Paper short abstract:

The paper examines the factors that influenced cycling as well as the potential uniqueness of cycling cultures such as personal mobility option, waste recycling artefact, commuter alternative, intra-urban goods transit and as trading machines which helped urbanites in their quest for survival.

Paper long abstract:

In 1976, the government of Tanzania commenced the construction of the only bicycle factory ever built in Eastern and Central Africa. While the decision to establish the factory was made as part of the national industrialisation drive, the state and media capitalised on the project as an environmentally and healthily sustainable mobility solution in the midst of the global oil shortage and local urban mobility crises. With much of Tanzania largely rural, Dar es Salaam was at the heart of brimming urbanism, bicycle making as well as the promotion of daily cycling to and from work places. The promotion cycling came after almost 6 decades of importation bicycles and spare parts from United Kingdom and India. This paper explores cycling experiences from Dar es Salaam city by examining the factors that influenced cycling as well as the potential uniqueness of cycling cultures such as personal mobility option, waste recycling artefact, commuter alternative, intra-urban goods transit and as trading machines which helped urbanites in their quest for survival. As such, this paper navigates the dynamics of cycling between urban society, state and economy in a global south urbanity from the 1920s to the recent past. It identifies non-conventional bicycle usage, thus contributing to the appropriation stories stemming from Africa and other parts of the Global South.