ABSTRACT
Studies reveal that physical mobility is a key factor that influences the prevalence of HIV/ AIDS (Hunt, 1989; Paul, 2000). Research demonstrates that in parts of Africa areas with high migration are more likely to record higher HIV infection rates than areas where migration is less extensive (Kane et al., 1993; Kintu et al., 2000). To date, however, research on the link between mobility and HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa tends to have focused on specific high-risk mobile or migrant groups (Cohen and Trussell, 1996). Studies carried out in East and Southern Africa to investigate this relationship focus on truck drivers, soldiers, refugees, miners and sex workers (SWs). Most are epidemiological in character and only a few have tackled the social dimensions of risk and vulnerability (Gysels, 2001). Migration studies also tend to emphasize cross-boundary migration (UNAIDS, 2000) as opposed to internal migration. We therefore chose to study commercial motorbike-taxi riders, locally known as bodabodamen, because they are an indigenous employment group that is highly mobile but has not been studied before. This paper discusses the mobility and migration patterns, and describes the sexual networks and exchange dynamics in sexual relationships, among bodabodamen in south-western Uganda.
