I’ve had a few people contact me asking how the trip went. Below is a snapshot of my bicycle PhD project, the context and what I did during my PhD fieldwork in Lunsar, Sierra Leone.
The amazing FNM SIG group: discussing readings and my bike fieldwork
My NM SIG discussion notes
Some of the realia I bought in from my fieldwork
Here’s some highlights of my fieldwork presentation (more details in slides below).
Opening: An Acknowledgement of Country, Diversity and Inclusion and that Matter Matters and thanks to the local Lunsar chiefs and the amazing people who have been instrumental in helping make this project happen.
Researcher positionality: Who am I and how did I come to this project
Research context background : 5 intersections of Girls unfreedoms
Girls Ed Lit Review: Current directions in NGO Literature on the topic
Establish Space: Key Project that opens up my research space – completed in 2010
Confirm & Extend: Follow up – a specific project on girls bicycle projects in Lunsar – completed 2016
Established gap leads into my research questions (no slide for this = top secret!)
My Study Design: Aims, Methodology and theoretical framing (NM)
Fieldwork details: Tech Matters and other research developments/considerations
Country context: Background to Sierra Leone (very general history & context)
Site Location: Background and context about Lunsar (my fieldwork location)
Research partnership case study: Intro to Village Bicycle Project (organization) Stylish (host/research participant/all-round incredible man!)
Fieldwork ‘Data’: list of all the research data/activities achieved (so busy!) and other events, opportunities and visits – so busy!
Present some ‘Data‘: I showed some fieldwork bike ride footage for discussion (no slide – top secret)
The return: Now I have returned, I outlined my next steps and questioned how/what to do to start ‘data analysis’
Q&A: Open discussion and suggestions on entry points for data analysis using NM approaches.
Aside from being able to share my fieldwork experiences with others, it was also great to get stuck into some rigorous academic discussions and come away with a number of productive and tangible ideas to apply for data analysis.
Most satisfying of all though, was seeing how interested people are in Sierra Leone and having the opportunity to promote and celebrate the beautiful people, places and experiences I had there.
Researcher positionality: Who am I and how did I come to this projectResearch context background : 5 intersections of Girls unfreedomsGirls Ed Lit Review: Current directions in NGO Literature on the topicEstablish Space: The Child Mobility Project – Key project that opens my research space. Completed 2010Confirm & Extend: Lauren’s Hof follow up: a specific project on girls bicycle projects in Lunsar. Completed 2016My Study Design: MethodologyFieldwork details: Tech MattersFieldwork details: Other research developments/considerationsCountry context: Background to Sierra Leone (very general history & context)Site Location: Background and context about Lunsar (my fieldwork location)Research partnership case study: Intro to Village Bicycle Project (organization) and Stylish (host/research participant/all-round incredible person!)Fieldwork ‘Data’: list of all the research data/activities achieved (so busy!) and other events, opportunities and visits – so busy!The return: Now I have returned, I outlined my next steps and questioned how/what to do to start ‘data analysis. Q&A: Open discussion and suggestions on entry points for data analysis using NM approaches
For this year’s International Women’s Day, I’d like to introduce you to Isata Sama Mondeh.
I met Isata while in Sierra Leone in February doing PhD Fieldwork.
I was keen to meet Isata because not only is she Sierra Leone’s long-standing National Elite Women’s Champion – but she is also the first-ever female bike mechanic in Sierra Leone AND the first female bike mechanic to run their own bike shop. OMG!
Isata learned bike mechanics and shop management through Village Bicycle Project.
I travelled out to Makeni (Bombali District) where Isata is based to meet her and see the shop. We hit it off and ended up seeing each other a few times after that, including going for a (long!) ride together – which was a real highlight for me.
I was humbled and inspired to hear how she got into bikes and how she is trying to get more females riding bikes.
Isata Sisters Bike Shop
Her business is complementary to her riding. Asa Sierra Leone’s first female mechanic, she is breaking stereotypes and working hard to build up a business that might support her and her family. Just as she was initially helped by Village Bicycle Project to get started, Isata is also paying it forward. She has trained up another female mechanic (who Isata mentored) who also now has her own shop – the second female-owned bike shop, as well.
