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AfriGadget

• March 12, 2010
• 17:01

  Modified bicycles in Kenya – 100% Afrigadget!

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  Community  

  My good friend Jagi Gakunju who runs the Kenyan environmental cyclists club Uvumbuzi club told me about this project which immediately caught my attention. It’s a collaboration with Africans and a Dutch organization.

  

  You can read all about Cycling Blue in Kisumu on their Cycling Blue blog

  

  

  

  The Cycling Blue Kenya workshop is providing courses, micro credit for (modified) bicycles and creating of employment, it is aimed to reduce poverty. In the workshop bicycles will be modified to create bicycle carts (for instance bicycle ambulances) for sale. Who buys them?  Garbage collectors, local entrepreneurs who want a (modified) bicycle to generate income such as the Cool coolbox, bicycles with extended carriers for transport of cabbages.

  The idea that bicycles in Africa get modified and adapted for local uses is definitely 100% afrigadget.

  Check out the brilliant Cycling out of poverty  website here for more photos and videos.  For more information Luuk Eickmans

  Cycling out of poverty
  info@cyclingoutofpoverty.com
  http://www.cyclingoutofpoverty.com
  0031-(0)615895529
  SNS-bank 90.61.46.356

  If you and your family want a great weekend out on bikes, join the Uvumbuzi cycling club here

• March 10, 2010
• 3:41

  Recycling – tyres, motorbike wheels and water pumps

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  Community  

  What do you get if you cross tractor tyres, motorbike wheels and a water pump? Well, in Africa you could get anything! Here’s an odd combination of things related to water – recycled tractor tyres cut to make water troughs

  

  This contribution is thanks to Bankelele (the very cool Kenyan blogger) who responded to a recent post on tractor tyres with the comment “I found a similar one last week and e-mailed it to hash, but perhaps the pics should be added to this post as its the same use of tractor tyre for livestock water”. He spotted it in Feb 2010 during funeral at a homestead in kapsowar, Kenya (note to Banks – Thanks for this, and next time send me low res pics dude!)

  

  well it works doesn't it?

  Here’s another water related gadget – a water pump turned into a grinder – and why not? This was spotted and photographed in Gikomba in Nairobi Kenya by Dominic Wanjihia.

  

  A modified wheel barrow that makes so much more sense – motorbike tyres and check out the puncture proofing on the wheel below

  

  Puncture proof!

  This was spotted on the Limuru  road works near Nairobi Kenya. Have you seen anything interesting that you’d like to contribute to Afrigadget? Don’t be shy! Send it to us – we’d love to get contributions from across the continent.

• March 03, 2010
• 21:03

  Cameroonian Bamboo Magic

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  Gadgets  

  Our friend Bill Zimmerman, a technologist who runs a startup un-incubator called LimbeLabs in Cameroon, posted this interesting story on his blog about a teacher who makes an extra income by fabricating gadgets out of Bamboo.

  Avid readers may remember the Bamboo Bike project, so the idea of using Bamboo as an alternative and sustainable material isn’t that far fetched. In fact, we’re glad that someone took the initiative and ventured into this field with so many different products at the same time. Bamboo Magic, really. Make sure not to miss out the video!

  

  “I had an opportunity to stop by the 2009 South West Regional Agro-Pastoral Show, an annual exhibition for local farmers and craftsmen, here in Limbe this afternoon. The event was held on a community field ringed by exhibition booths overflowing with every imaginable vegetable, fruit and live animal cultivated and raised in the southwest region of Cameroon. In addition, there were a number of innovators with homemade products and gadgets crafted from local materials.

  Amid all the displays, one guy stood apart with some creations that can only be described as a near perfect marriage of form, function, green design and a borderline obsession with bamboo. Lekuama Ketuafor is the proprietor of Bamboo Magic, a one-man cottage industry he’s started to supplement his work as a teacher.

  Using a set of simple hand tools, glue, varnish, skill and loads of patience, Lekuama finds ways of using bamboo—a ubiquitous, low-cost, renewable material—in ways many people have never imagined. Judging from the size of the crowd gathered around his booth, I suspect few Cameroonians had seen anything quite like Lekuama’s creations before.

  

  

  

  

  Among the intricately decorated bamboo shoes [2], vest, palm wine calabash, cowboy hat, clocks and so on, I was immediately attracted to two incredibly cool electronics-related pieces: a bamboo covered Nokia phone and an attractive and functional laptop case. Here’s a video of Lekuama, dressed appropriately in head-to-toe bamboo wear, demonstrating these items:

  The attention to detail on the laptop case is impressive, right down to the external USB port access, shoulder strap attachments, carry handle, magnetic clasps, internal elastic keeper strap and red felt lining. And how about that chic mobile phone?

  Due to the time intensive nature of his craft, Lekuama makes these items for sale in very small quantities. However, his dream is to establish a training center where he can transfer his skills to young Cameroonians and build a community of artisan microentrepreneurs.”

  Obviously, agricultural shows in Africa are a great resource for AfriGadgets.

• March 02, 2010
• 2:00

  Drogba in Nairobi at juakali leather works

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  Deep in Kariokor, a slum and a hub of Nairobi’s juakali leather industry, you can’t miss spotting Drogba hard at work at his home made leather press.

  

  Drogba at work

  Drogba’s leather press is an assembly of diverse components.

  The fly wheels are made up of two used conveyor pulleys full of concrete. These are joined together by two used second hand vehicle half shafts.

  The half shafts are connected to an old bench vice screw (hope you are singing along here)

  The screw is connected to a press foot

  (all together now) “Oh hear the world of the lord” (tune of the kids song Dry Bones)

  The print plates are placed on the base of the press frame.

  

  God is able - so is Drogba!

  When Drogba spins the fly wheels, he sandwiches the leather between the press plate and press foot producing perfect permanent imprints in the leather

  

  This method is used for most of Kenya’s printed leather products, a huge industry that includes Maasai beaded belts, menu covers, wallets, passport holders, belts, key holders, coasters, handbags, purses, and many fashion accessories and leather souvenir products.

  Drogba is 18 years old and works a good 12 hours per day on a casual wage. He has just completed high school and is looking for a college placement.  As you can imagine, he’s a huge fan of his soccer celebrity lookalike and namesake.

  (special thanks to Dominic Wanjihia for this contribution)

• February 28, 2010
• 8:27

  Jua kali dressed in Mitumba

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  energy  

  

  Catwalk ready arc welder

  This bizarre fabricated arc welding machine is the unique collaboration between jua kali and mitumba. Jua kali literally means hot sun in Kiswahili, and refers to the informal small traders who work outdoors in the sun fabricating mostly work metal and wood items, fixing cars and other household items. Unable to afford new tools they fabricate their own out of locally available materials. Mitumba refers to the second hand western clothing sold on the streets of many African cities. The arc welder uses stolen scrap and second hand wires that are coated for insulation using strips of cloth torn from unsellable mitumba clothes.  This is then wound into the welding machine coils.

  

  God help James if it rains!

  I’d gone to Limuru to get a welder for a job on a dairy where I met James Mutahi. He is a typical jua kali wrought iron artisan who operates on the sidewalk outside his street workshop using his own home made tools.  I’ve seen jua kali home made arc welding machines before but usually they are housed in a protective box. To save money James dispensed with the casing revealing the guts of his arc welder.

  James was making security grill for a window. There’s a huge demand for arc welding in Limuru especially for gates and window bars which are essential in the high risk security zones of Nairobi and other urban centers.  Nairobi’s security is the result of the collaboration between mitumba and jua kali!

  The picture speaks volumes about the Jua-Kali sector in Kenya– cost saving is paramount whilst safety is overlooked hence no housing box – look for welding goggles, fire extinguisher and other safety gear.

  (This submission is from Dominic Wanjihia)

• February 18, 2010
• 6:44

  Tractor tyres and bush buckets in Masailand

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  Community  

  I have just spent a week in the field studying Masailand ecology and community conservation with Princeton University students. The location is not that remote (Kitengela and Olerai within 40 km of Nairobi) and the community are wonderfully resourceful when it comes to day to day tools for pastoralism.

