loaded with bicycles, which are shipped by Safi Shipping to African countries, especially some landlocked countries, via the port of Beira in Mozambique. In just one year, Africa imports 100,000 bicycles. ”
Most of these bicycles originating in Asia are second-hand goods, mainly from China, Japan and India. What's even more interesting is that most of the second-hand bicycles from Japan are also produced in China.
It is understood that there are also local brand bicycles in Africa, but they are extremely rare. In many countries and regions, bicycles commonly seen on the streets are most likely produced in China and India. In particular, the classic 28 bars of the generation of "permanent" and "phoenix" of the old domestic goods can be described as the favorite of the locals.
Take Kisumu, Kenya's third largest city, for example. The price of a bicycle ranges from four or five thousand to tens of thousands of Kenyan shillings. Among them, the local brand is the cheapest, four or five thousand shillings (equivalent to more than 200 yuan) can buy one; India's second, about 8,000 shillings (equivalent to more than 400 yuan), the most expensive is the phoenix and the permanent brand, all of which must be tens of thousands of shillings (equivalent to more than 500 yuan).
The reason why "Permanent" and "Phoenix" are particularly popular is that in addition to their special ability to bear hardships and stand hard work, what is more important is that they are mostly classic 28 bars, and the special "head-to-body ratio" is as suitable as tailor-made for African brothers with thin arms and long legs.
It is no wonder that although the second-hand bicycle made in China sells the most expensive, it still can't stop the African brothers from thinking about it.
For an ordinary African, the cost of the car is equivalent to a few months' salary, which is not something that everyone can easily have – much like China half a century ago.
But the 28 bars are so fragrant that the African people have blessed their hearts and minds, and in another way have completely turned them into an inseparable part of their lives – in a whole new look and state.
First of all, any second-hand 28 bar can not escape the fate of "plastic surgery". The most elementary transformation is to paint the locals' favorite colors and patterns, decorating the handles with ribbons, tassels and sequins; the intermediate transformation will be reinforced, installing lights and rearview mirrors; the advanced transformation is mainly for the rear seat, usually wrapped in thick sponges, plus dark velvet outsourcing, so that the rear seat looks wider, longer, more luxurious and more resistant to dirt.
The cost of a general set of renovations is about 1,000 Kenyan shillings (equivalent to about 50 yuan).
After the completion of the modification, the African version of the 28 bars is officially on the road "open". Yes, it is literally "business", becoming a taxi that can carry both people and goods.
Yes, looking at greater Africa, whether it is Kenya in East Africa (except the capital Nairobi), Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Malawi, or Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo and other countries in West Africa, you can see these special "taxis" in the downtown areas of these countries, and the business is very prosperous.
In Kisumu, kenya on the border with Uganda, they are called border-border; in Bujumbura, burundi's economic capital, they are called Uwunguruza abantu n'ikinga... But whatever they are called, they all have the same fate: self-hailing taxis.
Most of these self-driving taxi drivers are young and strong laborers in their 20s. During the day, he stayed at crowded intersections and other businesses all day, and received more than 20 orders of business a day on average. They are not expensive, each kilometer is equivalent to only 5 cents to 1 yuan, usually at the end of the day, even if the business is not good, it can reach about 10 yuan, and if the business is good, it can break through 50 yuan.
There will also be many small African bosses who have a little spare money in the local area, who will buy several 28 bars, and then rent them to some young people who have no money to buy a car every day, and charge 5 to 10 yuan per car per day.
Therefore, in some important cities in Africa, the number of self-driving taxi drivers can exceed 10,000 people, and the competition is extremely fierce. Compatriots in China who have taken such taxis say they have spoken to the driver. It was a hot summer, and even the back seat was hot into a dog, but the African brother who was pedaling seriously said to him: "I really hope that the weather is hotter, so that more people will take the car." ”
It is precisely these taxi drivers who have the same idea as Chinese charcoal sellers, which can be described as the most desirable occupations of African low-level workers, and they are also the heroes and idols of countless African people.
For example, in Burundi, which is ranked by the International Monetary Fund as one of the world's poorest countries, a bicycle taxi association with 15,000 people has allowed many people to escape the genocide that occurred in Burundi from 1993 to 2005 (a strikingly similar nature to the Rwandan massacre, which killed 300,000 people). It was also the Hutu who killed the Tutsi, who at one point in Burundi were reduced to only 5,000 people, nearly exterminated).
It is rumored that the rebel forces blocked a few paved roads in Burundi at that time, and many members of the Bicycle and Taxi Association used bicycles not only tow their families away from the massacre, but also helped many people successfully flee to the mountains and forests.
But Africa's more legendary group of taxi drivers is rwanda next door to Burundi – they are not just taxi drivers who support their families, they are also the main reserve of the "Rwandan Road Cycling Team".
For more than a decade, cycling has relied on these bike taxi drivers to flourish in Rwanda and become the country's most popular sport.
In 2007, Rwanda formed an officially recognized national team, the Rwandan Road Cycling Team, which produced Adrien Niyonshuti, who had represented Rwanda at the 2016 London Olympics and made a documentary called "Rising from the Rubble."
The "Rim of Rwanda" even officially became UCI Class 2.1 (a professional cycling competition level approved and set by the International Self-League) in 2019.
In particular, there are several female players in the team. One of the girls, Jean Nadak, relied on the extraordinary talent of God to appreciate food and eat, and the excellent results that made the male players ashamed, and became a national idol of Rwanda's unisex eat-go.
Jean Nadak's mother confessed that her daughter actually did not touch the only 28 bar in the family until she was 10 years old, and began to play with people at the age of 15. She could not imagine that her daughter would become a member of the national team and completely get rid of the fate of the traditional African girl - you know, once she becomes a national team driver, she will earn at least $10,000 a year, enough to feed the whole family, help her siblings go to school, and even build a new house for the family.
