Africa On The Move Toys From West Africa

Creatively and lovingly made at first by children for their own use, toys of recycled material have been on offer from the 1980s at traditional West African markets and are enormously popular. The Swiss collection comprising 150 items shown here has been amassed over the past ten years. Assembled with the simplest of techniques, toys such as motorbikes, cars, lorries, air-planes and military equipment are conjured up from all sorts of materials (wire, tin cans, plastic,wood, scraps of metal and cloth) with no limits set on their creators' imagination. Most of these toys are vehicles, which shows the status mobility has in African society. By now small workshops have emerged to ensure the survival of toy-making families. Text in English, German and FrenchEisenhofer, Stefan is the author of 'Africa On The Move Toys From West Africa' with ISBN 9783897902138 and ISBN 3897902133.