  

  Tractor tyre trough for water for goats and sheep

  This old tractor or truck tyre was somehow cut, opened up and sealed at either end to make a perfectly good livestock watering trough. Even Joy Adamson noted that the Masai question using modern appliances if home made ones do the job anyway.

  

  Tractor tyre cattle salt lick

  Another way to make  a salt lick, Evelyn just cut a truck tyre in half and placed it  on the ground supported by stumps.

  

  home made bucket works perfectly

  Why buy a bucket when you can just make one with an old water container and a piece of metal?

  

  Home made shovel

  And if you don’t have a shovel for your manure, just straighten out some corrugated iron, cut it and nail to a stick  and Presto – probably more effective than anything you could  buy in Nairobi. Manure is one of the few products sold to passing trucks on these remote ranches.

  

  Keeping land open for wildlife migrations in and out of Nairobi National Park can be costly to those living with wildlife. Those in The Wildilfe Foundations land lease scheme earn 4$ per  acre per year to keep the properties open (no fences)  and to supplement their income they make beautiful beaded artworks for sale on Olerai Conservancy.

  

  It might look like a tough life for some of us, but the Masai out here seem perfectly satisfied and at peace

• February 15, 2010
• 5:31

  Modified farm implements in Kenya

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  In Baringo one farmer has come up with two rather interesting innovations.

  Murray Roberts is in the business of planting restoring grasslands which involves planting grass seeds in severely degraded landscapes.

  The primary purpose of ploughing is to turn over the upper layer of the soil, bringing fresh nutrients to the surface, while burying weeds and the remains of previous crops, allowing them to break down. It also aerates the soil, and allows it to hold moisture better.

  

  A traditional plough comprises a series of blades all facing the same direction.

  

  Murray Roberts has modified his plough so that it has two blades facing each other. These create a hill and furrow effect which is perfect for grass seeding to improve the trapping rainwater in this semi arid part of Kenya. Normally the rainwater hits the surface and sheets off the ground carrying away the valuable top soil and seeds!

  But that’s not all. Ever tried to make a fence using barbed wire – you know how tangled it can get? Well not if you use one of Murray Roberts fencing gizmo, it’s basically a tool onto which you thread the barbed wire so that when you go out into the field to fence a plot, you can release the wire in an untangled manner and under tension.  Simple and obvious and you don’t need a wire tightening tool.

  

  That’s William Kimosop and Princeton University Undergraduates checking it out – don’t ask  me what that dog is up to!

• February 10, 2010
• 4:29

  Fuel saving Sufuria

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  Community  

  Here’s another interesting idea from Dominic Wanjihia (see links to his other gadgets below) – the fuel efficient Sufuria. A sufuria is the aluminium pan that is used by virtually everyone in Kenya to make tea, ugali and for cooking vegetables. Like all pots that we use, energy is wasted around the sides of the pot. In Africa this is expensive as fuel be it gas, kerosene or charcoal  is expensive.

  This is what it looks like when assembled

  

  Sufuria Kenya afrigadget

  This is what it is comprised of – two sufurias to make one efficient one. Basically a hole is cut out of the bigger sufuria – and the piece cut out becomes the lid so nothing is wasted. To wash the sufuria you just dismantle the pieces by just slipping it out. The heat that otherwise escapes around the edge of the pan, is trapped between the cooking pot and  it’s sleeve.

  Though it’s not in production, Dominic is using this sufuria at home and swears that it saves at least 50-75% energy on a kerosene stove (his estimate is based on how long it’ takes to boil water).

  So if you put a fuel efficient sufuria on a Kinyanjui fuel efficient stove I wonder how much energy saving you could achieve?

  Dominic Wanjihia has been previously on Afrigadget showcasing his flat parabolic mirror, container garden, wearable Solar Panel vest, Food dryer, and camel milk cooler.

• February 09, 2010
• 11:46

  Rim Stoves: Cooking MamaPut Goodness

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  I love street food. Everywhere I go, from street markets in Russia, to back alleys of Beijing to side streets in Skopje, to the boulevards of Bamako, I make it a point to eat as many meals from roadside stands as possible. Ghana and Nigeria are no exception. In fact, I love me a MamaPut.

  Its only where Mama herself is there to put more of her good eats on your plate, that I really feel I’m getting a good meal. Why? Because I can see ever step of its preparation, talk with the chief personally, and share the transcending bond of food with my fellow man and woman.

  Now I wouldn’t call myself a street food expert – I’m not discerning enough for that title, but I am observant in the different styles of edibles vendors. In West Africa, I’m particularly impressed by the stock street food cooking apparatus. Simple, cheap, and recycled, I present to you the “Rim Stove”.

  . .

  Using the steel rim off a car wheel as the basic starting point, three metal legs are wielded to the outside of the rim. Inside, a metal grate is added to the bottom to hold in the coals, and some form of pan or kettle stand is wielded to the top.

  I’ve seen several variations on this theme, but the basics are always the same – the Rim Stove burns charcoal that’s been ignited in the middle of the rim, fed by air from the bottom and heating a cooking container sitting either on the pot stand or the coals themselves.

  During on extending brainstorming session, I even tried to think of improvements to the Rim Stove – how it might burn hotter with less customization. My only solution? Make sure a Rim Stove is cooking chips for your fresh grilled fish.

• February 01, 2010
• 8:59

  Recycling: From diving wetsuit to laptop bag

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  Environment  

  When Dipesh Pabari of Camps International sent me pictures of these laptop bags and bottle can holders, I just knew it would be something you AfriGadget fans would appreciate.

  

  The fact that discarded waste is converted to something very useful… Its definitely AfriGadget. I asked Sander Den Haring a few questions about these cool products.

  

  How did you begin your company?

  I was born in a small town called Hellevoetsluis in the Netherlands but only lived there till i was 5. At that point my family moved to Yanbu, Saudi Arabia where i grew up and ended up spending 16 years. Yanbu is an industrial town situated on the Red Sea and i believe that a lot of the what, who, why and where i am is as a result of this. From the very beginning of our time in Yanbu my parents began a weekly outing to the beach which my brother and i eagerly anticipated every Friday (weekend is Thursday and Friday in Saudi Arabia). Once at the beach we would go out and snorkel virgin reefs in the Red Sea and be stunned by the serenity and tranquility each and every time. My love for the aquatic realm and the conservation of said realm has derived from these expeditions. It led me to complete a Masters in Marine Biology from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands in 2000 so that i could work in the field of marine conservation.

  In 2004 i moved to Kenya where i have lived ever since. I began work for Buccaneer Diving as a base manager and soon added on the role of resident marine biologist. Under this capacity i was able to instigate a snorkeling program for some of the underprivileged local government schools in Mombasa (Schools to the Sea program) and an artificial reef program in the Mombasa Marine Park. Both these projects had local partners involved as well. I eventually finished full time work with Buccaneer Diving in June 2009 as the Operations Manager of Buccaneer Diving Kenya and currently fulfill only a part-time quality control position within all of Buccaneer Diving (Kenya and Zanzibar).

  I really enjoy thinking of ways to create environmental attitudes and the recycled wetsuit product line has been great in achieving this thus far! We are still coming up with new products and refining the existing products. There are no limits barring our creativity.

  What was the inspiration for re-using the diving wetsuits?

  In the dive industry wetsuits have a finite lifetime after which they become ineffective (have lost their insulating capability), or they become too hole-ridden to use in a professional business. In the past, these wetsuits were discarded. This seemed an obvious waste of material (as for the sake of a few holes, large patches of usable neoprene were being thrown out), so Buccaneer Diving began looking at what could these patches of neoprene be used for. Traditionally we have used smaller bits of neoprene for various “odd jobs” (eg. snorkel holders, buffering/padding material, informal packaging, patch material for other wetsuits), but these “odd jobs” required small amounts that did not need frequent replacement. So we started thinking if there was anything else that could be made and the obvious item was laptop bags. The bottle/can holders soon followed suit as the sleeves and legs of wetsuits already had the obvious shape (they just needed a bottom added). We are currently making the products more of an “item” and also looking into how we can incorporate the production of these products to benefit other charities. these exciting developments will be happening within the next few weeks we hope so definitely watch this space (it’ll be worth it!).

