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TroTro Station
Top 3 Inscriptions
1. Dont look with your mouth
-anon
2. Stomach Takes No Holidays
-Roger Thomas
3. Meet the Son, see the Father!
- Nanayaa Anakwah (aka Reverend Field)
Updated: 30.09.2003 -- Send your favourite tro-tro slogans to the webmaster. Best entry will get a free tro-tro ride the next time he/she visits Ghana.
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Tro Tro A crowded, but efficient and inexpensive, minibus used for
short distance travel.
Origin- It evolved from the Ga language word "TRO" meaning three pence, that is, the penny coins that were in use in the colonial days of the Gold Coast, now Ghana. Those vehicles charged each passenger three pence per trip, hence it was dubbed "Tro- tro". Though the penny is no longer used, and the fare has been inflated in multiples, the old name still stands, obviously as a reminder of the transport service that operated in those good old days when life was simple and easy - going.
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Chasing Pack
Many are Called, But I am Chosen
Still Old School
Still Step by Step
(lots of tro-tros used "Still" after an indeterminate amount of time)
Naked I Came
Chastity is a Lifestyle
Man no cry
Ohia ye yadee (Poverty is a sickness)
Blackman Blacksense
Six Feet at Last
No Jesus, No Life. Know Jesus, Know Life.
Fear Woman and grow old.
Your wife is not your life partner
THE SAME PEOPLE
God Dey!
The evil that men do...
"Koomi na gaa Allah"
Oh God help me!
SAND,SAND NO BE GARI
Wa no pe asem
You Lie, See God.
I Love My Wife
Paddle Your Own Canoe.
No Big English
Travel and see
PEOPLE DOESN'T KNOW BUT WHO WILL TELL THEM
Ghana Hard, Still Ghana Hard
POOR NO FRIEND
No Where Cool
LIFE IS WAR
Me ntwere hwee (I will write nothing)
Owuo mpo suro
MODIN SANE (ga..meaning blackman's case)
I Shall Return
JJ fears Me
Nkran dea a noa ne tro tro.(The best
tansport or affordable transport in Accra is tro tro)
All shall pass
"Heaven gate - No bribe."
Girl bi nti. (Had it not been for this
girl.)
Sea never dry
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I saw this trotro slogan when I was on holiday in Tadi, Ghana. I'M AWARE. and when
I asked for the meaning I was told that young ladies wear G -string panties and when
it is exposed and you tell oh lady please your panties are showing the reponse is
I'm aware.
K, Adjie (London.UK)
nkrabea owu mpo suro wo: this is about a wicked man who was taunted by his community that even death was afraid of him...well, he could not conquer death after all, as he dead a mysterious death.
nyimpa dasanyin: people will always have something to say about their friends, enemies etc. so when they talk negativelly about others, the listener will say "ei onyimpa dasanyin" whatever you do they will talk about you" if you eat they will talk, if you dont, they will talk" . the owner of the car with this slogan might have been inspired by the ill effect of gossip in his community.
akeka keka: the meaning of this slogan is similar to the one above. people will twist information or news and it will travel like fire.
onyimpa ye fucking: A slogan inspired by a ghanain music star super yaw ofori's music of the similar title.
the hardships in life sometimes becomes an inspiration, however, the no-go people in the community will always move around singing onyimpa ye fucking to say that after all death is inevitable for consolation in their plight.
Abrokyire ye fucking: This sign was seen at a village in the eastern region and I suspect that it is the owners lamentation on hasstle and bustling life abroad. he might be right. with all the problems, disrespect, discrimination and suffering that hustlers go through living in a foreign land, what could be a better description than that?
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Mankessim is a well known town with a big market
centre. Traders come from as far as from Axim to Zongo
Zongo Nkwanta. Traders from distant places like
Accra,(cloth sellers) Ho and WoraWora (Anloga sleeping
mat and fan), Takyiman (maize, rice and millet),
Tamale (shea butter) Kasoa (Black soap) and women from
the coastal areas commute to the market in lorries and
trotro that has many interesting signs.
For the purpose of whetting the appetite of readers,
let me begin by writing SOME OF THE KNOWN MANKESSIM
TROTRO OWNERS AND THEIR SIGNS.
1. UNCLE SEY: This was a trotro owned by a man from a
village that was not far from Mankessim called Enyan
Maim. At that time, School children would line up by
the road side as uncle sey would drive by and we would
be singing: "UNCLE SEY, WO ENUFO ABO, WO KYIR
EFUW...UNCLE SEY"... as kids then, we were very proud
to be praising a man who was helping his community's
development through communiting traders to and fro
Mankessim.
LI>2.O.B.Y: this driver according to sources, was a
trained clothe designer(taylor)and he was a popular
driver as everybody in Mankessim lorry station in the
evening will be calling O.B.Y.---- O.B.Y. The story
behind the name is that he was advising the men who
were found of chasing married women thus OBI NE
WIVEFO"
3. ACCRA BOY:
The owner of this car was a peanapple farmer from
Ekumfi Abeka. After harvesting his products, he
travelled to Accra to sell it instead of Mankessim. He
got so much money that he bought a trotro and wrote
the sign ACCRA BOY, for he was the first farmer to
have travelled to Accra by then. The message he wanted
to send was that he was more enlightened than his
other colleagues.
4.TALENT: The Musama Disco Christo Church (a
separatist spiritual in Ghana that worships in the
line of the American Spiritual Baptist Church have a
song titled "Talent". The owner of the Talent trotro
was an ex-soldier who bought the car as an
appreciation to his brother for taking care of him
thorugh education and his subsequent securing a job in
the army. Talent trotro was a thank you message
advising fortunate people in society to help the
unfortunate.
-- harold
This is a slogan written at the back
of a tro-tro driver who is a HATCH BACK he knows definately people will
be lookin at him as he drives so its written at the back of his car in
FANTE, "ERI WHE WO NA"? MEANING ARE U LOOKING AT YOUR MAMA?
I saw this one written on the back
of a tro tro in Peki (near Ho) and i hope you can paste in on the Tro tro
page....."Fa woto be gye golf"...
I guess it is reminiscent of the Acheampong
days.
Tro-tro: The amazing form of transport known to man. Dilapidated minibuses which run the length and breadth of
the cities and countryside. They are always full, but always have room for more people. I was invariably
crammed between huge women who had vast girths and were dripping with babies. As I am no sylph myself,
it was very uncomfortable. "However, there are only three in that row. Fold down the aisle seat.
That means we can get at least two more people in that row." And when someone at the back wants to get off,
there is always all the fun of getting half the bus off and then having an argument as to who was sitting where.
Getting back on we start again. The smell of petrol fumes wafts through the floor and your foot is being pecked by an irate chicken who is wrapped in a plastic bag. The best place is by the driver, next to the window. You have something to hold onto, you have fresh air (no vehicle in Ghana has windows) and you may get out quickly. Another feature is the mate, whose job is to collect money and shout out "Buzz ztop" (bus stop, for the halt, not the final stop). And in Accra, to shout destinations like "Ter sen" (thirty seven, a big Tro-tro station), "Cra-cra" (Accra town centre) and "Syark" (a Nkruma circle in the centre of town).
-- anonymous |
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