原文標(biāo)題：
Kenya
Brotherhood of bikers
A motorbike taxi driver’s funeral shows how society and politics are changing
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Kenya’s boda-boda taxis are unruly in life—and death

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DEATH MAYmean eternal silence, but you can hear the funeral of a Kenyan boda-boda driver (a motorbike taxi man) from miles away. Music blasts from loudspeakers that have been mounted on the hearse (a flower-laden minibus), as the shouts of mourners compete with the honks of passing lorries and the toots of dozens of boda-bodas that make up the raucous procession.
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Such send-offs are common. Last year 1,634 boda-boda drivers and their passengers died in accidents on Kenya’s roads, according to official figures. Yet their rowdy funerals are not just a sign of the dangers they face (and cause). They also mark changes in Kenyan society that, among other things, are rejigging the conventional calculus.
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Many older Kenyans, especially those in the countryside, keep to the old tribal ways of honouring their dead, often with the aim of pleasing ancestral spirits. Ethnic loyalty has long influenced how Kenyans have tended to vote. Governments were often in essence tribal coalitions, with leaders promising to funnel state resources into their own ethnic heartlands. Now, however, many young Kenyans are casting off old traditions and ethnic identities and are adopting new political allegiances as they move in ever larger numbers into the cities.
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Boda-boda drivers exemplify the trend. Cut loose from ties of village and kin, and often considered an unruly menace by the Kenyan middle class, they have formed a new brotherhood of their own. ‘‘We have no other community,” explains one taking part in the funeral procession of another driver he did not even know. “This is our community.”
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The brotherhood is growing fast. There may be between 900,000 and 2.4m motorcycle taxis serving Kenya’s populationof around 55m, according to estimates by the government and industry. Car & General, a Kenyan insurer, reckons they pull in fares worth 365bn shillings ($3bn) a year, equivalent to a shade more than 3% of GDP. So they are an economic force to be reckoned with.
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And they are gaining political heft, too. William Ruto, elected president this year, campaigned hard to win their votes. He lionised them as epitomising the “hustler nation” he claims to represent. This may explain why boda-boda drivers were more inclined to vote for him than his opponents, who promised lower fuel prices and more welfare.
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Yet boda-boda drivers bring problems, too. They are often embroiled in turf wars and organised crime. Their fierce loyalty to one another can lead to violence. Last year hundreds of drivers stormed a hospital and killed two suspected motorbike thieves. Moreover, many are unlicensed and gleefully disregard road signs, according to a study by Kenya’s National Crime Research Centre. Many ride while they are drunk or high on drugs, contributing to the awful annual death toll on the roads—as well as to ever noisier funerals.

（恭喜讀完，本篇英語(yǔ)詞匯量461左右）
原文出自：2022年12月3日《The Economist》Middle East&Africa版塊。
精讀筆記來(lái)源于：自由英語(yǔ)之路

本文翻譯整理: Maree本文編輯校對(duì): Irene
僅供個(gè)人英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)交流使用。

【補(bǔ)充資料】（來(lái)自于網(wǎng)絡(luò)）
Boda-boda 出租車是非洲自行車文化的一部分，它開(kāi)始于1960和1970年代，并從肯尼亞到烏干達(dá)的邊境傳播到其它地區(qū)。這個(gè)名稱起源于一個(gè)需要跨越邊境哨所間的“無(wú)人區(qū)”而沒(méi)有使用機(jī)動(dòng)車輛跨越國(guó)際邊界的文書(shū)的運(yùn)輸。這開(kāi)始于肯尼亞與烏干達(dá)邊境南端兩國(guó)國(guó)門(mén)間相距半英里的Busia鎮(zhèn)，并迅速蔓延到了北邊的Malaba鎮(zhèn)。自行車主喊著boda-boda（音近英語(yǔ)：border-to-border，邊境-邊境) 以招攬客戶。不要把Boda-Boda與塞拉利昂的合乘出租車poda-poda混淆。在Boda-boda自行車蔓延到其它地區(qū)的時(shí)侯，在其原產(chǎn)地，特別是肯尼亞和烏干達(dá)的城市中，自行車越來(lái)越多的被摩托車取代，摩托車出租車也以Boda-boda為名。其它一些地方則給摩托車出租車另起了一些名字，如在肯尼亞尼揚(yáng)扎省被叫作“peng'”。據(jù)估計(jì)，2004年烏達(dá)干有20萬(wàn)以上自行車Boda-boda從業(yè)者，并有近9萬(wàn)輛機(jī)動(dòng)摩托車Boda-boda。
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【重點(diǎn)句子】（3?個(gè)）
Ethnic loyalty has long influenced how Kenyans have tended to vote.
長(zhǎng)期以來(lái)，種族忠誠(chéng)一直影響著肯尼亞人的投票傾向。
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So they are an economic force to be reckoned with.
所以他們是一股不可忽視的經(jīng)濟(jì)力量。
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They are often embroiled in turf wars and organised crime. Their fierce loyalty to one another can lead to violence.
他們經(jīng)常卷入地盤(pán)之爭(zhēng)和組織犯罪。他們彼此間的強(qiáng)烈忠誠(chéng)度可能導(dǎo)致暴力。