  When did you start selling the bags/bottle covers etc?

  This is a new venture and its been active for the last seven months, so still very young. We are looking at various other items we can make from the recycled neoprene (placemats and coasters might be possibilities).

  How much do the items cost?

  Currently the laptop bags sell for Ksh 2500 (about 32 usd) and the bottle/can holders ksh 350 (about 5 usd)

  Are they made in Kenya/Mombasa?

  They are indeed produced in Mombasa. Again, the story behind the production will unfold in the next few weeks and its worth the wait.

  Where can people order? Can they pay by MPESA (Mobile Money)? (Just kidding, but hey!)

  These products can be purchased at the Buccaneer Diving base at the Voyager Beach resort, Mombasa. We have not yet explored the use of MPESA in the purchase of these products as they are still young, but who knows what the future will bring. We can also arrange for products to be sent via courier if people are unable to visit the Buccaneer Diving base. Sander can be reached via email sander at green-water [dot] org.

• January 12, 2010
• 12:28

  Motorized Bicycles in Nairobi

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  

  I was driving down a street in Nairobi today and did a double-take when I saw a man standing by a motorized bicycle. One u-turn (of questionable legality) later and I was chatting with Samuel Magethe, a local carpenter who does house calls. Apparently, he usually carries his toolbox and wood supplies on the back of the bicycle, though he didn’t have them with him today. He has used the bike for 2 years and says that it’s a great help to him as he gets older and has problems with the hills.

  Motorized Bicycles in Kenya from WhiteAfrican on Vimeo.

  I talked with Samuel for a while and found out that he had bought the engine and bicycle in downtown Nairobi. Since I had to go downtown anyway, I decide to hunt out the seller and see if I could get the background story on where the motors come from and the specs on them.

  

  It turns out that the engines, and bicycles, are imported from the ADTEC Corporation in Japan. (As an aside, it appears that Adtec motorcycles are part of the big influx of Asian motorcycles being used as taxis in E. Africa.) It’s a 48cc 2-stroke engine that has a top speed of 40Kph (25mph). The tank can hold 2 litres of fuel and they claim that it gets 70 kilometres per litre.

  You can buy the bicycle plus engine for 15,000 Ksh ($200) or just the motor for 10,000 Ksh ($135).

  The company that sells them in Kenya, Adventure Technology Company Ltd, has their main office in downtown Nairobi, where they had their last two bikes that weren’t sold. In 2009 they imported 500 bicycles and sold them in their 13 branches across the country. The branch manager, Julius Lumumba, tells me it’s a good business, and they sell very quickly – especially up country in places like Kakamega, Bunguma and Kisumu.

  

  

  [Note: I forgot my cameras today, so I just had my iPhone to do the pictures/video with, thus the lower-res, sorry.]

• January 06, 2010
• 9:40

  Flat parabolic mirror is not an oxymoron!

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  energy  

  Can a parabolic mirror be flat? Dominic Wanjihias latest invention may prove that this is the most efficient way of capturing solar energy.
  

  Everyone knows what a parabolic reflector is, right? It’s supposed to be a curved surface that collects energy by converging it towards a focus. Parabolic reflectors were invented a very long time ago and have been used in satellite dishes, spot lights and car headlights to name a few. They are also widely used for alternative energy projects to concentrate solar energy for heating and cooking.

  

  Dominic (designer of the flexible solar vest, the solar dryer, and camel milk cooler for Somalia) thinks that the parabolic mirror should lose it’s shape which is an obstacle, to transportation and function.

  So how does the flat parabolic mirror work? Dominic has cut inch wide 2 foot long pieces of flexible acrylic mirrors and arranged them at specifically computed angles. When angled towards the sun, this creates a perfectly focused beam of light.

  

  This concentrated energy can be used to heat water in a pipe for numerous purposes including generating electricity. The beauty of this gadget is that

  1. It is very cheap,
  2. It can be quickly dismantled or moved,
  3. It is easily transportable as it can be carried flat or in a tube,
  4. It is easily repaired if broken as the individual mirror pieces can be replaced (rather than having to fix or replace an entire parabolic mirror).

  Please note that this is part of Dominic Wanjihia’s ongoing project with Nairobi University and MIT’s FabLab where he is doing a course.

  .

• December 11, 2009
• 6:00

  Video of home made bicycle repair tools and gadgets in Nairobi

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  Gadgets  

  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.

• December 08, 2009
• 3:01

  Recycling car batteries in Rural Kenya

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  Maina, Rhoda and little Winnie are  a typical Kenyan family who live on the outskirts of Nairobi in an area that has no electricity.

  But they have solved the problem of getting the daily news

  

  When I visited their home I was impressed that despite the lack of electricity, Maina has come up with an innovative solution and is able to keep up with whats going on and listen to his favourite Kikuyu music all day long!

  

  Here’s a better look at the system – a second hand car battery hooked up directly to his radio

  

  The wiring is simple

  

  Fully charged the battery last 2 weeks. To recharge Maina has to take it to a place in town for 24 hours at a cost of Ksh 50 (about 80 cents US. If he were to  use ordinary batteries Maina would be paying several hundreds of shillings per month (15$) and creating toxic waste with their disposal (Kenya has no battery disposal system).  No wonder used batteries are in such huge demand!

  

  And no wonder this family is smiling!

  I’m wondering how much it would cost to hook up Mainas battery to a solar panel and  some lights. They currently depend on hurricane lamps.  Powered with kerosene these are not only a weak source of light but are dangerous and prone to cause fires.

  

  Got any ideas anyone – can we charge a car battery from solar?

  Post note:  This story was found while making a video slideshow about this average Kenyan families carbon footprint for WildlifeDirect.

• November 29, 2009
• 0:13

  Coconut + Zippers = Handbags

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  Materials  

  My daughter and I had a lot of fun on Lamu island, off the coast of Kenya, earlier this year. One of the items we came across was this coconut handbag. Some had designs, some were raw, all were incredibly cool.

  

  If I remember correctly, I bargained poorly and bought it for 150/= ($2). The problem was that the merchant new how badly my daughter wanted it so he knew I was stuck. This is the one we ended up buying:

  

  Yes, these are mainly for tourists. However, it’s a good showcase of local reuse of what would otherwise be garbage for microentrepreneurial gain.

• November 09, 2009
• 2:33

  Solution for Nairobi Blackouts

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  It’s no secret that Kenya’s rivers are running dry as a result of forest destruction and environmental degradation which has led to a season of blackouts in the capital city Nairobi.

  Typical of the ingenious people of Nairobi one street vendor has cashed in on the crisis with this wonderful gadget which he markets as

  “Perfect for Nairobi black out”

  

  As you can see I could actually read by the light of this lamp which is made from a used tin can, some pieces of wire to make the connections

  

  And the battery compartment is ingeniously crafted from a circle cut from a retired flip flop.

  

  I love my juakali lamp and everyone that I know  in Nairobi needs one of these lamps. Everything about it is so true to the juakali spirit – hand crafted using colourful recycled tins, and designed for a real purpose with a handle so you can move it around from room to room or hang it up. The vendor tried to sell it to me for Ksh 350 but we settled on Ksh 200 (about $2.50) though I’m sure he would have gone cheaper but the traffic was moving and I had to go.

