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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Bicycles in colonial Malawi: a short history
Author:McCracken, JohnISNI
Year:2011
Periodical:The Society of Malawi Journal
Volume:64
Issue:1
Pages:1-12
Language:English
Geographic term:Malawi
Subjects:bicycles
colonial period
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/41289168
Abstract:This paper provides a chronological account of the introduction and spread of bicycles in Malawi between 1895, when the first safety bicycle was imported into Nyasaland, and the eve of independence. In the early days, the new technology was largely the preserve of Europeans. But by the First World War, several members of Nyasaland's growing African elite had acquired bicycles, primarily as a means of personal transport. In the late 1920s, however, fish traders began to acquire bicycles and their example was followed by migrant workers returning from South Africa or Southern Rhodesia. By the late 1940s, some better-off farmers were also purchasing bicycles. Even in the 1950s bicycles remained scarce items owned by only a small proportion of the population. By this time, however, they had begun to be used for the multiplicity of purposes common in more recent times. African policemen were equipped with bicycles and bicycles were used to transport all kinds of commodities as well as people. Bicycles constituted a cost-effective, flexible means of transport, not requiring the expensive investment in roads and fuel needed by lorries and tractors. Note, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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