SMIDO has over 5000 members belonging to one of the twelve trade organizations. They are masters and apprentices. An apprentice can become a senior apprentice after three years and than he needs to work another three or four years to get approval of the master and than he is ready to become a master himself. This is a good system of ‘hands on’ learning, but SMIDO is afraid that the lack of theory and ICT knowledge will in the end be fatal to the survival of Suame. They see Suame Magazine as a ‘follow’ industry’ not as an innovative industry. ‘We don’t make cars here, we repair them and prepair them for the Ghanaien road conditions and load requirements. If cars get filled up with software and we don’t know anything about this, we will not be able to do anything with these cars anymore.’ Says Konlan Reuben who is responsible for computer courses at SMIDO.

Innovation might be a problem and getting funds is an even bigger problem because banks in Africa seem only to be interested in quick returns and the government doesn’t seem to be interested in long term development either. Its too risky for them, they would say. Yet the inventiveness of the place is stunning. Some of the machines that are used were locally made. We’ve seen welding machines and spray paint machines that were made here and even an air pressure machine used to get a high temperature flame for iron cutting. Suame magazine operates like a collective brain and seem to be able to overcome any problem they encounter. Its not through theory that they do this, but through practical knowledge and trial and error. Suame Magazine could be seen as the biggest car plant in the world, a place to live and work, compete and work together. Beyond cars there is a lot to learn from these people. For instance how to live in an economic and social unity and on the same time take part in mobility culture with global proportions. I’m sure ICT will fiend its way somehow to Suame Magazine. Maybe its time to get some computer hackers to this place, it is the informal sector after all.