  If you want one visit the Nyayo stadium roundabout.  They stood out amongst the chinese junk that vendors are selling you could practically kit out your house from the junk on sale there. Here’s a short list of what I saw during my 30 minute traffic hold up:

  Pens, hats, footballs, blow up spiderman (who needs one of these?), peanuts wrapped in newspaper cones,

  smelly car things, driveres licence holding cases, scarves, giant maps, Kenya flags, apples, kits (spiderman kites),

  Nike shorts, cowboy hats, socks, oanges, backpacks, cheap watches, key chains knives, olympic medals (yes I wanted one of those!),

  knee length shorts for guys who sag, hazard ttriangles, cables to cack your car, name tags for meetings, torches, window wipers (!),

  car mats, pears, plumbs, tiny folding chairs for children (or Chinese people?), vehicle number plates, fire extinguishers, stickers,

  Enormous framed pictures of furry cats and snow leopards (I can just see one of these this in my house), bananas and bandanas, plastic lunch boxes, pillows and cussions, a huge variety of stuffed toys,

  posters with Jesus’ sayings, polo shirts, stearing wheel covers, spanners, screw drivers and of course my favourite – juakali lamps.

  Nairobi never fails to impress. I love it. What else have you seen on sale in the Nairobi streets?

• October 14, 2009
• 16:56

  Win a Copy of William Kamkwamba’s Book!

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  If you’ve been reading AfriGadget for a while, you know of a name that keeps popping up over and over – William Kamkwamba. He was first written about by another blogger friend Mike McKay and then subsequently covered here on AfriGadget a good 3 years ago. His windmills and the story behind it are an inspiration for many. There is now a book, a documentary and a foundation all set up around the inspired story of windmills from Malawi.

  

  Win a copy of “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind”

  As luck would have it, I have 2 extra copies of William’s new book. I’d like to share that with you, the readers of the blog. To do that, I want to challenge you to send in an AfriGadget-like story, picture or video. Just write it and attach the pictures in an email to main@afrigadget.com. I’ll review them and pick the ones that I think best fits the blog. It’ll be posted here with attribution to you.

  We’ve got two weeks until Oct 31, so I’ll give one book away each week. Let’s see what you’ve got! And, yes, I’ll mail the book anywhere in the world.

  Note: the best AfriGadget stories come with pictures, so make sure you send those in as well.

  William in the news

  He’s been doing his book tour in the US this month, hitting some pretty big shows, including ABCs Good Morning America and the Daily Show with John Stewart (videos below).

  
  

  William Kamkwamba on Good Morning America

  
  

  The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
  William Kamkwamba
  www.thedailyshow.com
  Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

• October 03, 2009
• 4:21

  RoboCon Kenya 2009 Nairobi Regional

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  energy  

  First Peaks

  The Ministry of Higher Education and Technology has organized a Robot Contest (RoboCon), between Kenyan Universities and middle level colleges. The regional competition is taking place today at the Kenya Polytechnic. Here are the first looks at the Robots from institutions taking part in the competition.

  

  University of Nairobi Robot

  

  Kiambu Institute of Science and Technology Robot

  
  

  Nairobi Technical Trainin Institute Robot

  

  Kenya Technical Training Institute Robot, The Winner

  

  Machakos Institute of Technology (MIT) Robot

  Some video will come soon…

  For more information on RoboCon click here.

• September 30, 2009
• 9:08

  Killer Snares turned into artful message

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  Gadgets  

  I’ve been meaning to write this post for some time to recognize the amazing work being done by Dipesh Pabari at the Kenya Coast.

  

  When he told me he was turning snares set to kill wildlife into art I didn’t imagine it would look quite like this.

  Then he embarked on turning pollution in the ocean into another work of art. This whale shark is the outcome of his labor of love, it’s beautiful and meaningful. Hopefully we all get the message ‘stop killing wildlife and stop polluting the natural environment”. The project is getting a quite some attention.
  
  
  

  Last summer as part of their Ocean Project, Camp International, a volunteering organisation running trips to Africa and Asia, coordinated 7 beach cleanups involving gap year students from the UK to cleanup the Kenyan coastline. Over 200 bags of litter were collected which included over 7000 flip-flops. The Camp Kenya School Team Expedition then worked with local artists to create a life size whale shark made out entirely of the recycled flip-flops picked up from the beach.

• September 23, 2009
• 12:48

  Re-using plastic containers in Kenya

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  Community  

  While hiking in the rift valley recently I came across a cow wearing this plastic gadget on his nose. It’s made from an old plastic container …..the local herdsmen said it was to stop him from suckling his mother – which is especially critical due to the severe drought in the region.

  

  Simple and effective I’d say!

  And here’s another one from Dominic Wanjihia – he calls it his vertical shamba

  

  and it’s water efficient and space conserving… perfect for a tiny yard.

  Here’s another clever use of plastic water bottles – bird feeders are impossible to find in Kenya

  

  So Maina Maina fabricated this at Kitengela Glass where virtually nothing is thrown away

  

  These feeders have pieces of mirrors attached and attract a huge assortment of birds at all times.  He’s selling them at Ksh 200 (US $2.50 )

• September 16, 2009
• 20:42

  Football: Made in Africa

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  

  Football Made in Africa is a site put together by a Belgian outfit called Take Five that will air 50 shows that are 1m30s each. It’s a push for themselves and their content before the 2010 Football World Cup taking place in South Africa next year. It’s extremely well done, but that’s not why I’m writing about it here on AfriGadget.

  Ever wonder how those plastic bag footballs are made?

  Here’s how to use a condom to create a football bladder.

• September 05, 2009
• 12:29

  A Wearable Flexible Solar Panel Vest

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  This is a proposed way to maximize the usage and efficiency of the KVA Flexible Solar Portable Kit by Dominic Wanjihia. Dominic was awarded one of the Flex Kits at the recent Maker Africa Faire in Accra after showing off some amazing new ideas.

  One of the cheapest form of transport in Kenya is the “Boda Boda” literally meaning “Border-to-border”, a bicycle ride from one countries boarder immigration offices through no-mans land to the immigration offices of the bordering country customs office.

  

  This mode of transport is non discriminatory and is used by people of all walks of life. from school children, market goers, workers, business persons, etc. The popularity is partially due to the speed and convenience as one does not get stuck in traffic. In the Lake basin town of Kisumu there are estimated to be over 500,000 BodaBoda’s. In the whole county, in excess of 1,500,000

  The BodaBoda rider normally works from as early as 4.30a.m. to as late as 10.00p.m. depending on security in the area. He relies greatly on his mobile phone for clients to call for his services. His peak cycling times are early morning, lunch hour and dusk as persons head home from school and work. Translates to 4 – 5 hours in total daily riding time.

  Due to the lack of know how and the complexity of electronics, the lack of power storage (i.e. a battery, and the cost) the Cycle dynamo is only effective for charging items and lighting while he is riding. Also, due to space or lack of, cost, insecurity and theft, attaching “Hard” Solar panels to the bikes has never been a viable sustainable option.

  However, with the introduction of the Flexible Panels I believe wearing the panels on his back eliminates all these constraints. It also means he is generating power from sun-up to sun-down, an average of 12 hours a day.

  Attaching the flexible panels on his back ensures:

  1. His phone is always charged guaranteeing customer accessibility
  2. He has light at home from the LED’s so saves on heavy power bills
  3. He always has an emergency light with his – LED
  4. The panels will not get stolen
  5. One can also offer charging facilities to client being carried

  Other users
  The BodaBoda is not the only potential user of the Flexible Panel by wearing it. Anyone spending long hour’s outdoors is a candidate. The farmer, fisherman, hawker’s and peddlers, city council outdoor workers, tourists, campers and hikers – just to mention a few.

  

  Attaching the Panel
  It can be attached in a variety of ways. Velcro, Pop Buttons or simply attach Rucksack like straps so it can be worn with any garment. In the latter case the small pouch containing the controller and battery is attached to the back of the panels with Velcro.

  

  If you would like to get in touch with Dominic, you can reach him at dwanjihia@yahoo.com or by phone at +254722700530

• September 01, 2009
• 6:00

  Cement-bag Bellows in Lamu

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  Jua Kali  

  I was in Lamu in June and came upon a metal workshop tucked away behind the front row of buildings on the main path from Lamu Town to Shela. Inside were two blacksmiths, Adam Marabu and Abdul Ahmed, working diligently at creating a new anchor. What caught my eye though, was the bellows. They had taken old cement bags and hooked them up to metal pipes in the floor that fed air into the make-shift furnace.

