AfriGadget

In Africa bicycle repair men can be found everywhere, from under a tree to in the local vegetable market, one of the best places to find African innovations.

At the Karen market I met the charismatic Mohammed Makokha who proudly showed me two of his home made gadgets that are critical for his business.

I’ve obviously been wasting my money in the bicycle stores.

Zambikes is a project that retrofits bicycles by adding a trailer. This is especially useful in rural Zambia (and other parts of Africa) where there aren’t many cars to get the sick to hospital, much less an ambulance.

Watch how the ‘Zambulance’ retrofit is made…

The ‘ZamCart’
A multipurpose trailer

Interestingly, the Zambike project sells and outfits bikes under the local brand name of ‘Amaka Sana’, the Bemba word for ‘very strong’ .

To learn more: Zambikes.org and follow @ACIRFA_Zambikes on twitter

via Timbuktu Chronicles

I have a talk that I give when people ask me to speak on AfriGadget at conferences that is called, “What do you see?”. It’s a visual and interactive quiz where I take the audience through different images of AfriGadget and ask them what they’re looking at. It’s a lot of fun, and it proves to everyone why it’s so hard for people in the West to come up with contextually relevant life hacks in Africa.

Below are some images from an old family friend who has spent his life working in rural Southern Sudan and Kenya. Under each image you’ll see why it’s interesting. By the way, I too missed the relevance of the flip flops at first glance…

Making use of available resources for a hinge. I really like the way that Ben has used these old slippers and shoe for the hinge of his small kiosk/shop at Butere.

This old chair at Mahanga in Western Province shows the ingenuity of the local carpenters in making use of available resources, with the carton and stuffing from sisal and wood shavings.

Using available containers in a nursery for medicinal plants in Asembo area of Western Kenya.

Making use of a Fanta bottle to channel water from the rainwater downpipe to a storage container in Nairobi.

A special thanks to Roger Sharland of REAP East Africa for sending in the pictures.

Our good friend Forsty sent in the following picture of a “climatised” bus he took in Mopti, Mali the other day:

While it may not be the perfect example of an AfriGadget, it still helps to illustrate how people make do with what is available.

For some folks this may just be an unroadworthy vehicle, for others it’s a comfortable bus that will take you from A to B. Hey, and did we mention it’s air-conditioned?

Few things make Monday really special. Here’s a photo posted by Alen Wekesa on Twitter. Alen describes himself as a sassy Kenyan who loves advertising, music and the arts. iPhone, Twitter, Facebook junkie. Soon to be millionaire with a big heart for charity. Reliable. He is in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, but I’m not sure where he took this photo. Enjoy! (Sorry for the dud link earlier folks, here’s trying again)

Follow Alen on Twitter @iAlen