CHAPTER SIX: Literacy in Bweyale 6.1 Introduction
6.4 Livelihood and community literacy practices
6.4.2 Specific literacy practices in different livelihood activities
6.4.2.2 Literacy in Bodaboda riding
activities that occur in bars, restaurants and lodges. Once the transactions are complete, the written information generated during this process becomes irrelevant. Therefore, the functional value of literacy is high, while its archival or long-term value seems to be low.
Most of the records generated only retain their usefulness for the duration of the transaction.
of writing as writing for fun although it is used to amuse and attract customers. It reads,
“CAM NONO BER KI WINYO” translated to English on the backside of the same seat as,
“FREE FOOD IS GOOD FOR BIRDS”. I was personally amused by the writing and asked the rider of the bicycle in the picture, why he wrote it? He said, “I just wrote it for fun”. This writing could also serve as decoration for the Bodaboda bikes
.
Figure 27: Writing on the passenger seat of a Bodaboda bicycle.
I first saw the phrase written on a kiosk in the trading centre before this particular Bodaboda rider wrote it on his bicycles (see Figure 28 below). I failed to get the meaning of this phrase because when I asked the Bodaboda rider to tell me he said he just wrote it for fun.
Figure 28: Similar writing on the wall of a kiosk.
There is other written information that relates to the transport industry to which the Bodaboda riders see themselves as belonging like, “ANYBODY EXPRESS”. They get these ideas from reading what is written on buses that pass via Bweyale like, “GULU EXPRESS.” I also saw motivational statements like, “WE TRY OTHERS CRY” written on the rear mudguard of a Bodaboda motorcycle, and, “Bedo dit tek, oweko atute,” (Being a grown up is difficult, it makes me try). When I asked the owner of the bicycle on which this information was posted why he wrote that expression, he replied with another similar expression common among the Acholi people, which says, “Kite eno” (that is its
character). The full expression, “Kita kwo eno” translates as, “That is the character of life.” Others religious statements like, “I love Jesus,” are painted on the cushioned seats of the Bodaboda bicycles. The Bodaboda riders could be writing these motivational
expressions to help them take up the challenge of life. It could be a conventional practice in Bodaboda riding.
There is also some reading and writing that is directly related to the day-to-day operations of a Bodaboda rider. Kweya for examples said, “Writing during working hours is the problem of the chairperson; he is the person who should be writing because he is the leader of the group” (Interview with Kweya conducted in Luo on 9th July 2005). Details of what the chairperson writes are discussed later in this section.
After work, these Bodaboda riders keep records of their finances. This involves counting the money earned during the day and deciding how much should be saved. Numeracy is very important in that exercise. Kweya said, “I budget the money that I should be saving from home after leaving work” (Interview with Kweya conducted in Luo: 9th July 2005).
There are three types of Bodaboda riders. The first are those who own their bicycles or motorcycles; the second group are those who rent, and the third are those who are employed to ride. Those who rent or are employed usually sign agreements with bicycle or motorcycle owners, thus making signing agreements another important area of literacy use in the work of Bodaboda riders. This practice of written agreement, although
informal, is based on the knowledge that the act of signing a piece of paper is binding and commits people to what has been agreed, and that such written agreements can be used to resolve disputes between the people involved in the agreement. They also know that the document they are signing can be used as evidence in courts of law in Uganda in case of disagreement. Both parties who agree to sign such agreements have this shared
knowledge and it empowers them to participate in signing the agreement. Therefore, the act of writing the agreement is institutionally guaranteed. The institutions that guarantee such actions are the people themselves, the Local Council systems (elective local political leadership at the village levels), the police and Uganda’s judiciary. These institutions are also effective if the people recognise and respect them. This is exactly what Elwert (2001) pointed out, that the development of a literate society or a literate culture, requires the following social transformation to exist beforehand: “Respect and control of social norms including respect of the laws, rules of associations, and contracts; this is most important especially in the sector of a market economy where contracts have to be respected”
(Elwert, 2001, p. 54).
In case one party in the agreement, especially the Bodaboda rider, is not literate, he relies on a witness48 of his choice to mediate the process of signing the agreement on his behalf.
Again, this use of a witness is based on the knowledge of court practice where witnesses are very important in court decisions. Ocan, the chairperson of the Bodaboda riders, said, The person who writes the agreement will stand as a witness between you and the
owner of the motorcycle, stating that these people wrote that on this date, they agreed that payment should be made at this rate per week. They will also be talking during the process of writing the agreement, so that even if you are not able to read and write you will still understand.