  Here’s a short video with some footage of them at work:

  
  

  Lamu Cement-bag Bellows (AfriGadget) from WhiteAfrican on Vimeo.

  One of my favorite stories on AfriGadget was the other unique bellows I found, this time in Nairobi, made out of an old bicycle. Both of these go examples go to show what can be done with very little. It’s about improvising what you have and overcoming a challenge.

  Adam and Abdul make all types of items, but they told me that their main products are anchors, which range from small to large (2000-5000/= or $26-65) and, chisels and coconut shellers. They create a lot of the small metal pieces on the local dhows, and also make doors and window frames for the homes in the town. Really, they can make just about anything that you desire, like experienced metal workers anywhere in the world. What’s amazing is what they do it with.

  

  Cement bag bellows and blacksmiths in Lamu Kenya

• August 28, 2009
• 12:47

  The Kinshasa stove

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  energy  

  After all these fascinating AfriGadgets from Maker Faire Africa, here’s another invention as seen by our friend Cedric Kalonji, a Congolese journalist in Kinshasa (D.R.C.):

  

  For the lack of a cheap power supply in the City of Kinshasa, smart mechanics came up with this little stove that speeds up combustion by adding a little electric fan (hidden inside this tube that looks like being part of a flat spring). The fan itself is powered by (Chinese!) batteries and with the burning of charcoal, this quick stove obviously isn’t the greenest solution. But it works and does the job for those who will otherwise have no alternative.

  Cedric also mentions on his blog post that it’s difficult to identify the inventor of this device. A perfect example of how low-cost technology easily gets adopted and/or modified (and why intellectual property rights are still a major issue in many places).

• August 26, 2009
• 15:36

  Hacking the FLAP Bag!

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  This is part of an ongoing series of posts on the FLAP bag project, a collaborative effort by Timbuk2, Portable Light and Pop!Tech. We at AfriGadget are helping to field-test these bags that have solar power and lighting on them, and get interviews of the individuals using them.

  I was a little concerned when 5 of the 10 FLAP bags that I received before I left for Africa weren’t assembled – just fabric, thread and electronic components. It would mean that I’d have to find tailors in each country to put them together. However, it turned out that one of my favorite parts of getting the FLAP bags to Africa has been working with the tailors.

  What I end up doing is explaining the bag and how it works, then showing them the one that isn’t put together and asking them if they would be willing to duplicate. If so, they can keep the bag. Then, I offer a challenge, taking the two-paneled Portable Light Kits from KVA, I then ask them if they could make something from their own materials, with their own designs, from it.

  They had 2-3 days to come up with an idea, pick the fabric and create the bag. I then bought it from them for $20.

  Kenya Bags

  

  

  

  Ghana Bags

  

  

  It should be noted that the gentlemen working on these had very little time to come up with their ideas and then implement them, as I was very much on the move. The local cloth use in Ghana was amazing, and I only wish the Kinte cloth (orange) one was done with real Kinte cloth instead of a print. The Kenyans used more ordinary fabric, but they were ingenious with the details around use, size and practicalities around security.

  To really see the creativity at play in the Kenya bags, you have to either see them in person, or a video. Since I don’t have the bandwidth for a video now, that will have to come later.

• August 24, 2009
• 1:29

  A Kenyan Designer and Tailor with the FLAP Bag

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  This is part of an ongoing series of posts on the FLAP bag project, a collaborative effort by Timbuk2, Portable Light and Pop!Tech. We at AfriGadget are helping to field-test these bags that have solar power and lighting on them, and get interviews of the individuals using them.

  

  Jericho Market is a small market tucked away behind the industrial area in Nairobi, Kenya – near to Buruburu. It’s where you can find a lot of artisans who work on cloth-based projects, from clothes to bags and everything in between. I took off with David Ngigi, a local videographer friend of mine, to see who we could find. I brought two of the unstitched bags, two Portable Light kits and one completed bag as a sample.

  The first person we spent time with was Joseph Muteti, a soft-spoken, 18-year veteran of the tailor trade in Nairobi. He specializes in making school bags for children and messenger-type bags. His bags are generally sturdy, with an added flair of embroidery to set them off for his customers.

  Next up was Stephen Omollo, an energetic young designer who works on textiles ranging from shirts to bags. Style and usability are both important to Stephen, and his primary desire is to create items that people are proud to wear.

  Interestingly, both Stephen and Joseph thought the bags were too large. Stephen wanted to cut in half, and Joseph by about a third.

  

• August 21, 2009
• 4:30

  Giving the FLAP bag to some electricians

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  This is part of an ongoing series of posts on the FLAP bag project, a collaborative effort by Timbuk2, Portable Light and Pop!Tech. We at AfriGadget are helping to field-test these bags that have solar power and lighting on them, and get interviews of the individuals using them.

  Hayford Bempong and David Celestin are electricians at Accra Polytechnic, who I wrote about last as they had fabricated an FM radio station from scratch and used it at Maker Faire Africa. Hayford and David seemed like just the type to take a look at the bag and really determine its use. Being college-level students, they have a different type of lifestyle than many, and that might mean more ideas and thoughts about what the FLAP bag could be used for.

  Electrical Students in Ghana take on the FLAP bag from WhiteAfrican on Vimeo.

  True to form, they were not nearly as excited about the quality of the stitching, or the textiles used, but very interested in the internal electrical components. They were excited about the idea of a bag with an in-built solar panel, and were curious as to wattage and the ability use step-ups and inverters to make it even more useful.

  One suggestion that they made was around durability of the electrical components, specifically they suggested that a metal box should be built around it. Life in Africa can be quite rough on gear, and the chance that someone will sit on, drop, or crush this part is quite high.

  

• August 16, 2009
• 22:09

  A Locally Fabricated Radio Station at MFA

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  

  I’m a sucker for radios and antennas, and was just so excited to see the guys from Accra Polytechnic at Maker Faire Africa. Hayford Bempong, David Celestin and Michael Amankwanor are three members of the National Society of Black Engineers who have created a full radio with their own funds and brains.

  They showed up at the event and setup the local Maker Faire Africa radio station, running at 101.7 FM. In conjunction with the speakers that they setup for the close proximity announcements, the radio was used to transmit up to a couple thousand meters away and spread the word about upcoming activities.

  Basic electronics

  David Celestin has been building power inverters and other electronic devices from scratch since he was a teenager. Below is one of his first power inverters, that still works, and which runs out of a little box. You can tell it is all fabricated from scraps and locally available materials.

  

  Here is their home-brew VHF SWR meter:

  

  Antennas

  The team also creates their own antennas from scratch, including the “slim jim” below, “ground plane and a circular antenna.

  
  
  

• 21:44

  Agriculture and Metal Fabrication Meet in N. Ghana

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  

  

  This is a corn planter. It costs approximately $10 (15 Cedis) to make, and it significantly decreases the time that it would normally take to plant corn. This invention came about by taking a look a medical pill dispensing devices and transferring that knowledge to his communities needs.

  Shamsudeen (”Sham”) Napara lives in the norther part of Ghana, which is a lot more rural and isolated than the southern part of the country where you find Accra, or the central part, where you find Kumasi. He has a metal fabrication shop where he builds tools, mostly for agricultural needs of those in the surrounding areas.

  He was at Maker Faire Africa this weekend and I was completely amazed at both the ingenuity and the quality of his work.

  Shea Nut Roaster

  

  That’s not all that Sham has been up to though, in fact, he’s been busy with a couple other projects. Specifically, he’s been working with Amy Herman from the Univesity of Indiana to figure out how to enhance traditional processes familiar to those in Norther Ghana. This means he does a lot with Shea nuts and the processing of them. It is one of the few fields dominated by the women in the community, and a lucrative business, since the processing from raw to refined can net a good margin of profit.

  Below is a shea nut roaster – a small version, since the large ones are the size of a table. It costs around $40 (60 Cedi), and it decreases the time and energy normally expended in the work of getting the nuts ready for processing.