Isata is 26 and has had her Makeni bike shop business ‘Istata’s Sister Shop’ for three years now. She was able to start the workshop due to a microcredit scheme and in collaboration with Village Bicycle Project.
Alfred, Kadi, Deborah, Isata, Nina & Stylish outside Isata’s workshop. February 2020. Makeni, Sierra Leone.
How did she get into bikes?
When Istata was in school, she would rent other kids bikes to learn how to ride. Despite having no bike of her own, she was talent scouted at a local high school sports carnival when a coach saw her in a bike race. He was impressed by her natural ability and speed – and wanted to see more.
And so she started racing. This was a lonely and unforgiving time, but it did give her valuable experience. In her first race, she was the only female. In her second race, there were three females and she came 2nd. In her third race, she was (again) the only female riding against 18 males – and she finished 10th overall. People started to notice her results and consistency.
She made it onto the National team and has never looked back. She has been the National Elite Female champion since 2006.
Overcoming negative cultural beliefs.
When she rides, Istata is challenging long-held local cultural beliefs that riding a bike is taboo for females. Many still believe that if a female rides a bike, they won’t be able to have a baby. This belief has prevented many girls from taking up riding.
When she first started riding, it was a concern that Isata herself had to face.
Isata loves riding, but was remaindered continuously by others that riding was not for women.
It was a problematic mind-trap to shake.
She found it hard to fully believe it, especially as she already had a ten-year-old son. So she had an inkling that those old views were not correct – but they were so prevalent and so constant!
It was only when a friend showed Isata profiles of some of the UK’s top elite female track and race cyclists who have children. This was all the convincing Isata needed.
Bravely, Isata is a very positive role model to encourage other females to get into cycling. She convincingly uses her experience as evidence when she talks to girls, families and community members and she addresses traditional cultural view head-on. She uses the fact that she has a 10-year-old son and a bike business to challenge limiting local beliefs about girls and bikes.
But for females, riding bikes in Sierra Leone is hard.
The most challenging thing for the female riders is that they don’t have bikes. Isata is the only female rider in Makeni who has a bike. She and the other female riders don’t have sponsors so cannot afford to buy the bikes they need. To this end, Isata continues to work tirelessly.
Isata in Le Col blue women’s winner’s jersey (2019). Source: Yellow Jersey.
Isata – we celebrate you!
Isata loves her bike and loves her bike mechanic business. Despite great adversity, she is doing all she can to promote women’s cycling in Sierra Leone.
For these (and many other reasons), I’d like to acknowledge and celebrate Isata this IWB 2020. She is the epitome of all that IWD stands for and a fantastic role model for us all.
We wish you the best of luck – both on and off the bike!
If you would like to contact or support Isata, her bike shop or her riding – please email Nina via the contacts page to be put in touch.
For this Father’s Day – my recommendation has
an extra layer of bikey, grassroots, humanity, community, sustainability,
travel and creative inspiration folded into it.
My hot tip is to get the documentary film One Man’s Tour.
This is a charity documentary about New Zealand’s inaugural Tour Aotearoa. This brevete event was first run in 2016. A brevet is not a race. It is a ride following a set course, via 30 photo checkpoints, which you must complete between 10 and 30 days – no more and no less. It traverses across incredible scenery and landscapes – and you can well imagine the trials, tribulations and magic moments that occur.
The film follows the 260 brave riders who took on this first epic self-supported 3000km mountain bike ride across New Zealand, which goes from goes from Cape Reinga to Bluff.
The movie is inspiring and shows a range of
challenges the riders face. It also shows the inevitable ups and downs that
come with taking on endurance non-assisted bike rides – and this event is no
different. The scenery is breathtaking and makes you want to grab your bike and
book a flight.
Aside from being a great film to watch, you decide on how much to pay for this movie!
All funds raised by One Man’s Tour go to World Bicycle Relief (WBR). WBR gives bicycles to communities in
Sub-Saharan Africa to help locals better access school, healthcare and
stimulate employment opportunities.
In return for the documentary, you decide how
much money to give. When you pay on the link below, you will automatically
receive an email with a link to stream/download the movie.
The film has already raised $1,279 – with the aim to reach $3,000.
This is a great gift to give – for your dad, a
friend, or for yourself.
What’s not to like about supporting family, people, bikes, community and positive living?!
