Touring Cameroon on a wooden bicycle
Jules Fils Otong Bassong, a spectacular, colourfully-looking and grotesque-voice cyclist, is set to tour Cameroon on his bicycle made out of some of the finest wooden materials nature has blessed Cameroon with. The 40-year old Bassong looks physically strong and upbeat about what he has embarked.
Bassong’s take off town is Bamenda, the chief town of the Northwest Province of Cameroon. It has taken him 13 days, on his wooden bicycle, from Bamenda to Buea, the capital of the Southwest Province. In the course of cycling from Bamenda to Buea, the sculptor cum cyclist has passed through some major towns of Cameroon. The names of these towns are jutted in a personal Visitor’s Note Book he has with him.
Even the comments of some administrative and political leaders he has met are in his Visitor’s Note Book. “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. It’s coming from the bottom of my heart,” Bassong told this reporter.
From Buea, Bassong his heading towards Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon. At the close of the Douala stopover and other parts of the Littoral Province, the three northern provinces of Cameroon will be surprisingly looking forward to this cyclist on the wooden bicycle. An interesting view and experience indeed!
According to Bassong, his wish is to officially end his tour in Yaounde, Cameroon’s political capital and subsequently to his town of residence, Puma, in the Littoral Province. “I’ll want to end in Puma, crowning my tour with a small feast, with my kith and kin of Puma that I love so much,” he wished.This native of Potolom in Edea, the capital of the Sanaga-Maritime division in the Littoral Province of Cameroon opened up on how the idea(s) of manufacturing a wooden bicycle came about. “It took me 2 years 7 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, searched my mind and soul and started working on what you now see, which is a bicycle fabricated out of wood.”
The father of 8, married to Rose, a sculptor-in-wood cum carpenter has a motivation for not only daring to go on a cycling tour of Cameroon on a wooden bicycle, there are also some reasons to have made a bicycle out of wood. “I want to highlight the Cameroonian that I’m. We can also do it in Cameroon and the African continent in general. We must not only go, admire, buy and take from else where 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 copyrights protected,” he commented.
Bassong was confident that if he is given all the necessary support, he will manufacture more of the wooden bicycles and put them on sale. “I can do thousands of them if I have a sponsor. My fervent wish is to make it a Cameroonian specialty. 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 employs various quality of wooden materials in his artistry, known in local parlance as; Acacia, Bobinga and Dosier.Like any other bicycle, that made by Bassong also applies the break mechanism, which will enable him stop when ever he wishes. “There is the break mechanism, if not I wouldn’t have been able to go down the steep slopes found along the Dschang road in the West Province of Cameroon,” he noted.
As a sculptor, Bassong has carved out many statues, including that of his deceased mother and other personalities in Cameroon.
To the Cameroonian youths Bassong, who went through Lycée Technique d’Edea (Government Technical High School, Edea) prayed that they 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 to this idea of mine. I’ll be more than grateful to hear from Para-public institutions, the government of Cameroon, especially from the Minister of Youth Affairs, Minister of Culture, Minister of Environment and Forestry, the First Lady of the Republic, Chantal Biya and why not President Biya,” he requested.
Keywords: cameroon sport
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