Walter Wilson Nana
11 April 2008
Buea — There have been many stories told about bicyclists riding across or around the world on the mechanical contraption called a bicycle - all smoothed with greased gears, chains, rubber pedals and the like. Not for carpenter Jules Fils Otong Bassong, 40, who likes it crude, in wood.
With a little touch of reversed engineering, Bassong is touring Cameroon on a wooden bicycle, which he crafted from the finest wood the country is blessed with.
Bassong took off from Bamenda in the Northwest Province and took 13 days to reach Buea in the Southwest Province. Along the route, the cyclist jotted down the comments of some administrative and political leaders he met.
"It has not been a smooth ride. Like any other mechanical activity, I had an accident along the line. You can see my bruised chin. It is healing gradually. I wouldn't give up on this tour," Bassong told this reporter.
From Buea, Bassong is heading to Douala. He will visit other parts of the Littoral Province before heading to the three northern provinces.Bassong says he wishes to end his tour in Yaounde and subsequently in his town of residence, Puma, in the Littoral Province.
"I wish to crown my tour with a small feast with my kith and kin of Puma," he says.
This native of Potolom in Edea, Sanaga-Maritime Division, Littoral, explains how the idea came about.
"It took me two years and seven months to conceive the ideas and then get down to the reality, which is the tactful build-up and progressive placements of the various parts of the bicycle. The first attempt to construct the bicycle failed. I didn't give up. I sat back and started working on what you now see."
The carpenter, who is a father of eight children, has a motivation for not only daring to go on a cycling tour of Cameroon."I want to highlight the Cameroonian that I am. We can also do it in Cameroon and the African continent in general. We must not only go, admire, buy and take from elsewhere in the world.
Let's belief in what we can offer, produce from our own natural resources and others will also refer and come to us. Let it be said and known that it is a bicycle made in Cameroon, accompanied by a Cameroonian trade mark, with the copyright protected," he commented.
Bassong was confident that if he is given all the necessary support, he would manufacture more wooden bicycles and put them on sale. "I can do thousands of them if I have a sponsor. Let Cameroonians come in their numbers and support what I'm doing so that other people and countries will say it came from Cameroon," he said.
The sculptor uses various woods known locally as acacia, bobinga and dosier.
Like any other bicycle, Bassong's wooden machine has brakes. "If it did not have breaks, I wouldn't have been able to descend the steep slopes along the Dschang road in the West Province," he noted.
As a sculptor, Bassong has carved out many statues including that of his deceased mother and other personalities in Cameroon.Bassong, who attended Lycée Technique d'Edea (Government Technical High School, Edea) prayed that youths should copy his example and come and work with him.
"The most important thing now is to get a strong backup to this project. Let the people of Cameroon come on board. My wish is to have a very credible sponsor," he stated.
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