Boda boda is now recognised in an English dictionary.

Boda boda is one of the latest additions to the 9th edition of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary. The new words added to the latest edition, published by the Oxford University Press (OUP), were drawn from local dialects in the East African region.

Boda boda, is defined in the dictionary, as a type of motorcycle or bicycle with a space for a passenger or for carrying goods, often used as a taxi. An example of a sentence where it features reads like: “There were boys on boda bodas riding on Kampala’s street.”

In a documentary on the BBC last year, broadcaster Allan Kasujja said boda boda – motor cycle taxi – “had become a defining cultural and political symbol in Uganda, but one which is also fraught with controversy.”

For many Ugandans, it is a transport mode of choice if one is running quick errands around town or trying to get to hard-to-reach areas. It has come in handy to absorb most of the unemployed youths.

Yet it has also become the loathed lot. Boda bodas lack regulation and have sometimes been at the centre of bickering by some top politicians and security officials.

It has become an embodiment of crime and one prone to accidents perhaps because of the recklessness of the riders. Many assassinations in the country have been carried out by people travelling on boda boda – it is easy for one to get away.

Other words from the region now added to the Oxford dictionary include; mwananchi – meaning an ordinary person, a member of the public; Daladala – (in Tanzania) a small bus that is used as a taxi; sambaza – (East African English) to share good or useful things with other people; and mwalimu – (East African English) a word that you use before the name of someone who is respected as a teacher.

Reports indicate that boda boda originated from Busia town in eastern Uganda. Small- scale traders on the Kenya-Uganda border in the late 1980s to early 90s wanted cheap transport to ferry goods like cooking oil, wheat flour, and soap from Kenya to Uganda.

They would export things like maize to Kenya. Motorbikes came in handy as cheap, quick and convenient to ferry the goods. Since then, it has grown by leaps and bounds.

amwesigwa@observer.ug