My abstract for the upcoming Pedagogies in the Wild Conference has been accepted!
This is great news because I already have an abstract accepted for the international 2019 New Materialist Reconfigurations of Higher Education Conference(Dec 2-4th 2019) and this conference follows straight after (4-6th December) and is at the same place – the University of the Western Cape (Cape Town, South Africa).
I am working towards a research trifecta: 2 conferences and fieldwork in the one trip.
This conference is being affectionately referred to ‘the D & G conference’.
That is because it focuses on integrating the work of two highly influential scholars whose work is transdisciplinary and has had ‘epic consequence’ in many fields – Deleuze and Guattari. Gilles Deleuze is a philosopher and Felix Guattari is a psychoanalyst. Some their most influential works are: Anti-Oedipus, What Is Philosophy? and A Thousand Plateaus. They have written extensively together on an array of topics. In particular for my project, their work has been foundational in extending New Materialists understandings.
The Pedagogies in the Wild Conference 2019 is being run for the third time and is solely focused on unpacking, exploring and apply Deleuze-Guattarian thinking and approaches.
As many regular readers of this blog know, my research is complexified by interrogating various aspects of power relations – such as gender in/justice, post-colonialism, and what/who are academic/research/educational ‘experts’.
The session I will be presenting is based on a publication I currently writing with my amazingly brave PhD Supervisor Dr Sherilyn Lennon.
Title: Cycling-with-through-and-on the edge of the PhD supervisor-candidate relationship: A post-humanist bike ride to a different place.
Abstract: Traditionally, the PhD supervision relationship is predicated on a supervisor as expert – supervisee as learner/novice model of knowledge transmission. Most of the supervisory work is performed either on the university campus or via digital channels that allow the ‘expert’ to direct the conversation and establish the performance expectations for both candidate and supervisor. But what might be possible if the formalities and associated materialities of this power structure were to be disrupted and reframed?
This session presents insights that emerged when a PhD candidate and her Supervisor shared a bayside bicycle ride in Brisbane, Australia, to see what would happen. While the candidate was an expert
bike rider, her Supervisor was far less experienced and somewhat anxious about
her (st)ability. The bicycle ride was viewed as a
way of deliberately disrupting and displacing traditional notions around
academic performances, spaces of learning and who gets to navigate.
What emerged was surprising,
revealing and uncomfortable.
The bicycle ride enabled
encounters with/in the world/self that worked to queer the way in which both
Supervisor and candidate understood their relationship. We contend that the
candidate/supervisor relationship is an iterative and dynamic entanglement of
forces wherein subjectivities, bodily performances, past experiences, fears,
technologies, planned and unplanned encounters are forever and always
entangled.
Influenced by Baradian philosophy,
this session focuses on the material-discursive-affective phenomena that
emerged as the experience of riding-with the candidate/supervisor. In this way “systems of entrapment that manifest power relations in the academy” and “instigate codes of conduct and…exclusionary practices that can limit how academic knowledges…are produced” (Charteris et al., 2019, p. 2) are able to be troubled, re-thought and re-balanced.
My PhD Supervisor Dr Sherilyn Lennon and I on our bike ride. Sat. 22nd June, 2019.
What is Pedagogies in the Wild Conference 2019?
Here is more about the conference: The recent #Rhodesmustfall and #feesmustfall protests have set South African higher education on a new course towards transformation, focusing on equitable access to higher education, Africanisation and decolonisation.
Similar movements have reverberated across the globe,
addressing issues of neoliberalism, for example in Canada, the UK, the
Netherlands and Chile; racism, as in Ghana and the US; and curfews on women
students in India.
This has raised important questions regarding knowledge
production; continuing structural racism, patriarchy, homophobia and
transphobia; the use and value of western theorists in research and curricula;
and who gains epistemological and physical access to higher education.
On the other hand, we have seen many productive junctures
between pedagogy, education studies and the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari.
In particular, there has been a focus on cartography, schizoanalysis, corporeal
theorising, rhizomatic learning and nomadic thought in socially just
pedagogical praxis.
These junctures and innovative genealogies and
methodologies can both address these issues and be further improved and made
more precise by engagements with what it means to transform and reconfigure
pedagogies and practices in higher education.