Many Rwandan girls have made "cyclists" a goal and worked hard for them, and they have also received the support of their families and become the hope of the whole village.
Just a dozen years ago, conservative Rwandans didn't allow girls to ride bicycles, believing that the latter would take away girls' virginity.
Today, many provinces, cities and even villages in Rwanda have their own cycling teams, and countless taxi drivers are both strong laborers and racing drivers, and their 28 bars are both taxis and racing cars – and this special experience and skill is unique to countless African cyclists.
Even at Africa's most famous "Tour de Burkina Faso", you can see well-equipped European continental teams, as well as dilapidated second-, third- or fourth-hand variable speed bicycles and even 28 bars.
Legend has it that the first European drivers did not pay attention to the African brothers and their broken gear. But after entering the gravel section, European riders quickly and honestly came down, because these gravel sections not only have rough roads, but also often come to a wild sand dance without a word. In the face of these situations, the African brothers are obviously too calm, because they and the 28 bars under the crotch have long been in harmony with the African land like the left and right hands of the old husband and wife, and the tacit understanding is extraordinary.
In Africa, the 28 bars are not just used to carry passengers and cars. Because after each bicycle taxi is honorably retired - it will not be discarded, but will be resold to brothers who need it more, or become a special cargo bicycle for carrying goods, or become the life needs of many families.
Yes, no bike is wasted in Africa, especially a slim and charming 28 bars. In the eyes of their African brothers, they are horses that run fast without grazing, and they are Popeye who do not need spinach. Wen Neng carried white-collar workers in formal clothes, women holding children, and Wu Neng carried hundreds of pounds of bananas, bricks and furniture.
Especially in the countryside of Malawi, a 28-bar can also be used as an ambulance - 10 years ago, many local villages appeared a kind of wire bed equipped with wheels, they also have a special tow head to connect to the bicycle, forming the simplest and most convenient self-ambulance, can use the least cost and time, to send patients and pregnant women to hospitals more than ten kilometers away.
Malawians admit that a bicycle is a job opportunity and an important source of income. China's bicycles have changed our country.
This is certainly not a casual talk, because in 2001, a 13-year-old Malawian teenager William, using one of his father's Chinese-made N-hand 28 large bars, built a windmill and saved his own grainless countryside.
The cause is actually very... Africa.
Let's go back to Malawi, which, even if it's not as miserable as Burundi or Rwanda mentioned earlier, is pretty miserable – also one of the world's poorest countries, malawi, located in the interior of eastern Africa, is a typical agrarian country, with nearly 90% of the country's population as farmers and 70% of the country's income depending on tobacco exports, followed by cotton, corn, coffee and tea.
In 2001, Malawi suffered a series of natural and man-made disasters. Natural disasters refer to floods caused by the rainy season, and the drought that followed, which directly led to the destruction of domestic farmland and the lack of harvest. Man-made disasters refer to the chaos of the global economy caused by the events of 9/11, and the overall tightening of economic assistance to the African region.
As a result, the government's provision of affordable public food fell sharply, and the number of mobs increased sharply.
This combination of punches dealt a devastating blow to Malawi's agriculture, with farmers losing valuable seeds and even rations.
William, 13, lives in such a corner abandoned by God.
He built a small wind turbine from an undamaged water pump he had picked up in the dump, his father's 28-bar bicycle, and a few planks of wood.
It sounds sci-fi, but the process is actually very simple, because his father's 28-bar bicycle is not our common "Phoenix brand" or "permanent brand", but a real N-hand old bicycle, a small brand that appeared in China in the 1960s: xiangpai bicycle.
The biggest feature of this xiangpai bicycle is that it comes with a motorcycle lamp, which belongs to the ancient bicycle parts. And the general motorcycle electric lamp parts, most of them are imported bicycles before the 2000s. So the bicycle, which did not play by common sense, was definitely a rare species in China at that time – and soon disappeared.
The most interesting thing about the "motorcycle lamp" is that it comes with a "friction generator". It can create contact friction with the tire and generate electricity by rotating the tire. When the electric light is lit, it will also make a "chua chua chua" sound, which will rhythmically flicker on and off with the rotation of the wheels, which is very charming at night and has a sense of the times.
Coincidentally, the bicycles in William's area were almost "rounded" by elephant plates. His science teacher and his father, the bicycles they own are all elephant bicycles with "motorcycle lights" - no need to rely on batteries, just need to constantly turn the wheels, "friction generator" can provide energy to the pump, the greater the wheel speed, the more the pump will pump.
After being beaten by his father, William successfully built a small wind turbine in the simplest way and the most rudimentary parts, drove the pump to pump groundwater, and saved the whole village, and a miracle happened.
William also built more windmills, which began to slowly appear in other Malawi countryside.
This incomparably legendary and inspirational story certainly won't be buried.
In 2019, the male protagonist of "Twelve Years of Slavery", The Nigerian Chevat Egfort, found Netflix, and the two sides adapted and filmed the inspirational movie "The Boy Driving the Wind" based on William. The latter became Netflix's first awards season contestant that year and won the Alfred Sloan Award at the Sundance International Film Festival.
The movie also didn't forget to give enough close-ups to the elephant bike, as well as the motorcycle lights.
Professor Gordon Pirie has said: "In Africa, bicycles are cheap and people can buy one without much cost. By transporting passengers and goods through this bicycle, Africans can support their families and contribute to society, so as to gain the dignity of work and realize the value of their lives. ”
However, Professor Pirie does not realize that for countless Young Africans, owning a bicycle originating in Asia is not only as simple as supporting a family, but also achieving dreams and creating miracles.