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David L. Boeck, an Associate Professor with the Division of Architecture, has been working on creating a book of sketches related to service-learning trips he has taken with students to Lusaka, Zambia. The sketches reflect life on the streets of Lusaka, the capitol of Zambia. These sketches depict community members in Lusaka, especially the workforce of wheelbarrowers who transport products from one place to another.
Boeck made his first trip to Lusaka in 2014 during which he spent time learning about the local community from the homeless children enrolled in the Family Legacy Primary Schools of the area. While exploring these communities, Boeck noticed that the incredibly busy streets were not only filled with cars and pedestrians, but also with men pushing wheelbarrows.
Many of these wheelbarrows had been altered in order to make it possible for these “wheelbarrowers” to transport five to six hundred pounds of product. These alterations included the addition of truck tires or even welding on metal cages and supports. Despite the large amount of product these men were moving, they were able to easily navigate the busy streets and sidewalks of Lusaka.
A collection of sketches from the book.
Boeck writes in his new book, “I came to view these modified wheelbarrows as the symbol of this pervasive, never-ending, 24-7 work going on during the day and well into the night.” The wheelbarrows showed how much business was being done by those who were formally unemployed.
Inspired by their ingenuity, Boeck took pictures of the wheelbarrowers as well as other features of the communities in Lusaka. He used these pictures to create sketches, which are featured in the book, “The Zambian Wheelbarrowers.” The book contains sketches and pictures from his eight years of trips to Zambia between 2014 and 2018.
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