Wheels of Play (Tanzania, Zanzibar)

Across the African continent, street games based on recycling speak of another form of wealth: that of shared inventiveness. The rolling tire game , where a wheel is pushed with a stick or simply by hand, is played from Uganda to Burkina Faso, and even in certain rural areas of Asia and Latin America.

This game is based on a logic of spontaneous transmission: no need for instructions, even less for instructions. We learn by observing, imitating, and falling. It naturally develops coordination, endurance, and concentration. The important thing is not to win, but to make the movement last—a seemingly simple challenge that becomes, for the child, a jubilant conquest of the asphalt.

In Zanzibar, as elsewhere, this circular race connects generations: many adults, today vendors or fishermen, rode the same tires, on the same roads.