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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.

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.
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
  • 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?
    • 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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