hey first time posting here, great to meet youse all. Now this is vidcon-related in a way but just bear with me a bit.
I got really keyed into Kenyan and Ugandan kustom car facebook pages a while ago. It’s some real good stuff.
In Kenya, especially in Nairobi, as well other countries in the region, there’s not a ton of public transport downtown and around city suburbs. While there are some government and private bus services that run around the city, they’re kinda few and far between. To supplement it, tons of people get a ride in ‘matatus’ or nganyas- buses, vans and minibuses that are privately owned and carry about a dozen people.
Most matatus are pretty lowkey. I’m not really sure what it’s like in other countries, but I live in australia now and out in the middle of nowhere you’ll often see a pretty generic minibus as the only public transport in town. You just tell the driver where you want to go and they’ll add it to the route, along with the other passengers. It’s pretty similar in a lot of places in East Africa.
Anyway, downtown in Nairobi there are a TON of matatus, and they’re competing with each other.
A lot of them have been PIMPED OUT COMPLETELY UNREAL to get passengers on board.
the custom matatus get called nganya. heres an Ed, Edd, and Eddy nganya that’s named PLANK, designed by Asila Curtis Asila, it hit the road a few weeks ago.
there’s a Jesus one named Messiah on the road at the moment that blasts rap and gospel music
there’s really a TON of unbelievably decked out nganya buses in Nairobi, and it’s made a whole scene and industry around it. The interiors are ridiculously pimped as well, these flashy ones are usually absolutely blasting music, and some have TV screens all over the roof and on the back of the seats. My mate told me one even had a PS5 in the front that you could extra to play on every screen lol.
You see a lot of GTA and Far Cry graphics on nganyas. those games are real popular in Kenya and anything popular will end up in an nganya paintjob eventually lol.
https://www.instagram.com/nganya_kenya/p/CpVzAzxKefA/
long story short there was a bus in Kenya with three Danganronpa characters spraypainted on the side
(they replaced them with skullgirls characters last year)