(Interview with Ocan conducted in Luo on 9th July 2005).
Those who rent bicycles have a lot more writing to do because they have to account for the money they have collected during the day to the owners of the bicycles. For that reason, the records of payments made are kept by both the owner of the cycle and its user.
The objective of keeping this record is to confirm that each party in the agreement is committed to what was agreed between them. If one party is not literate, the service of a literacy mediator in the form of a witness will be used to confirm that the payments are made and recorded properly by the owner of the cycle. As might be expected, the use of witness when making payment is not something used by non-literate people only, because it is a normal practice to have a witness in anything that involves a written agreement as I discuss later in this chapter. The chairperson of the Bodaboda riders explains how this is done:
Therefore, if you work and it comes to Saturday you take the money agreed upon to the person. If it says twenty thousand, it is twenty thousand. If it says ten thousand, it is ten thousand. While there, the person has a book in which he records what this week has brought. If you are not able to read and write, you may inform your witness after remitting the money or you go with him when you are taking the money to your rich man.
You do not give the money to the witness because the duty of the witness is only to see what is taking place.
(Interview with Ocan conducted in Luo on 9th July 2005)
Although the Bodaboda riders do not have much to write while at work, they encounter some instances that require reading, as Ocan explains:
Sometimes customers can bring a letter for you and tell you to take it to the place addressed on the letter. You can also see written information like in front of some shops like, “Ma lubanga Omio” (the one which God has given), or Can Rom (Poverty is the same). They will tell you to take a letter to such a place and the name of the place is written on the letter. Sometimes they can send you with a note to go and collect
something. If you are not able to read, and after getting such a note, you take it to another person who knows how to read to help you read. It is not good. Now if you are the owner of the letter, you have given it to me, and you again see me giving it to another person,
48 Note that witnesses are expected to be there in all cases of signing agreements even when all the parties involved are literate.
you may not like it. If the person to whom the letter was transferred goes to collect whatever was written on the note and he disappears with it, you will have to come and arrest me, because you had given it to me. Those who are not literate face this problem.
(Interview with Ocan conducted in Luo on 9th July 2005).
While the chairperson’s explanation may sound hypothetical, I noticed that people who pass via Bweyale in buses often give letters or written notes to Bodaboda riders to deliver to some people in Bweyale.
The Bodaboda riders in Bweyale have an association that they formed to regulate their activities and control the behaviour of members. Literacy is used in running this organisation, and as stated by Kweya in the interview reported above, it is the
responsibility of the chairperson as leader of the group to do the writing relating to this association.
This includes registering new members (riders), bicycles, and motorcycles. In registering a new member, Ocan said:
What I like doing is…, like if you come to the road (i.e. if you come to join the groups as a Bodaboda rider), I know that if you have come (to join Bodaboda riding), I must write down your name, the place you are staying, your LC (Local Council), and your tribe in our record book. Because if I write that this person is an Acholi who stays in this place under this Local Council, when something happens at least they can come and ask (me) that such a Bodaboda boy did this and that. Registering Bodaboda riders is important because it can help to track any rider, motorcycle or bicycle. If people are looking for a particular Bodaboda rider, I will simply check in the record book, and be able to identify the person and the motorcycle he is using including its registration number.
(Interview with Ocan conducted in Luo on 9th July 2005).
The chairperson of the Bodaboda Association also registers new bicycles and motorcycles. He said:
If you have brought a bicycle or motorcycle, what type of motorcycle, what is the frame number of the bicycle, what colour, what registration number…? I keep this information in my record book”
(Interview with Ocan conducted in Luo on 9th July 2005).
According to the chairperson, the registration of members is used to ensure that the new people joining the group are reliable people who will not cause problems for the group and to be able to follow up members who misbehave and need to be disciplined by the group. Literacy is therefore used to control members by collecting personal information about them.
In addition to registering their members, the Bodaboda riders engage in activities that are brought about by their institutionalised existence as an association. These include holding regular meetings. During these meetings, discussions are held and decisions are made and
recorded as minutes in English. There are very strong reasons for writing these minutes in English. Meetings and minutes are practices that are associated with modern institutions and organisations. The language of these modern institutions and organisations is English.
The use of English therefore gives formality and status to the meeting of the Bodaboda riders. The files containing these minutes are kept by the chairperson or the secretary of the group, both of whom are able to read and write according to Ocan. Ocan said, “We hold our meetings once a month… to discuss such complaints from customers”.
(Interview with Ocan conducted in Luo on 9th July 2005).