Image: Pedagogies in the Wild 2019
My Conference Stream – Topic 2. Spaces, Spatiality and Unschooling
Topic 2. Spaces, Spatiality and Unschooling: Places of/and/un/Learning in Higher Education
How can we challenge assumptions
such as ‘knowledge belongs to experts’ in favour of
materialist/experimental/experiential collaborations in teaching and learning?
Expanded Conference Topic 2
Higher education spaces are usually considered in relation
to how they optimise student learning and, increasingly, how they optimise
marketing potential to attract new students.
In addition, meanings of ‘space’, ‘place’, ‘environment’ and
‘context’ are often elided, and it is taken for granted that learning happens
in classrooms, seminar rooms and lecture halls.
Such discourses take space for granted as a neutral background
on which human endeavour is located.
Unschooling (in a meta sense rather than the narrow sense of
homeschooling) resists this kind of pedagogy in favour of building real
communities and replacing dry, nationalist agendas with different kinds of training
programs, learning opportunities and methodologies, apprenticeships,
internships and mentorships.
Unschooling thus represents a material politics aimed at
genuine social freedom and enjoyable learning. Normative ways of understanding
space and schooling are challenged by Deleuze-Guattarian understandings which,
instead, conceptualise space as an entangled ‘constellation of human–nonhuman
agencies, forces and events’ (Taylor, 2013: 688) within which objects, bodies
and things do surprising and important if often unnoticed and mundane work as
material agents and actants.
Theoretically, such work draws on and takes forward the rich
traditions of feminist and postmodernist understandings of space developed by
Doreen Massey, Henri Lefebvre, and Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy of space and
striation.
This theme therefore wishes to open up debates about higher
education spaces by considering questions such as:
What is the role of architecture, design and infrastructure in higher education?
How might the materialities of higher education spaces and places be conceptualised via inter-, multi- and post-disciplinary frameworks?
How can we take account of the importance of places of informal learning?
How does the iterative materialisation of space-time-matter come to matter in higher education spaces?
How is higher education being spatially reconfigured in relation to global flows of bodies?
Which/ whose bodies matter in higher education spaces?
What new spatial imaginaries are needed for higher education to thrive?
How can feminist new materialisms in its overlaps and divergences with Deleuze-Guattarian philosophy aid us to produce new understandings of space-place-matter entanglements in higher education?
How can we challenge assumptions such as ‘knowledge belongs to experts’ in favour of materialist/experimental/experiential collaborations in teaching and learning?
What kinds of material and affective potential does unschooling offer us for thinking about curriculum development in Higher Education.
I got an email yesterday saying that my abstract submission for the 10th Annual New Materialisms Conference of Reconfiguring Higher Education has been accepted!
Woohoo!
This conference will be held at University of the Western Cape (Cape Town, South Africa) from 2-4 December 2019.
This is great news!
I have been working furiously on my Ethics Submission. Ethics continues to be an epic mission because of the international fieldwork aspect where I will be bike riding with locals (the Ethics board want Risk Assessments, Ethics for me, the project and the locals). This means an added level of evaluation, justification and paperwork, more so than if I just had local Brisbane participants. But I am up for the challenge!
So for this event, aside from the opportunity to participate in an international theory/practice conference, I am also engineering this trip to work in with my fieldwork.
I am very excited! There are a few big NM names also presenting, including:
Conference Streams
There are 6 conference streams this year. They are:
New materialities, decolonialities, indigenous knowledges
Slow scholarship
Arts-based pedagogies/research in HE
Neurotypicality, the undercommons and HE
New materialist reconfigurings of methodology in HE
Political ethics of care, the politics of affect, and socially just pedagogies
Image: Macro Morocco
My Abstract
Title: An athlete-teacher-researcher mountain bike race (re)turned: entangled becoming-riding-with
In this paper, I share how engaging with new materialist approaches have enabled me to think deeply and disruptively about my unfolding athlete-teacher-researcher performativities and methodology. Using as a starting point a ‘moment of rupture’ (Lennon, 2017) during a popular female-only mountain bike race, I problematize how representation, subjectivity and embodiment matters in my research with respect to my own athlete-teacher-researcher-becoming entanglements. In doing this, I draw on Wanda Pillow’s (2003) concept of ‘reflexivities of discomfort’ and Karen Barad’s (2014) diffractive ‘cut together-apart’ to reframe critical becoming-riding-with moments in alternative ways. In doing so, I delve into some messy and destabilizing ways of becoming-to-know and knowing as I continue to experiment with foregrounding the agential force of bicycles within my research unfolding.
