Culture, Health & Sexuality ISSN 1369-1058 print/ISSN 1464-5351 online # 2004 Taylor & Francis Ltd http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI: 10.1080/13691050310001658208 Mobility, sexual networks and exchange among bodabodamen in southwest Uganda STELLA NYANZI, BARBARA NYANZI, BESSIE KALINA and ROBERT POOL In order to examine the sexual behaviour of a highly mobile social group, qualitative data and quantitative data were elicited from 212 private motorbike taxi-men, locally called bodabodamen, from two study sites in Masaka, Uganda. Selection criteria were availability and willingness to participate in the study. Research techniques employed were a questionnaire, focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and case studies. Findings indicate that bodabodamen are a highly mobile group who engage in frequent seasonal rural-urban migration. Consequent to this, bodabodamen have a wide network of both occasional and regular sexual partnerships. Both serial and concurrent multiple partner- ships are with adults, youths, widows, students, sugar-mummies, barmaids, commercial sex workers, tailors. Exchange plays a significant role in sexual negotiations but the act of giving to a sexual partner is ambivalent in its social interpretation. Since bodabodamen have regular access to cash, they have higher bargaining power for sex. Implications for HIV/ AIDS prevention are discussed. Introduction Studies reveal that physical mobility is a key factor which 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 there- fore chose to study commercial motorbike-taxi riders, locally known as bodabodamen, because they are an indigenous employment group that is Stella Nyanzi works at the Medical Research Council Laboratories, Banjul, The Gambia, Barbara Nyanzi and Bessie Kalina are with the Medical Research Council (UK) Programme on AIDS in Uganda/Uganda Virus Research Institute, Uganda. Robert Pool works at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK. All correspondence should be addressed to: Stella Nyanzi, MRC Laboratories, Fajara, PO Box 273, Banjul, The Gambia; e-mail: snyanzi@yahoo.com CULTURE, HEALTH & SEXUALITY, MAY–JUNE 2004, VOL. 6, NO. 3, 239–254