  

  

  Soap Cutter

  Though he has many more inventions in his workshop in Northern Ghana, the last of the three items that he brought to Accra was a soap cutter. It’s a device that has a hinge on one end that opens and closes with piano wires and guitar screws to hold wire tight across the device. As it is closed, it slices the soap cleanly.

  

• August 15, 2009
• 10:04

  Cleaning massive amounts of water with chlorine

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  Cleaning massive amounts of water with chlorine from WhiteAfrican on Vimeo.

  Suprio Das is part of the water-cleansing team with Killian Deku, Laura Stupin and Bernard Kiwia. Besides the ball-valve doser, they’ve also created a siphon mechanism chlorine filter. It, like all of the IDDS work, uses locally available materials.

  This particular project attaches to a hand pump and can cleanse unlimited amounts of water. Best of all, it has no moving parts, so it is less likely to break or wear down over time. It works by dripping chlorine into the water when a certain water level is reached. Then, the water comes pouring out in batches.

  
  

• 9:36

  Ball Valve Chlorine Doser

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  

  With one 5 liter bag of chlorine, and a device that costs $3 to build, you can clean 100,000 liters of water.

  Here at Maker Faire Africa is Killian Deku, a Ghanaian working in the IDDS program, has created a ball valve chlorine doser with the help of his team mates from India, the US and Tanzania. Their only real costs were the ball valve and the time taken to create the bamboo structure that holds it. The one variable cost is the bag of chlorine used to cleanse the water.

  Ball Valve Chlorine Water Cleanser from WhiteAfrican on Vimeo.

• 8:53

  A plastic waste recycling press

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  

  We’ve got a lot of plastic trash all over Africa, especially in the cities. A team from IDDS (Amit Gandhi from the US, and Mark Driordan from the UK) decided to create a way to add value to waste plastic by using a low-cost process to transform it into something useful: plastic sheets. From these sheets can be made a number of other products. On display they had shoes, bags, pencil cases and folders.

  The sheets can be made from 3ply to 40ply in thickness, and the cost of assembly is minimal.

  Turning waste plastic into plastic sheets from WhiteAfrican on Vimeo.

• 8:23

  A pedal powered hacksaw for the disabled

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  Bernard Kiwia is from Arusha, Tanzania. He’s here at Maker Faire Africa as part of the IDDS group that has been building innovative devices for the last couple weeks in Kumasi, Ghana. Today he’s showing his device that he created from an old bicycle and some welded rods. It’s powered by someone sitting in a chair.

  Pedal-Powered Hacksaw in Ghana from WhiteAfrican on Vimeo.

  It cost Bernard about $45 to create the bicycle powered hacksaw and one day to fabricate.

  Bernard’s been a bicycle mechanic for 3 years, and has been teaching students in Tanzania to fix them for the last couple. He was invited to IDDS and met a Guatemalan attendee that had some very interesting designs using bicycles. After seeing those, he realized that he could make similar tools and devices for the needs of people in Arusha.

  (more pictures from Maker Faire Africa on Flickr)

  

  

  Since that time, Bernard has created a windmill, cell phone charger, drill press and a pump – all working off of bicycle parts and mechanisms.

  His bicycle powered water pump. It sits by the side of the road for kids to jump on and pedal:
  

  A chair made from bicycle parts:
  

• August 14, 2009
• 9:17

  MFA: Water bag design challenge!

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  Amy Smith (of MIT’s IDDS) somehow got a hold of a mic and madhouse has now ensued! Everyone has been split up by their birth month into groups. They are given 5 water bags (sachets) and told to solve the world’s greatest problems. 30 minutes later we get…

  

  January: The Sachet Kebab
  Decreasing litter and polution. People can collect water sachets off the ground easily with a pole and spiked end. It can be placed along the roads, and a lot of trash can just be spiked on the tip of it.

  February: Hydro Electric
  Generate electricity by using the bags to create small turbines.

  March: Light absorbent and heat absorbent bags
  They also had a crazy idea of drinking the water, peeing in the bag and selling that to farmers for fertilizer… to much laughter…

  April: Potting and a Wallet
  Drink the water and make it empty. Cut the top off and put in soil and grow small plants. Take another bag and put a small hole in it for drip irrigation. Second idea: use the bag to put your money in for when it rains.

  May: The individual water-shower packet and a purse
  Hang the water and put a small hole in it. Create a purse out of it to hold a camera or mobile phone.

  June: Waterbelt, glasses strings
  They’ve created some really interesting spectacle (glasses) holder. Also, a waterbelt to hold the water as you’re moving around.

  

  July: Water purifier
  Uses the light from the sun to help purify the water. It takes a bottle top cut off and used as a funnel as well. It’s shaped like a train, for marketing reasons.

  August: Kids toys
  Make small airplanes and hats for children and an hourglass made from 2 water bags.

  September: Drip irrigation and a pillow
  Puncture a bottle or a bag on top to collect water, then use for drip irrigation. Also fill multiple old empty bags with air and put them inside a pillow case to create a pillow.

  October: Drip irrigation
  Starts with a bag, then a tube made of old empty bags that can direct the water further and over more areas.

  November: Water resistant mobile phone case
  “Your phone case is not water resistant, ours is. Clap for us.”
  “We have created a water wallet, not just a plastic money carrier.”

  December: Water sachet lighting system and a sachet wrist watch band
  Put full bags on your roof that diffuses the light and warms the water.

• 8:11

  Maker: Show and Tell

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  [Note: Pictures will be on the Maker Faire Africa Flickr group. All images by AfriGadget are CC-by licensed for anyone to use anywhere they like.]

  

  This morning at Maker Faire Africa, after a short introduction by Nii Simmonds and Emeka Okafor, the team (MFA sponsors) from AndSpace Labs have been moderating a “show and tell” by some of the Makers (which is what we’re calling those who are demo’ing at the event).

  William Kamkwamba: Windmills

  First up was William Kamkwamba, who is really seen as a success story of this type of microentrepreneur or innovator in Africa. His windmills and the story behind it are an inspiration for many here, especially the aspiring makers with good ideas and their first prototypes. There is now a book, a documentary and a foundation all set up around the inspired story of windmills from Malawi.

  The crowd LOVES William. The Africans are so inspired by him due to it being done on his own without a bunch of outside help. This means from the expats who do a lot of good work of course, which is a good point. How much more exciting is it to see home-grown ingenuity and innovation making it big than it is if it’s imported in from overseas?

  IDDS: Ghana

  The International Develpment Design Summit has been going on for the last 4 weeks in Kumasi, Ghana. Two members of the team came up to talk about one of the devices that they created from local materials, that will be here at the show as well. It’s a device that allows you to store your food so that it doesn’t spoil as quickly. To see more of the IDDS work, here are the final presentations from earlier this week.

  Pat Delaney: Multimachine

  “You can have no industrial progress without machine tools.” He’s here to show how you can start from nothing except a pipe with three holes in it and an old/broken engine block, and create a universal machine tool. His is called the Multimachine. Due to weight constraints he couldn’t bring a complete machine, so he brought the rudimentary drills and 200 DVDs full of instructions to the event.

  Finally, Pat makes a call for someone to create cheaply and widely available welding glasses. Why? Because so many people in Africa are using sunglasses to weld, but it ruins your eyes in 3-4 years and you can’t weld anymore. This is terrible due to it taking 10 years to become a master welder.

• 5:02

  Building Dominic Wanjihu’s Food Dryer

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  Dominic Wanjihia is from Kenya, and he’s here at Maker Faire Africa in Ghana because of the innovative designs and solutions that he comes up with for problems that ordinary Africans face. We had profiled one of his earlier inventions, an evapocooler for camel milk in Somalia, last year.

  He’s been in Accra this last week working in the timber yards in Makola building a food dryer and a food cooler to show at the event. Both of them use air, and the dryer takes advantage of the heat from the sun. More detailed posts will be coming on them, but here’s a few shots of him and the carpenters building the devices.

