Paper short abstract:

Does the nganya ride indicate how status, power and agency are negotiated, thus translating travel from commute to wish fulfilment? Is the nganya ride an interplay between human and technological agency whereby strategies such as names, colour and lights animate and anthropomorphise the vehicles?

Paper long abstract:

The term matatu is widely known as the name for the Kenyan public transport vehicles. The competitive nature of the matatu industry necessitates the employment of tactics such as speeding and styling up of the vehicles in order to get a market edge. Although these tactics are mainly business strategies, in this paper, I focus on them as lenses that can illuminate the interaction between human-beings and technology. Focus is on manyanga (nganya), mini-bus matatus which greatly utilize many of the business tactics referred to above. They are easily recognized by their stylish look, speed and boldly calligraphed names. I propose to conduct a survey of nganyas plying between Nairobi and Ongata Rongai (a town about 25 kilometres south of Nairobi city). I will interview nganya crew and passengers and also observe them both inside the nganyas and at the terminus to investigate the dynamics at play in the human activity of travel and the relationship between humans and technology. This will address the questions whether the experience of the nganya ride can act as an indicator of how status, power and agency are negotiated thus translating travel from mere commute to real or imagined wish fulfilments; also whether the nganya ride can be read as an interplay between human and technological agency whereby strategies such as names, art work and lights not only individualize, but also animate and anthropomorphise the nganyas.