Boda boda

Bodaboda (boda-boda) - originally a bicycle taxi in East Africa (from English border ) - the bicycle driver can be called bodaboda as well..

Bicycles in Use and Type of Work

Indian or Chinese standard roadster bicycles are used with locally made carriers and a cushion upon to transport passengers and goods. There are big advantages compared to the expensive, slow and heavy bicycle rickshaw used in Asia, but in most Non-African countries it is illegal for two people to sit on one bike.

In most East- and some Central-African cities and villages the professional bodaboda taxi-drivers are standing and waiting for customers. Bodaboda organisations have been founded in many towms. They help to minimise the risks (dangerous driving, not well-maintained bikes, molesting women-passengers) by registering and licencing their members..

Origin

The bodaboda taxis are part of the African bicycle culture, they started in the 1960s and 1970s and are still spreading from their origin on the the Kenyan - Ugandan border to other regions. The name originated from when persons traveling between the border posts in Busia (Uganda) and Malaba (Kenya) would take a bicycle taxi. The bicycle owners would shout out boda-boda (border-border) to potential customers.

Motorbikes replacing Bicycles

Another development: while the boda-boda bicycle is still spreading to other areas, in it‘s area of origin, especially in cities in Kenya and Uganda, the bicycles are more and more replaced by motorbikes. The motorbike-taxis have taken the name bodaboda as well. It is estimated that in Uganda more than 200 000 men are working as bicycle bodaboda and already almost 90 000 as motorized two-wheeled boda-boda(end of 2004).