  

  

  

  

• August 12, 2009
• 22:15

  AfriGadget pictures from around Accra, Ghana

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  I’ve been having a great time in Accra, but not nearly enough time to spend on the details of every cool product or invention that I see. In the meantime, here are a couple pictures from around Ghana that will whet your appetite for what is coming up in the next week:

  A trash collector on a trike

  

  A roadside motorcycle mechanic

  

  Carrying tables and chairs

  

  Hauling “trucks”

  

  

• August 11, 2009
• 21:31

  Mechanics and Tailors

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  FLAP bag project  

  This is part of an ongoing series of posts on the FLAP bag project, a collaborative effort by Timbuk2, Portable Light and Pop!Tech. We at AfriGadget are helping to field-test these bags that have solar power and lighting on them, and get interviews of the individuals using them.

  I’d like to upload some of the video from today’s first big day in Ghana, but bandwidth considerations make that a little difficult right now. Instead, I’ll give an overview and show some pictures.

  Mechanics

  Henry Addo is a colleague of mine at Ushahidi, and he’s also the Ghanaian representative who is helping me hand out the bags, do interviews and have fun… He’s also a motorcycle rider, so I made sure to pack my helmet before leaving. We set off in search of likely prospects for both the FLAP bag project and Maker Faire Africa.

  

  I started out on a 250cc Honda streetbike that made me feel a little like Bowzer in Mario Kart. Fortunately, our first stop of the day was at Henry’s local motorcycle street mechanic at which I saw a beautiful 600cc Yamaha Terere being fixed up. The owner happened to be there, and he was game for a 2-day swap (with about $10/day thrown in for good measure…)!

  This was also the first place that we started showing off one of the assembled bags to gauge the kind of reaction that we would receive from people. We didn’t do any formal interviews here, but had a good time of questions and people came up with some interesting thoughts on the use of the bag.

  

  The head mechanic absolutely loved it, recounting the many times he was traveling around Ghana and needed light at night to fix his motorcycles.

  The real estate businessman wanted to know the cost, thinking he would buy one right now for $100 from us (for bragging rights). Though he thought there was a market for them in Accra, that the real buyers would be found in rural villages.

  The used-goods businessman wondered what would happen to the solar system if you tried to wash it to clean the bag. I didn’t have an answer, but I said that I thought it would be durable.

  Tailors

  We ran all over town trying to find tailors of adequate skill to assemble the bags that had come in pieces. It turned out being a little bit of a challenge, but things took a great turn for the better and we found 2-for-1 going on in a market. Elijah and Mohammed both traditionally use West African cloth to make both jackets and bags, however, they were game for this challenge (especially as it scored them a free bag).

  

  Both tailors spent a great deal of time examining the textiles used and they made comments about the quality level of the bag. Interestingly, they didn’t think they would use the bags that much themselves, but they did think that their wives would find them useful.

  I did full interviews with both of them, and will upload those in the near future. Henry will be going back to them in 2-3 weeks to see what has happened with the bags and how they are being used.

  

  

  Knowing that we wouldn’t find too many others that could make the bags from the pieces we had, we also wanted to challenge them to something even more interesting. We asked what they would do if we gave them a basic portable light kit (2 solar panels instead of 1) and tried to make a bag with it, using traditional cloth elements and no set design pattern. Both decided to give that a try as well, with the caveat that some material would be hard to find, and we’ll report back on the outcome.

• 5:15

  Final Presentations at IDDS Ghana

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  

  IDDS Ghana 2009

  The International Development Design Summit is put on by Amy Smith and her students at MIT. This year it took place in Kumasi, Ghana – which will be followed by Maker Faire Africa this weekend in Accra, where some of their work will be shown.

  Here’s a quick list of the projects they have been working on over the last five weeks:

  - A press that speeds up the process of extracting oil from shea nuts
  - A device for generating electricity from a playground carousel
  - A machine for making recycled plastic products from used water sachets
  - A set of tools for threshing groundnuts
  - A mechanism for producing chlorine from salt water using readily available materials
  - A simple, low cost battery made from local materials, for household lighting and other uses
  - A human powered grating machine for speeding up cassava processing
  - A thresher to improve the quality of rice by preventing stones from mixing with the grains
  - A chlorine dispenser for disinfecting drinking water
  - A family friendly latrine designed to promote use and hygiene among young children
  - A device for monitoring the growth of children under five through cell phone technology
  - A container that extends the shelf life of tomatoes during transport and storage

  

  Edward tells Hazwan some of his thoughts on the rice threshing machine.

  The importance of being in Ghana

  Niall Walsh has written this information about how the importance of the move to Ghana for this year’s IDDS was to both MIT and the participants:

  The main difference between IDDS Ghana and IDDS in MIT is the proximity to community partners and potential end users of the projects. IDDS prides itself on the spirit of co-creation and this movement from the States to Africa is a crucial one in line with this vision. The difference between participants sitting in lecture halls in MIT, learning about international development and the importance of speaking to at least fifty villagers before designing a technology, and actually living with and talking to hundreds of villagers all over the country, is immeasurable. In total IDDS this year worked with ten villages throughout the Bromg – Ahafo and Ashanti regions and teams had the chance to make three separate two night visits (spread throughout the design process to make sure they had input into every stage) to these villages. Among a huge number of other factors, the simple experience of having end users actually become extremely excited about your prototype, and seeing them test it out, is an incentive for teams to continue their project after IDDS.

  Another way in which IDDS interacted with the local community, rather than simply for it, was through it’s interactions with Suame Magazine. This is an engineering cluster located in the centre of Kumasi, spanning twenty miles and with a working population of over 200,000 people. There are approximately 12,000 independent micro, small and medium enterprises located in the area and their main activities of vehicle repair and metal fabrication (welding and casting) are renowned for their ingenuity all across West Africa. During the summit, participants worked extensively with these engineers and mechanics in the ‘Magazine’ and had the chance to share ideas, techniques, and technologies with each other

  The point has been stressed home at this year’s IDDS that these villagers involved in the process, as well as the workshop guys in Suame, are partners in the design process, rather than simply people we should talk to along the way. Without these partners, the technologies presented tomorrow at the Great Hall would quite simply not be possible, and I think that knowledge, in and of itself, will prove invaluable to our participants as they continue to work in international development after the conference. In light of this, five villagers from each village, as well as workshop managers from Suame, will be provided transport, accommodation and food to come to the final presentations to see all the different prototypes.

  Systems have also been put in place to ensure that the projects worked on at this year’s IDDS will continue to be worked on after IDDS. There are project grants and partnership grants available for the teams and there will also be a full time country liaison for Ghana, responsible for integrating the technologies into all of our partner villages, as well as sourcing new villagers and markets to help disseminate and create business models for the technologies. On a far more practical level, villagers will also have the opportunity to decide which of the prototypes they are most interested in, and then work with our partners in Suame Magazine to have these manufactured.

• August 09, 2009
• 16:10

  The FLAP buckets and assembly

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  This is part of an ongoing series of posts on the FLAP bag project, a collaborative effort by Timbuk2, Portable Light and Pop!Tech. We at AfriGadget are helping to field-test these bags that have solar power and lighting on them, and get interviews of the individuals using them.

  Day 2: The buckets arrive

  This is a continuation of yesterday’s starting video diary, where I received the flaps to the FLAP bag. Saturday morning the package from Timbuk2 was on our doorstep waiting to be opened. The bottom part of the bags had arrived, but there were a few surprises in store for me…

  
  

  The FLAP bag buckets and assembly from WhiteAfrican on Vimeo.

  

  Assembling the FLAP bag for the first time

  

  Finally, I assembled the FLAP bag!

  Next stop Accra, Ghana. I hope that all the kits arrive in one piece, and will start to put them to use as soon as I can.

• 0:29

  The FLAP Bags Arrive

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  This is part of an ongoing series of posts on the FLAP bag project, a collaborative effort by Timbuk2, Portable Light and Pop!Tech. We at AfriGadget are helping to field-test these bags that have solar power and lighting on them, and get interviews of the individuals using them.

  Day 1: The flaps arrive

  The FLAP bag kits started to arrive Friday evening. The buckets (bottom part of the bag) from Timbuk2 had not yet been delivered at this point, so all I had was the flaps.

