The Grim Reaper makes no appointment with anyone; he strikes when least expected. But despite that being the case, morality and honour for the dead and the bereaved dictates that the corpse be handled with utmost dignity and later given a decent send off.
This, however, is not the case in some rural outposts in Uganda. Ravaged by grinding poverty, some bereaved families have resorted to transporting the dead on boda boda from morgues to their final resting place, as shocking viral pictures seen by Crazy Monday reveal.
Unable to afford the cheapest of hearses, these poor families go to the morgue, dress up the dead body, support it with sticks and then put it on a boda boda before the rider zooms off to the corpse’s final resting place.
Apparently, this mode of transport has increasingly become common among locals and is always readily available that many see nothing shocking about it.
When talking to local press, a member of a bereaved family that recently used the method to transport their dead said it was not their wish to use the indignifying mode of transport. They said it was necessitated by their financial circumstances.
It’s even worse in some villages. Local reports have it that some poor villagers use animals such as donkeys and camels to transport corpses from morgues to burial sites!
“I had no money to transport the body to Kakindu in Mityana District, our ancestral burial grounds. I made a distress call to one of the priests at the Catholic parish where I served as a catechist.
“The priest was of no much help as he turned down my request for the parish vehicle. Other requests also did not yield any help. I decided I would use motorcycle and take my brother to our burial ground,” said a member of the bereaved family.
Seeing as the body was still ‘fresh’ and flaccid, the family sat it on the bodaboda, supported it with sticks.
They also used a bed sheet to wrap it around the rider to stop it from spilling over or constituting what traffic police consider a ‘wide load’ and they were good to go.
To further avoid many questions from police and stares from members of the public, the body was transported at night.
Interestingly, bodaboda riders in the country seem so used to this style of transporting the dead and see no big deal. Reportedly, it fetches them slightly more than carrying a live human being, thus none of them complains. Sigh!