Image: Pxhere
Conference Info.
Taken from the official conference website: Annual New Materialisms Conferences have been organised since 2009 by an international group of scholars who received the EU’s H2020 funding from 2014–18.
The conferences are meant to develop, discuss and communicate new materialisms’ conceptual and methodological innovations, and to stimulate discussion among new materialist scholars and students about themes and phenomena that are dear to the hosting local research community as well as interdisciplinary new materialist scholarship.
After having visited many cities across Europe, as well as Melbourne (Australia), the conference will come to Cape Town (South Africa) in 2019 in order to discuss the dynamic higher education landscape that we find ourselves in today. The recent #Rhodesmustfall and #feesmustfall protests have, in particular, set South African higher education on a new course towards transformation, focusing on equitable access to higher education, Africanisation and decolonisation.
This has raised important questions regarding knowledge production beyond the South African context, particularly in relation to the use and value of western theorists in local research and curricula, as well as who gains epistemological and physical access to higher education.
On the other hand, we have seen many productive junctures between pedagogy and the new materialisms, including the use of Deleuze and Guattari in education studies. In particular, there has been a focus on cartography, schizoanalysis, corporeal theorising, rhizomatic learning and nomadic thought in socially just pedagogical praxis.
These junctures and innovative genealogies and methodologies can both address as well as be further improved and made more precise by engagements with transformation toward accessible, Africanised and decolonised curricula, and research agendas and practices.
It seems fitting, then, that the 3rd South African Deleuze and Guattari Studies Conferencewill be held directly after the 10th Annual New Materialisms Conference as we grapple, together, towards new ways of being and seeing in relation to higher education.
Bike riders are a wonderful reflection of the society in which they live. Globally, there are myriad cultures, styles, approaches and lifestyles, just as there are bike riders and bikes.
It is raregain access to the lifeworlds of bike riders elsewhere. But this is what Stan Engelbrecht and Nic Groble’s South African Bicycle Portraits project provides.
Bicycle Portraits is a creative 2-year project that showcases everyday South African locals and their bicycles. Through photos Stan and Nic took while riding around South Africa and meeting local bike riders, it reveals who rides, why they ride, and why so few South Africans choose the bicycle as a primary mode of transport.
It was ambitious and simple in its conception, yet community-minded in execution.
For many South Africans, bicycles are the only transport option.
Today, Bicycle Portraits has more than 500 portraits compiled over three years. Stan and Nic have cycled over 10,000 kilometers in order to complete their collection.
It is a wonderful expose and homage to South African bicycle subculture.
It is a fascinating insight into the diverse societal, historical and cultural characteristics that make up the eclectic RSA community.
Bicycle Portrait – Stephanie Baker
Vimeo: Bicycle Portraits – Stephanie Baker
Stephanie is an 82 and ¾ year old Pretorian local, who rides her bike a kilometre uphill every other day.
In addition to being a portrait participant, Stephanie was the only personality that Stan and Nic also made a short video about (see below).
And you can see why.
Most touching is that bike riding has given Stephanie a very particular view of how cycling improves ‘public relations’ and how it helps her connect with the locals.
Unsurprisingly, Stephanie’s wholesome outlook which she aptly describes, has been viewed over 14.7 thousand times.
Stephanie is a wonderful reminder that you are never too old to enjoy riding a bike.
Vimeo: Bicycle Portraits – Stephanie Baker
Bicycle Portraits – Final Result
Stan Engelbrecht and Nic Grobler are publishing their best 165 portraits and stories selected from over 500 images they’ve collected during their 2-year journey.
The selected final portraits are included in 3 volumes. Each book also has includes different 55 stories and two essays – one essay by a local South African and the other by major international cycling figure.
The three books have been produced in collaboration with other local artists. The books are designed by Gabrielle Guy. Also, celebrated South African artist Gabrielle Raaff had created an individual hand-painted watercolor map (based on Google Maps) to indicate where portraits was taken. The final product is impressive (see below).