  
  

  The FLAP bags start to arrive from WhiteAfrican on Vimeo.

  Tune in for part 2 later… in the meantime, some pictures:

  

  The flap from the FLAP bag project

  

  An unassembled bag flap

  

  The control unit and an unassembled FLAP bag's flap

  

  FLAP bag kit assembly and usage directions

  

  The components

• August 08, 2009
• 0:57

  AfriGadget and the solar FLAP bag project

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  I’m scrambling to put my bags together for Ghana, as I leave in just a day for Maker Faire Africa. There’s only one problem, I don’t have everything that I need, and I’m waiting on a shipment from a California bag company. The good news: I’ve just been told that I’m no longer sworn to secrecy, so I can begin telling the story. Here is the FLAP bag project story (from my perspective) and AfriGadget’s involvement in it.

  A little background

  Four months ago the Pop!Tech team approached me about their collaborative project with Sheila Kennedy of the Portable Light project, who showed off her solar TB blanket at Pop!Tech 2008, and Timbuk2, the well-known messenger bag company.

  

  Their plan was to develop a bag that has the potential to bring the benefits of portable power to selected global communities around the globe, and they were hoping the I could help with distribution and testing within the African communities that I frequent, where power is crucial. Of course, I jumped right in, this was just too intriguing to not do so, plus I have great admiration for all of the players: Pop!Tech, Timbuk2 and Sheila Kennedy.

  The FLAP bag project

  FLAP stands for Flexible Light And Power. The flap on the messenger bag has the single solar panel on it, connected to the tech tray, which has an on/off switch, an LED light and a USB connection. So, in concept, the bag can be used as a portable lighting and power supply unit for anyone. Most useful however, to those lacking consistent power for devices or an electric lighting option.

  

  Image: How to charge the FLAP bag

  This bag will be the official Pop!Tech 2009 bag, and will also be sold by Timbuk2 sometime after that. It’s a unique bag that has the potential to change the way a lot of people (not just in Africa) do things. I don’t have detailed information on any of that, so look to the Pop!Tech team for more information on availability.

  AfriGadget’s part in this

  Due to my fairly extensive travels, dealing with just the right cross section of potential users for the bag, I was in the right place to distribute some test bags for feedback from end-users. My job, over the next three weeks will be to find the right types of people to give a bag to, interview them before and after, and report back on my findings.

  My first stop is Ghana, then on to Kenya and Uganda. I have 10 FLAP bags, with plans to hand out 4 in Ghana, 4 in Kenya and 2 in Uganda. To do the interviews, I will have the help of Henry Addo in Ghana (also a colleague or mine at Ushahidi), and with David Ngigi in Kenya (a young videographer and friend). Pop!Tech has supplied us with small video cameras that we’ll be using for the interviews, as well as some starter questions and types of individuals that they would like to see get the bag.

  My objective is to find people from many walks of life, from taxi drivers to citizen journalists, and from roadside food ladies to seamstresses. One of my questions is this: can much of this bag be created from locally available materials?

  My main goal: find out if it is useful, usable and if its adaptable to everyday life in Africa.
  The Challenge: asking people how they would adopt these kits, looking for inventiveness.

  I won’t be sugar-coating my own reviews, nor those of the people who we interview.

  Tune in for more tomorrow

  My next post will be pictures of the kits, unboxing of the items that I have received and my initial opinions on them. I’ll also be doing some personal interviews (video diary) of myself throughout the weeks ahead, giving some insights into the day’s events and overall thoughts on the FLAP bag project.

  [Update: Day 1 video diary]

  I’ll also be using Twitter for updates, and though I manage the @AfriGadget account, when I get on the road I usually just post from my personal @WhiteAfrican account.

  Additional updates from the manufacturer and from the project team will be found on the Pop!Tech blog and the Timbuk2 blog from time-to-time.

• July 29, 2009
• 16:41

  Retrofit Turns a bicycle to an ‘Ambulance’

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  AfriGadget  

  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

• July 27, 2009
• 11:58

  Charging mobile phones with bikes and scrap

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  Communication  

  Just last week two African inventors won recognition for inventions that involved scrap, bicycles and mobile phones.

  

  William Kamkwamba grew up as a farmer in Malawi, at the age of just 14, he had built his own wind generator.

  During a drought his families fortunes collapsed and he spent his time in libraries reading and discovering about wind energy. He found components for his invention in a scrap  yard; a tractor fan, shock absorber, PVC pipes and a bicycle frame.

  

  When his prototype was able to run four bulbs people arrived to charge their mobile phone. William has just appeared on TED  Global conference in Oxford this week to the conference to tell the audience how he did this.

  Another inventor has already appeared on Afrigadjet and has just been discovered by the BBC. Pascal Katana, 22 who with Jeremiah Murimi, 24, has gone beyond fish and has invented a dynamo-powered “smart charger” to help people without electricity in rural areas to charge their cell phones. The system costs $4.50 and it takes an hour to fully charge a cell phone.

  

  These two young men developed the idea during summer break. Wish I had so much energy in my holiday.  These guys should be at Maker Faire in Ghana this August.

• 8:43

  Sudan: School Grounds Brew Home Grown Games

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  Community  

  Local school grounds in Sudan are a breeding pool for home grown games. The most popular seems to use any pole available, including those against walls, string & a soda bottle filled with rocks and dirt. Voila, you have a tetherball game at hand. About the only thing not found just laying around is the string and oddly enough that’s what needs to be replaced often, as can be seen by the photo with the variations in colored string.

  

  [Editors note: these pictures were taken during a sand storm]

  

  Another home grown game seems to bear some resemblance to cricket. They throw a small rubber ball at another person who tries to kick it. If they are successful they run between two pre-determined locations, stacking rocks/stones/bricks at each point, until the other team can return the ball to try and hit them with it.

  

  Oddly enough, it seems volleyball is another popular sport. I know of at least four schools which have installed volleyball nets

  (This story is from Taylor Martyn, a photographer and missionary in Southern Sudan.)

• July 24, 2009
• 16:36

  Cordless ‘Table’ Light Bulb

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  Gadgets  

  A ’stick-up’ Light Bulb like the one shown below sells on Amazon for $3.99

  

  Sample the version we got from Gatundu, Thika District in Kenya. It goes for KSh. 100 ($1.20)

  

• 10:09

  Hacking an in-office shower

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  Sanitation  

  File this contribution from South Africa into the “odd, yet interesting file”:

  “What to do when you have a bath tub, but actually want to take a shower? Easy, just use whatever office materials you can find to make your own shower. Find a long rod, balance it on top of a door and the burglar bars. Attach a sheet of plastic, using office clips. Voila, you have a shower curtain. Now we want to use both the cold and warm water taps, so using pipes and ropes to hold them in place, both sources are fed to the main pipe leading up to the shower head. The shower head is attached to a shelf bracket using oh-so-useful cable ties.”

  

  

  

• July 21, 2009
• 16:54

  Paperless Entertainment… The MPesa Way

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  Gadgets  

  M-Pesa Everywhere
  

  Well, now you don’t have to be at the pub to buy me a drink…

• 9:27

  Fish ‘call’ the Fisherman

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  Gadgets  

  
  Pascal Katana, a Fourth Year student at the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, developed an electronic device that ‘automates’ fishing. The trap employs amplification of the sound made by fish while feeding. The acoustic signals are radiated and attract other fish who head toward the direction of the source thinking there is food there.
  Once a good catch is detected by a net weighing mechanism, it triggers a GPRS/GSM device attatched to the system and the fisherman gets a call/sms informing him that his catch is ready. Pascal is in the process of developing a by-catch control system which will ensure that his contraption doesn’t cause overfishing.

• July 16, 2009
• 18:32

  Plastic Trash Become Drums in West Africa

   » ‎ AfriGadget

  Tags:  Ingenuity  

  2000 djembe drums were created from 20 tons of plastic trash. “La Victoire sur les Sachets” is a short video showing their “victory over the plastic bags”.

  View this movie at cultureunplugged.com