Zebu cart

It's early morning at the Sambirano crossing, just as the sun rises, there is usually a rush hour and a bit of a traffic jam — not caused by motor cars but — by ox-powered carts slowly rolling across the bridge delivering fresh crops from the countryside to the central marketplace. They would have begun their journeys from their villages while still dark.

Zebu carts are common sights in and around Ambanja, the region, and across much of the big island of Madagascar.

Dozens of workshops in Ambanja produce zebu carts. One typical workshop in the town centre is run by Mr Theodore, who with his team of six skilled carpenters builds and assembles about 50 carts per year — all manually crafted without electrical power tools.

The design and model are always the same: A simple two-wheeler which easily attaches to one or more zebus. A cart takes about one week to make and costs 1,800,000 (USD 400).

The carts, or charettes as they are better known, remain as practical and relevant as they were hundreds of years ago and are an indispensable way of transport for farmers in distributing their seasonal crops from farm to markets.

The farmers who collectively keep the tradition of these innumerable vehicles deserve an eco-award for keeping cars and air pollution and to a minimum.

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