The Boda Boda (R)age: Economies of Affection in the Motorbike Taxis of Kenya

Abstract

Nikushike namna gani? (How should I hold you?) The questions that women ask motorbike taxis operators are just one of the many ways that this new mode of transportation in both urban and rural Kenya have become a vehicle for laughter, outrage, (in)dignity and wealth. This paper focuses on moments of delight in the danger-filled work of motorbike taxi operators in Kenya. How much joy do boda boda (motorbike taxis) generate in modern Kenya? The delight is measured, not simply in terms of the varied financial and psycho-social accumulation that is made possible in this industry, but also in terms of the tone of the public conversations that have been triggered by the boda boda phenomena. I interrogate the grammar that has grown out of this mode of transportation, the platforms through which this grammar circulates and the tenor of the voices of thought-leaders and policymakers as they engage the conundrum of public transport. An examination of women’s engagements with boda bodas reveals a long arc that stretches from moral panic borne of knee-jerk recourses to both ethnic mores and pious religion – which often conspire to policewomen’s bodies – to reclamation and release in moments of freedom that are performed in several ways, including the erasure of the borders of personal space. Beyond the political economies of wealth and poverty in Africa, this paper is concerned with demonstrating cultural performativity in the context of post-colonial modernity and answering key questions about how national identities are forged and reinforced in a series of rapidly circulating discourses that underline commonalities far more than they entrench the differences that many see as both indelible and emblematic of the modern African state.