Includes bibliography

Tangu kuzuka kwa umiliki wa vyombo vya moto vya usafiri (mabasi, malori, pikipiki) kwa watu binafsi katika miaka ya 1990 nchini Tanzania, misemo kwa kiasi kikubwa imechupa kutoka katika majukwaa yake ya asili ya kanga, vihangaisho, vipepeo na makawa majumbani na kuhamia katika vyombo vya usafiri. Si tu misemo mipya imezuka bali hata ile misemo ya asili imepindwa na kutumiwa katika miktadha mipya. Waandishi wa semi za magari ni madereva, utingo au wamiliki wa vyombo hivyo. Tumebaini makundi matatu ya misemo katika data yetu, yaani misemo kongwe, misemo pindwa na misemo ibuka, kwa kuakisi nadharia za methali na misemo za Mieder & Litovkina (1999), Mieder (2007) na Litovkina (2011). Je, misemo hiyo ni mkondo wa fikra mpya za watu kama alivyotabiri Kezilahabi (1988, 1995)?

Since the introduction of the private commercial motor transport services in Tanzania in the 1990s, the inscription of sayings has shifted from their mainly traditional platforms of female cotton wrap (Kanga), palm leaf food cover (kawa) or hand fan (kipepeo) onto the tailgate, sideboards or mudguards of commercial automobiles. The vehicle owners and/or their operators are inscribers of these automobile slogans. I analyze them in three forms: standard parodied and innovated sayings adopting the paremiological approaches by Mieder & Litovkina (1999), Mieder (2007), Litovkina (2011). Do these forms of car inscriptions fulfill the prediction by Kezilahabi (1988, 1995) on the imminent transformation of the Swahili sayings to become a platform for negotiation of people`s tumultuous life challenges and desires?