What a wonderful project to showcase the diversity and characters that make up the unique South African bicycle culture. I would love to see more project from around the world like this!
This book details 200 of arguably ‘the best places in the world to ride a bike’. The book is a colorfully illustrated hardback and is a delight to read.
It was published in 2016, so is still pretty current, although I’d love to hear how they decided on what rides to include and what to leave out.
Key Features
The book is divided into continents chapters. This means you can quickly find what you are looking for and get info on exactly what you’re interested in.
Each entry has a visual grading: green for ‘easy’, blue for ‘harder’ and red for ‘epic’.
It covers all types of cycling: individual, family, sightseeing, road, mountain biking, bikepacking, urban rides and a heap of ideas for those into epic off-track adventuring. off the beaten track.
Each ride is accompanied by awesome scenic photos and a map. There are also toolkit and advice boxes to help with the practicalities of planning that particular trip.
The photos are ohhhh, sooo very motivating. I like how they include not just cycling and scenery, but also lifestyle, people, culture and travel vignettes that really showcase the uniqueness of riding in the region.
The locations included show judicious selection. What wonderful geographic spread: Moab, California, Canada, India Himalayas, NZ, Vietnam, Norway, Argentina, Japan, Denmark, Wales, Thailand, Australia … and heaps of other places. Impressive!
At the end of each section (which is more descriptive), there is a short factual ‘more like this’ section, which includes suggestions for other rides elsewhere in the style of that ride – what a great idea!
It was really inspiring reading this book. I’ve definitely added a few more thumbtacks into my bikepacking map of the world!
Post-Sydney conference has been busy with the final teaching week of Trimester 2 which means saying good-bye to classes and completing final assessment marking (*PHEW!*). On the PhD front, I’ve been working on my Ethics Application and putting together a Continuing Scholarship application to go full-time starting next year. During research, I found the below article about Nigerian bicycle decoration in a journal called Africa Arts. It is a blast from the past (1999), but I was delighted to see art bikes being featured in research literature. It gave me hope for academia …and a few ideas for a possible journal article! Below are a few of the more interesting creative highlights from the article. Enjoy! NG.
Source: Renne & Usman (1999).
This week I was stoked to find this article:
Renne, E., & Usman, D. (1999). Bicycle Decoration and Everyday Aesthetics in Northern Nigeria. African Arts,32(2), 46-92. doi: 10.2307/3337602.
This article starts with a discussion about “the dichotomy perceived to exist between objects considered to be every-day items and those considered to be traditional artworks is artificial in the Northern Nigerian context” (p. 46) and was written to probe the “continuity between the refined and intensified forms of experience that are works of art and the everyday events, doings, and sufferings” (Dewey 1934 p. 3).
Ultimately, the aim of this paper is to explore how the decoration of bicycles and the display of other everyday things in Northern Nigeria reflect an aesthetic process whereby the artist’s technical mastery of materials and creative innovation evokes a pleasurable response in the viewer.
Source: Renne & Usman (1999).
Bicycle Decoration in Northern Nigeria
Essentially, there are two main ways locals Zaria and Jos (Northern Nigeria) decorate their bike:
1. Traditional decoration (has 3 steps)
Step 1: Cloth or paper is used to cover the frame of the bike. Cloth is more expensive, but is washable.
Step 2: The frame is then painted usually in two contrasting colours.
Step 3: Decorative accessories are used for embellishments. These include handlebar tassels, mudguard decorations, fringed seat covers and pedals, plastic flowers and stickers.
2. Stickers only (new style)
Increasingly, coloured and metallic stickers are being used to completely cover the bike. The advantage here is that Day-Glo stickers can be incorporated into the design for increased night riding safety.
It should be noted that when the authors talk about ‘stickers’, they are referring mainly to sticky tape and vinyl/plastic type adhesive stickers (see picture below). The colours and designs of the stickers strongly reflect the local cultural aesthetic – which is best seen incorporated into the local architecture.
Given that this article was published in 1999, there was little access and variety to what we know as ‘stickers’ today. Even so, the idea of covering a bike in stickers still works, especially considering sticker today express messages individually, as well as en masse. So great thought could be applied to the placement, arrangement, colour and the overall message that the owner wants to convey if they were using today’s vast array of sticker types.
