Bikers riding for peace, diversity across the globe
Recently, some members of the Latin American Motorcycle Association (LAMA) visited Nigeria to tour some historical sites in the country. Our reporter got them off the bikes to explain how biking has helped shape their thoughts towards humanity.
No stranger to biking, Mareo Nieves has been on a motorcycle for most of his life and he fully supports the idea of using the sport to celebrate diversity and racial unity across the globe.
Born in Puerto Rico and raised in the US, Nieves founded the Latin American Motorcycle Association (LAMA) in 1977 when he was 25. The idea was to promote peace and harmony amongst people and by the year 2000, many more people wanted to join the association and he felt the time had come for the association to become international.
“The motorcycle is what brings us together. But we are more than the motorcycle club and we believe that we are an important part of our community. We ensure that we participate in our various communities and I think that what has made us grow is that we do not distinguish between races,” he said.
“We believe that it is important to be human first than to be Puerto Rican or to be black. We also don’t distinguish between religion hence we have Muslims, we have Christians, we have Jews we have atheists and we have people that are Buddhist. We believe that it is more important that we can sit together at the table and eat together in peace and harmony and demonstrate that yes we can because this is the way to combat the evil world that we have. We are, people of peace, we love peace and we believe that we can set an example,” he added.
Nieves who reminisced about his experiences with motorcycles said he used to be an athlete and competed in body building, wrestling and martial arts but one day found himself on a motorcycle and fell in love with it.
“One day I fell in love with a bike that I saw and I could not afford it because I was poor. And so after that I went to the army. And when I came back I got a profession and then I went and bought a motorcycle.”
“But when I bought the motorcycle I began to doubt myself. I thought why did I buy it? I was 25 years old then,” he said.
The visit to Nigeria was not the first to Africa. They had been to Egypt before but the visit to Nigeria, he said was an eye opener. There were initial concerns over safety in the country.
But after visiting several tourists sites in 11 cities, including the Gurara Falls in Niger; the coal city of Enugu, the Millennium Park, Slave History Museum, Tinapa Lake Resort all in Cross River; the national museum in Port Harcourt, Nieves said their most memorable moment was visiting the slave museum.
“I have African roots, and going to the slave museum and seeing how it impacted a whole society I think that was probably the most important but I also saw many other things that were great in the other tourist places we visited,” he said.
At 70, and having been biking for 45 years, Nieves has experienced many types of roads, but nothing compared to what he witnessed on this trip. Nigerian roads, he said, are amongst the worst he had seen in all his adventures across the world.
If the government did not fix the roads, he said, biking would remain unsafe in the country.
In his years in the group, Nieves has seen many rookies come through the rank. One of them is Cesar Zepeda from Chicago who has put in five years on the bikes.
He started riding for adventure and along the line learnt that it goes beyond just having fun, and visiting cities.
“It is beyond that. It is about living together as one people. When we visit a community, we learn their cuisine, we eat with them, talk laugh and sometimes share in their happiness as well as sorrows. So for me biking goes beyond riding motorcycles. It is about being your brothers keepers,” he said.
Zepeda also recalled how the team was cautioned against visiting Africa but expressed delight that they shunned the advice stressing that for him the visit turned out to be a great experience.
“Almost everybody has their opinion of what they think Africa is because of what they see in the news. A lot of people before we came here warned us not to come because of the constant news about kidnappings and killings and yes, Nigeria might have some problems, however, being here has turned out to be a great experience. And we have seen that Nigeria has a great deal of population that works in unity and also very hard,” he said. “As far as danger is concerned, personally we didn’t see anything. It is the myth that people have about certain areas and Africa is one of them.”
For him, the, prerequisite for joining a bikers club either as a profession or trade should be the love for bikes.
“You must love the motorcycle, only then will you have respect for it and also for the road. And lastly you must be alert or you will get hurt,” Zepeda said.
Raising concerns over bad roads, the Chairman of the Nigerian Chapter of the association, Mr. Ernest Akhikpemelo said activities like these what will draw the attention of government to the motorcycle association.
He also noted that the trip was an eye opener for the team and has also provided an avenue for them to speak with government about the challenges they face.