@tomcourtright.bsky.social

Bodas, transport, cities, e-mobility in East Africa | PhD student @UCT_news | 🏍 @lubyanza | former: @aptechsolar in 🇺🇬 & @peacecorps in 🇫🇯 & child in 🇹🇿

[@tomcourtright.bsky.social @Tom_Courtright]

An (incomplete) map of what motorcycle-taxis are called across the continent. You've all heard of boda bodas and moto-taxis, but did you know about bendskins and Jakartas?

🇸🇳 🏍 🇨🇲 🏍 🇺🇬 🏍 🇲🇿

[@tomcourtright.bsky.social @Tom_Courtright]

A drawing of a zemidjan (boda boda) in a 1988 newspaper article in Cotonou

[@tomcourtright.bsky.social @Tom_Courtright]

@guardian heads up that this poster is from Uganda, not the DRC

[@tomcourtright.bsky.social @Tom_Courtright]

Zem Info, the official magazine for zemidjans (boda bodas) in Benin. By zems, for zems. 😎🏍️💨

[Ministère de la Sécurité - Togo @MSPC_TOGO]

LE TOGO SUPPRIME LE VISA POUR TOUS LES AFRICAINS !

Le Togo franchit une étape historique dans le renforcement de l’intégration africaine. Désormais, tous les ressortissants des États africains détenteurs d’un passeport national valide peuvent entrer sur le territoire togolais sans visa, pour un séjour allant jusqu’à 30 jours.

À travers cette réforme majeure, le Président du Conseil réaffirme sa volonté de faire du Togo un espace d’ouverture, de mobilité, d’opportunités et de coopération au cœur du continent africain.

Les voyageurs doivent toutefois effectuer leur déclaration de voyage sur la plateforme officielle https://t.co/CsFa9PI7k2 au moins 24 heures avant leur arrivée afin d’obtenir leur bordereau de voyage.
Le Togo confirme ainsi son leadership en matière d’intégration régionale et de rapprochement des peuples africains.

#Togo
#Afrique
#integration
#Libre
#panafricanism
#voyage
#cooperation

[Derek R Peterson @Unseen_Archive]

The @AAUP & the AFT have just issued a strong & helpful statement defending academic freedom and condemning the ridiculous campaign of intimidation that has been launched against me.

I am most grateful for this. Here is the statement:

https://t.co/h94HXTDe4G

[@tomcourtright.bsky.social @Tom_Courtright]

Very happy to see @Unseen_Archive rightly recognizing pro-Palestinian activists as being in a long line of people fighting against injustice, and for standing up against a frankly very hostile administration.

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

Professor Derek R. Peterson, a University of Michigan historian and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, thanked “pro-Palestinian student activists” during a graduation speech today, for “opening our hearts to the injustices and inhumanity of Israel’s war in Gaza.”

Peterson teaches history and African studies at the University of Michigan, where he also became chair of the faculty senate in 2025.

[@tomcourtright.bsky.social @Tom_Courtright]

When a petrol motorcycle (or any other vehicle) driver wants to know the price of fuel, they can see it from the roadside. ⛽

You can't if you're an electric boda. So I created this website:

https://t.co/F8qwaxyw36

[@tomcourtright.bsky.social @Tom_Courtright]

Hi @airasia it's very difficult to find out if our first flight on a return ticket is missed (due to a Batik Air delay) we still have the return ticket?

Your customer care bot is not helping

[@tomcourtright.bsky.social @Tom_Courtright]

One of the stranger boda boda origin stories: the Vietnam-American war.

According to Vietnamese journalists, in the 1960s, motorcycle-owning Vietnamese office workers gave rides to American soldiers to take them around the city, leading to the invention of xe om - boda bodas.

[Janel Comeau 🍁 @VeryBadLlama]

don’t make me tap the sign

[@tomcourtright.bsky.social @Tom_Courtright]

@Winnie_Byanyima If you're interested to learn more, check out the Uganda E-Mobility Association's sector paper on it!

https://t.co/2dhjieYtwW

[@tomcourtright.bsky.social @Tom_Courtright]

Winnie Byanyima posting about e-mobility policy was not on my bingo card.

Love to see it!

[Winnie Byanyima @Winnie_Byanyima]

This is not an “achievement.” It’s laughable spin.

Kenya normalized hybrid mobility years ago, with charging infrastructure across malls, office blocks, and fuel stations. That didn’t happen by accident, it came from policy, planning, and intent.

Rwanda didn’t just talk, it incentivized. Years of tax breaks on hybrid and electric imports transformed the market. The shift is visible, measurable, and sustained.

Ethiopia has gone even further by restricting the import of fuel-only vehicles and forcing a transition toward hybrids and electrification. That’s what decisive climate action looks like.

And Uganda? Still stuck - minimal infrastructure, weak incentives, no credible transition plan.

So let’s be honest, what exactly is being celebrated here?

You don’t get applause for arriving late, doing little, and rebranding it as progress.

Climate leadership is not a press release. It’s results.

Makerere Launches First Electric Car Fast-Charging Station https://t.co/K1Anzs6hA6

[Marcus Stanley @MarcusMStanley]

Good piece by Nicolas Kristof in the NYT today

[John Arnold @johnarnold]

The Atlantic has a sobering, first-person look at the ramifications of legalized online sports betting. Here are a few of the more telling passages.
1/5

[@tomcourtright.bsky.social @Tom_Courtright]

@united ? I've sent a message. Still no replies anywhere

[@tomcourtright.bsky.social @Tom_Courtright]

having a terrible experience with @united airlines.

missed a connection to get to bangkok, stuck in LA, they've put me on a flight that's 36 hours from now, no hotel

they have removed all human customer service from the airport. there is just a QR code to a website without ppl

[Duncan Money @mininghistory]

Next month I'll be running a workshop at the University of Vienna on jobs for historians outside universities, drawing on my own experiences.

The course is almost fully booked but I would be happy to run this same workshop at other universities.

[@tomcourtright.bsky.social @Tom_Courtright]

With boda bodas increasingly available in Mozambique and in Dakar itself, it's looking more and more like a boda rainbow 🏍️🌈

[@tomcourtright.bsky.social @Tom_Courtright]

Bodas And Moto-Taxis Across The Continent (2nd ed.)

Thanks to @Gowokani11 @kayikwambaT @drmontemarano @lukusem @cblatts @EconOracle @drjustinpearce for their input and helpful corrections!

🇦🇴 🏍 🇸🇸 🏍 🇲🇱 🏍 🇬🇭

[CEO East Africa Magazine @CEOEastAfrica]

Daniel Kalinaki Set to Retire from Nation Media Group in April

Daniel Kalinaki, the General Manager - Editorial at @NationMediaGrp Uganda and one of the country’s most prominent newsroom leaders, is set to retire on April 1, 2026, ending a two-decade career that included leading @DailyMonitor and @The_EastAfrican operations, an internal email seen by this publication shows.

Read the full story:
https://t.co/MDxeGVX7T8