Donkey carts in Namibia

Many wonderful snapshots in time are among my slide collection. I found this one the other day, taken about forty years ago.

It was taken in Damaraland where for many, Afrikaans is a home language. ‘Suid Wes transport’ was painted on this donkey cart, phonetically written as ‘Suid Wes dranspor’, the ‘Taxi 4.0’ referring to the powerful 4-litre engines of the past.

Namibia is one of the few countries in the world where you can still find donkey carts in daily use. Although there are increasingly less donkey carts on the roads today, you can often spot them conveying passengers on the gravel roads of rural Namibia. They can also be seen along the B1 between Keetmans and Windhoek where they are used to drop off children to be transported by taxi to the school hostels, to pick them up in the holidays and to collect the monthly groceries.

Donkey carts remain a valuable - and environmentally-friendly - means of transport, the 4x4s of the Namibian countryside.