Nigerian fashion designer Ituen Basi made a bold statement about motorcycle road safety at the first ever Arise African Fashion Week in March. Instead of the studs and leathers that generally mark biker style, Basi used bright, cloth-covered custom motorcycle helmets to promote helmet use as a life-saving strategy. Nigeria’s outdated infrastructure and congested roadways have long made motorcycle transport a faster, more desirable alternative to cars; the same factors have also made them the least safe option. Victims with spinal injuries are admitted almost daily to Nigerian hospitals. City streets teem with zippy okadas, the commercial motorcycles that carry passengers for hire. After decades of alarmingly high mortality rates amongst these motorcyclists, a law was passed in January of 2009 to make helmets mandatory for both drivers and passengers. Okdada users did not respond well to the new safety legislation. Drivers bemoaned the hefty price tag on helmets and passengers feared drivers would fill the helmets with black magic, or use them to cast spells.The public resistance to safety gear spured Ituen Basi to send each of her models out wearing a custom helmet during Africa’s 2011 Fashion Week. It was a way to harness the influential power of fashion and use it to shift public opinion on helmet safety. in her words.
Nigerian fashion designer Ituen Basi made a bold statement about motorcycle road safety at the first ever Arise African Fashion Week in March. Instead of the studs and leathers that generally mark biker style, Basi used bright, cloth-covered custom motorcycle helmets to promote helmet use as a life-saving strategy. Nigeria’s outdated infrastructure and congested roadways have long made motorcycle transport a faster, more desirable alternative to cars; the same factors have also made them the least safe option. Victims with spinal injuries are admitted almost daily to Nigerian hospitals. City streets teem with zippy okadas, the commercial motorcycles that carry passengers for hire. After decades of alarmingly high mortality rates amongst these motorcyclists, a law was passed in January of 2009 to make helmets mandatory for both drivers and passengers. Okdada users did not respond well to the new safety legislation. Drivers bemoaned the hefty price tag on helmets and passengers feared drivers would fill the helmets with black magic, or use them to cast spells.
The public resistance to safety gear spured Ituen Basi to send each of her models out wearing a custom helmet during Africa’s 2011 Fashion Week. It was a way to harness the influential power of fashion and use it to shift public opinion on helmet safety. in her words.