The Story Behind Ghana's 'trotro': How an old currency gave birth to a transport culture

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• Bokomaru - Insanity is real in Ghana 1 day ago

  Nice story, but can we move from this eyesore (tro-tro) to a modern multi-modal form of mass public transportation?
  
  Ghana is still stuck in the 19th century.

  Nice story, but can we move from this eyesore (tro-tro) to a modern multi-modal form of mass public transportation?
  
  Ghana is still stuck in the 19th century.

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• nico 22 hours ago

  Move away from that with what money? What town planning do we have that shows we think of a wholistically linked road system (or follow up to it even if designed)? What town planning do we have that shows a linked urban plann ...
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  Move away from that with what money? What town planning do we have that shows we think of a wholistically linked road system (or follow up to it even if designed)? What town planning do we have that shows a linked urban planning system (houses/Roads/Amenities etc) being adhered to? What shows we an enlightened set of people who are upright and follow rules? what is about us and our leaders that show we have foresight? Zero. Are we not generally dumb as a people and our leaders generally corrupt? are we not tribal bigots who never think beyond things that will benefit all of us? just yesterday i read of a fuul who calls himself ironically okatatsia or whatever saying the express road from accra to kumasi is not good becuase of his small tribal mind set and wanting to be a fuul for the sake of it- as a nation we are dumb-very dumb- look at the way we build (slumbs),we live in filth and so on. We have drains (if we are lucky) but put rubbish in them and cry when we get floods, some even put their house toilet in the road side drains because they cant even put or want to put toilets in our houses, some openly go on the sea front to toilet and & see nothing wrong with it at all. Is our judiary not so bad so much so that the rich and politically afiliated people get away with crime and the poor not? Where a legal case on the rich takes ages to resolve if at all? In anycase, to your point, modern transport will still be called trotro- the Trotro word is just a local palance (slang) for a vehicle transporting the less economy people to and fro. Having an effective mass trnsport system will not work in our curent state-why?- becuase we have not planned for it-unplanned houses and unplanned road system everywhere in the country- we are generally not smart people-Truth Hurts.

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• Name 1 day ago

  Another ignorant history distorter.
  
  The fact is that the CURENCY at that time was the British West Africa Pound (BWP). KaprƐ, KaprƐ-ba... were not CURRENCY as asserted by the story teller. They were sub-divisions.
  
  K ...
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  Another ignorant history distorter.
  
  The fact is that the CURENCY at that time was the British West Africa Pound (BWP). KaprƐ, KaprƐ-ba... were not CURRENCY as asserted by the story teller. They were sub-divisions.
  
  KaprƐ-ba, KaprƐ, Sempowa/Tro, Taku, Daama etc were Ghanaian local names of COINS of the BWP. Note that Nigeria, Gambia and Sierra Leone had different local names (specfically Akan) for the various sub-divisions. For example, what we call KaprƐ was called KOBO in Yoruba (Nigeria).
  
  Oban was Quarter-Pence (1/4 of a Penny)
  KaprƐ-ba was Half-Pence (1/2 of a Penny)
  KaprƐ was 1 Penny
  Daama was Thupence (ie Two-Pence)
  Sempowa/Tro was Three Pence
  Taku was Six Pence
  Siren (apparently a corruption) was 1 Shilling.
  
  I know that the elderly in my place at that time used Sempowa instead of Tro, which appears to have originated from the coast.

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• penalty 23 hours ago

  Stupid write up by you. Are you not reinterating what the article is saying that the Trotro word came from the coast- as in, Tro meaning 3? Is Kobo an akan word? You dont make sense. As we speak some people call the cedi, Kud ...
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  Stupid write up by you. Are you not reinterating what the article is saying that the Trotro word came from the coast- as in, Tro meaning 3? Is Kobo an akan word? You dont make sense. As we speak some people call the cedi, Kudi, tzuet33 etc- does that mean cedi is not the official word? Where in the write up did the the auhour say Kapr3 and co were the alternative to the BWP? The article is about the originating of the word Trotro for passenger cars/lorries-ok?

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• Name 22 hours ago

  You are TOO STUPID to read and understand, so I won't argue with you. For such people as you, I can only teach.
  
  Once again: KaprƐ, was not a CURRENCY. It was a sub-division - coin of a currency.
  
  When I clearly stated t ...
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  You are TOO STUPID to read and understand, so I won't argue with you. For such people as you, I can only teach.
  
  Once again: KaprƐ, was not a CURRENCY. It was a sub-division - coin of a currency.
  
  When I clearly stated that KOBO is YORUBA (NIGERIA) did you understand that?
  
  And hat is 'reinterating'?
  
  You can't even write/understand simple English but are here arguing with others?

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• Penalty 22 hours ago

  Too known - I KNEW THAT WAS WHAT YOU ARE FROM THE ONSET
  
  The article is about the word Trotro and how it originated. A good article at that.
  
  I dont need your lecture.
  
  
  By the way
  Your Quote:- Note that Nigeria, Gam ...
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  Too known - I KNEW THAT WAS WHAT YOU ARE FROM THE ONSET
  
  The article is about the word Trotro and how it originated. A good article at that.
  
  I dont need your lecture.
  
  
  By the way
  Your Quote:- Note that Nigeria, Gambia and Sierra Leone had different local names (specfically Akan) for the various sub-divisions
  
  What is the meaning of the above nonsense? You mean "Kobo" is Akan?
  
  
  And what does "specfically" mean? I bet you mean specifically?
  So you also make wrong spellings? -Pot calling kettle what? -ANSWER THAT.
  
  I dont abuse but let your abuse fall back on you.
  
  D

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