English: Icuguti, Igitogotogo… is a makeshift “wooden” bike has been an important transport tool popularly known in the Northern and Western parts of Rwanda, where people used it to carry their harvests and merchandise to the remote markets. It can carry up to 500 kilos.

As the country is moving towards modernity, this transport tool is becoming more and more extinct, being replaced by bicycles. But as the users of this tool say it, it’s far better than a bicycle because it carries heavy loads than the bicycles, and since it’s made in wood, it’s easy and free to mend when it’s broken.

The story of this picture also goes with cultural defiance. Traditionally, a girl in Rwanda was not allowed to ride a bike as many called it “unaccustomed”. The stereotype that surrounded the fact that a girl rides a bike, was that it could deflower her. But in this picture, a tradition-defying girl is being helped by her brother who is teaching her how to ride it. The picture was taken in Burera, the district in the northern province of Rwanda, where few wooden bikes can still be found.