Moroccan children’s go-carts
In August 2005 a few boys from the small Moroccan town Sidi Ifni, located at the Atlantic coast about 150 km south of Agadir, did show me how they create a go-cart.
Moroccan children’s go-carts
They only use waste material such as pieces of timberwood, a metal bar, some nails. To hit the nails they use a stone or a hammer if they can lay hand on one. The weels are used ball-bearings. Photo 1 shows how one of the boys hits a nail through the steering bar. On the ground lays the plank to sit on with the back axle already attached. 
On photo 2 one sees how the front wheel is attached by pushing both ends of an iron wire through the wooden axle. The wire is folded in such a way as to create a noose in the middle. The noose is pushed through the plank and the steering bar. In order to fix all this a wooden pin is driven through the noose (photo 3). 
One way to attach the steering bar is to put it below the sitting plank (photo 4). In another place at some 50 km from Sidi Ifni the steering bar is put on top of the sitting plank (see photo 5).
When observing on another occasion how Moroccan boys make go-carts I saw that quite some experience is needed before being able to make a good one. At that time a boy served as master artisan in go-cart making helping his less experienced friends to make a go-cart with which one really can drive down a asphalted hillroad. 
There are two common ways of driving a go-cart. The first one is by squatting down on the plank and guiding it by hand (photo 4). The second position is standing upright on the plank and guiding it with one’s foot (photo 5).
by Jean-Pierre Rossie
at sanatoyplay@gmail.com