Africar International

Africar

The Africar Ltd. was a British automobile manufacturer based in Lancaster from 1986 to 1988 . Tony Howarth was the founder and temporary owner .

The Africar project envisaged vehicles that could cope well with the poor road conditions in Africa , but should also be cheap enough that they would be bought in large parts of Africa.

draft

Initially, they were supposed to take over engines and mechanics from Citroën as long as Africar had not yet developed their own engines and drives. The body was to be made of epoxy-clad wood - the "west" system used in yacht construction - so that it could be repaired by locally available labor using locally available materials. The wood used to build the cars should come from extensively used forests. There were also plans to set up a number of small factories somewhere in the world that would be more suitable for low volume production than regular automobile factories.

production

In 1986 the company was founded to build and sell these automobiles. The Lancaster-based company was to offer a range of different vehicles, from a four-wheel drive car to an eight-wheel flatbed truck. Both companies who saw the economic potential of the vehicles and users who appreciated the capabilities of the vehicle were very interested.

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Three versions were finally completed: a station wagon , a pickup and a six-wheel vehicle. They were tested in 1984 on an expedition from the Arctic Circle in Norway to the equator . The British television station Channel 4 reported on it and there was a book on the series called Africar .

collapse

The project finally failed due to financial difficulties and in July 1988 the company ceased trading.

legacy

The vehicles were barely noticed by those involved in aid to Africa. But after the company's collapse, critics pointed out that they were a sign of how little Western developers understood of the true needs of Africans: They wanted what was best for Africa and did not realize that Africans were not that different from them . The Africans want the same cars as everyone else, but the whole concept of the Africar showed a pronounced paternalistic attitude of the helpers towards the Africans. Long after the disappearance of colonialism , the Africar showed that outsiders viewed Africans as somehow different.

It turned out that the market in Africa did not accept this vehicle at all; it was utterly unwelcome.

In addition, it was another development project that some Western media criticized until it failed altogether.

The fate of the founder

Tony Howarth was arrested in 1994 and charged with commodity and real estate fraud. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 months in prison. The project recently revived as a Bedouin .

Web links

Commons : Africar International - collection of images, videos and audio files

Information about the Africar at "Old Woodies"