Source: Renne & Usman (1999).
Creative take-aways
I found this study interesting as it was focused on the skill of art and craft as a specific cultural signifier – whilst equally emphasising the everyday practicality of bicycles (used as tools, objects and transportation) as being something that is both beautify and functional.
There were a few design, aesthetics and creative approaches to embellishing objects (such as bikes) that were particularly interesting, for example, the concepts of:
conveying a feeling of balance, but not necessarily symmetry
creating a sense of balance amidst uncertainly
fusing material and ideas through technical aptitude
Gell’s (1992) observation that “the awe inspired by the unimaginable technological transformation of materials is akin to being charmed or enchantment” – suggesting an almost magical, anthropomorphic quality to the bicycle designs
that unity in design is temporary
Bamana carver-sculptor have a spirit-mentor to guide their practice and need to show technical aptitude as well as visual imagination to be successful
I also love the idea that bike artists can pursue an ‘aesthetic impulse’ and in decorating a bike there are opportunities for ‘resistance’, such as “striving for discontinuity and disorder”, “novelty in action” and expressing a “greater range and depth of insight and increase poignancy in feeling”.
Source: Renne & Usman (1999).
A bit of cultural context
In Northern Nigeria where this study took place, bicycles are ubiquitous.
They are commonly are associated with long-distance trading and with ritual practices that express certain social (brides ride the handlebars of their grooms bicycles to go to their husband’s houses), psychological (unsafe riding in rural villages suggests mental health issues) and/or literary (bicycles feature in well-known poetry) and political (bicycles were used in a range of political demonstrations) in states.
In the local language, the term kaya is described as an “invaluable word [that] can be used to mean almost anything”, although it may be loosely translated as”load” or as objects related to a certain activity. Thus, just as kayan doki refers to articles associated with horses (doki), kayan keke refers to decorative things associated with bicycles (keke). In the past bicycles have been referred to as dokin k’arfe – or ‘horse of iron’ – which I think it quite apt!
Source: Renne & Usman (1999).
Renne, E., & Usman, D. (1999). Bicycle Decoration and Everyday Aesthetics in Northern Nigeria. African Arts,32(2), 46-92. doi: 10.2307/3337602.
How easily we forget or disregard that which is not part of our immediate daily experience….like the plight of elephants.
Elephant populations have declined by 62% over the last decade, with 24,000 Elephants poached last year in Africa alone.
Sunday (August 12th) was World Elephant Day 2018.
To celebrate the majestic elephant – and as a reminder that just because we don’t see them every day – much still needs to be done for those elephants still left.
So, here are a few ways that cyclists are progressing elephant conservation, both off and on the bike.
Source: Ride a Bike not an Elephant
Ride a bike, not an elephant – Khatsahlano Street Party
One way to show support off the bike is by wearing a t-shirt like one of these below, which comes from annual Khatsahlano Street Party.
This event had local bands, artisans, food trucks, and giveaways. The T-shirt featured here was a key part of the event fundraising campaign to protect elephants from the unethical tourism industry. 100% of the net profit of these T-shirts went to free an abused elephant to a sanctuary in Asia.
Source: Bring the Elephant back home
Bike for Elephants 2018
‘Bike for Elephants’ is a 2-day charity bike tour arranged as part of the Dutch group Bring the elephant back home group. This bike ride is in eastern Thailand and the cost of participation goes towards innovative wild elephant conservation projects. This ride is promoted as an adventure and fun biking trip through the mountains and plantations and through forests in Chantaburi Province.
Cost includes safety instructions, a t-shirt, overnight stay, mountain bike rental, helmet, all meals and drinks. Also included are opportunities to meet the research team, see live elephants and new conservation techniques (like the beehive fences) in action and being part of an experience that is a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Source: Spreadshirt
So what’s all the fuss?
Elephants are amazing creatures.
Green Global Travel’s website is focused on drawing attention to the challenge elephants face – and goes on to state that:
In the early 1900s African Elephant populations were estimated to be in the millions, while there were around 100,000 Asian Elephants. According to World Wildlife Fund, today there are around 700,000 African Elephants in the wild, and just 32,000 Asian Elephants.
In 1989, CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) banned the international ivory trade. Yet poaching for ivory has been steadily increasing, with 800,000 African elephants killed over the last three decades.
