For these bikers, happiness is a fast bike, writes Leila Amanpour
Bikers and Hell’s Angels wannabes, usually associated with white culture, were never a popular sight in Soweto.
Even now, some Sowetans regard bikers as the “bad guys”, but for Soweto’s number-one biker gang, the Eagles, friendship and family are paramount to their lives.
For the Eagles, who formed in 1986, happiness is a fast bike that can take them away from the monotony of mainstream living.
The Eagles insist that they are a very disciplined club. They have meetings regularly to discuss club issues such as sponsorship and organising bike rallies involving gangs from all over South Africa.
But the real excitement lies in their weekend gatherings, where the club’s spirit is demonstrated by speeding up and down the roads of Soweto showing their stunts to the delight of huge groups of spectators.
It is quite a spectacle to see the 15 members opening the throttles of their bikes until the back tyres begin to smoke. They go at full speed down bumpy roads and zig-zag between each other with one leg on the bike and one in the air.
Children idolise the bikers and speak of owning their own bikes when they grow up. China Pusoeng, president of the Eagles, says they have become such a popular sight people have requested their performances at weddings and funerals.
In the past biker clubs were mostly white but now rallies attract clubs from different backgrounds, including township bikers like the Eagles.
The Eagles have broken more boundaries of biker gang culture by welcoming women into the sect. According to Pusoeng, women in the township still regard bikes as men’s toys, but the Eagles are doing their best to include them.