“The bike is for me to do the work of selling some medicines, you see. I travel with the bike to get some herbs and medicines on the mountains. I do healing of the people and selling medicines – for a living. I pick up some plants in the mountains, so I’m heading to the mountains now – it’s the usual work I do. I look for any kind of special herbs, you know, for drinking – usual stuff. I sell it to the communities. I’ve been cycling for about three years, I enjoy it for sure. For keeping fitness too.”–Western Cape’s Asher Tafara
Bike tours have become an increasingly popular way to vacation and see the countryside of a new place at the pace you want to set. Cycling has long been a leisure activity. It is increasingly become a mode of transportation in American cities, which are catching up with places like Beijing and Copenhagen, but meeting with mixed results. Some places are accepting of the cyclists, cities providing bike lanes, motorists looking for cyclists before making turns or opening car doors. This is not the case everywhere. In Cambridge, MA, cyclists are common and most motorists share the road respectfully. Cross the line into Boston and you’ll be met by a less considerate crew. “Get off the road” is shouted from car windows, bus drivers squeeze cyclists off the road and arguments between cyclists and motorists are seen on a daily basis. I’ve even thrown some of my own swears at motorists who considered my right of way irrelevant.
Mabutsetsa Mpeete
In many other countries, bicycles are a way of life. They generally aren’t for leisure; they offer a way to do the work people have always done, but more efficiently. They also allow people to see more of where they live and meet the people they share their country with, which they couldn’t do on foot alone. This understanding in mind, Stan Engelbrecht and Nic Grobler set out on a two year journey of South Africa (funded by Kickstarter). Sure, they saw a new place in their travels, but their trip had more intent behind it. They wanted to document the impact of the bicycle in changing the quality of people’s lives.
Their project included many interviews and striking photographic portraiture that tell a story of a way of life changed by opportunity. It’s also a reminder that in many places even small opportunity costs too much. While the bicycle has helped many increasingly support themselves and their families, others have not been as fortunate.
“I’m off to go and sell this bicycle as I don’t have the rest of the parts working anymore or money to fix it. I’m going to the scrap yard. They weigh it there, maybe they’ll give me R12 or R11. I already took the wheels. When the bicycle was working I used it everyday–people sent me to fetch things.”–Northern Cape’s Edward September
It makes me feel bad for the two bicycles I own which see little pavement these days, knowing they could benefit someone else in a potentially life changing way.
- via Co.Design