In addition to poaching, habitat loss and conflict with human populations are key threats facing Elephant populations. Climate change projections suggest key Elephant habitat will become hotter and drier, so poor foraging conditions may threaten the survival of more calfs in the future.
So sometime this week, take at least one small step to support elephant rescue and conservation – and show the world that cyclists are connected and care about our world – both on and off the bike.
And next time you’re riding with cycling buddies, here’s a few other interesting elephant facts you can share…
Elephants are incapable of jumping, but these massive mammals can run at a maximum speed of 25 miles (40 km) per hour.
Elephants, like people, have a ‘prefered side’ of using their tusks: Some are “lefties,” others are “righties.” They’ll favor that tusk when fighting other Elephants, picking things up, or stripping leaves and bark off trees. Because of constant usage, their preferred tusk gets shorter over time.
The elephant’s trunk (called a proboscis) contains 16 muscles.
Elephants have incredibly poor digestion, with only 50% efficiency. As a result, they release an incredible amount of gas (methane) and produce around 250 pounds of manure a day!
Elephant skin is over an inch thick. But because it’s loaded with nerve endings, their skin is also highly sensitive. Elephants from the same herd will often use touch to greet each other, either wrapping their trunks around each other or giving each other friendly “hello” taps on the body.
A big thanks to Papa Al for passing on this inspiring story to share! NG.
There can be few better examples of where bicycles create more positive community change than through the bicycle work of Bernard Kiawia.
Bernard Kiwia started out as a bike mechanic in his home country of Tanzania.
While repairing bicycles, he began applying his skills to use pedal power to create products and tools that directly improve to the lives of people in his community.
In 2011, Bernard made a bicycle-powered cellphone charger (see below).
Bernard is now a well-respected social entrepreneur – and bikes still feature prominently in many of his new inventions.
His current work is now focused on applying his (and other people’s) mechanical and technical skills towards addressing manual labour and technology issues in his area.
What we want to show people is they have skills to make their own technology that they can afford, they can repair, they can find the spare parts that they need
With local people, their income is always small and the kind of machines you can buy in the shop are not made for these local people because they’re expensive. That’s why I’m focusing on local.
I create technologies because I realise it’s something that can help my family and the community.
Source: Twende-tanzania.org
Twende – Accelerating Social Innovation
Bernard established Twende, which is a community inventor’s workshop. Twende is a creative workspace for people to come and use tools, problem solve ideas and experiment with making prototypes.
In this way, Twende functions similarly to a Men’s Shed, as it is an open workspace that has tools, resources and people there to support projects.
It also runs three workshop streams
1. Creative Capacity Workshop -entry-level workshops for any level.
Affordable Flashlight (~6 hours)
Automatic Switch (~7 hours)
Solar-Powered Phone Charger (~10 hours)
2. Built It Workshops – mechanically-focused workshops which include:
Spirit Stove (~3 hours)
Bottle Opener (~2 hours)
Electronics Workshop for secondary schools
A few of the Build Its Workshops are also integrated into some schools electronics curriculum.
3. Advanced Offerings – requires some advanced skills and tools (like welding)
Drip Irrigation
Bicycle-Powered Maize Sheller
So far, over 800 local innovators have used Twende, of which most are secondary school students, small-holder farmers, women, and microentrepreneurs.
Bicycles are ubiquitous and versatile (especially as a means to produce energy-efficient power) so it is not surprising that they feature in many of Twende’s inventions.
Source: Flickr Erik (HASH) Hersman
The Twende innovation hub was established as a space to “collaborate with students and community members in Tanzania to identify their challenges and design & create their own solutions to their problems will contribute to a world with improved access to technologies that improve people’s lives, a stronger local economy, and a nation of innovators and problem-solvers.”
are designed with (not just for) communities & partners
…and they make some of their own inventions for use and sale as well
Source: BBC News 1 Video
Twende is such an important grassroots social venture.
It fosters creative ingenuity, recycling, upskilling, empowers local skills, is cost-effective and addresses locally-identified issues – as well as providing a welcoming space for people to test mechanical and technical ideas that have an immediate positive impact.
And all this grew out of one man’s exploration of how a bike could make work and life better – awesome!
