Life According to Tro-Tros

For Twi class, one of our recent assignments was to pay close attention to the tro-tros we passed on the road and to collect a list of the sayings that appeared on them. Tro-tros, if I haven't adequately explained them, are best described as lumbering vans that comprise the primary component of public transportation in Ghana. Generally, they are privately owned, but their owners hire a driver and a "mate" (someone whose main role is to collect fares from tro-tro riders and signal, through shouts and generally recognized hand signs, where the tro-tro is going) to handle the daily grind of transporting people back and forth, to work and from work, day in and day out. The owner will generally require a set amount of money from his driver, perhaps 10 cedis per day, and permit the driver and mate to split whatever profits remain after fuel costs are paid. (For the sake of context, note that the total fare for my daily commute is usually about 85 pesewas: 25 pesewas for a trip from my junction to a larger one, and another 25 pesewas for the tro-tro from the larger junction to work, and finally 35 pesewas for the ride home directly from work to my junction, and that although tro-tros vary in size, the most commonly appearing ones can carry about 21 passengers at a time and are often at or near capacity.) Almost every tro-tro I have encountered is emblazoned with a saying on the back, sometimes funny ("Still Cracky" above a picture of Jesus), other times poignant ("Dear Boy"), but usually insightful.

Here is a list, unedited and unabridged, of the random sampling tro-tro sayings that the five of us collected, as well as their translations:

Aseda bεn? (Which thanks?, as in How should I thank God?)
εnyε me ko. (It is not my fight.)
Bisa Awurade. (Ask God/Jesus.)
כkyεso Nyame. (God takes time to do things.)
Nyame bεyε. (God will do it.)
Nyame ye. (God is good.)
Wo haw ne sεn? (What are your problems?)
Awurade di yεn kan. (God leads us.)
εyε mmerε. (It is time.)
Mpere wo ho. (Don't rush.)
εnyε Nyame den. (It is not too much for God.)
εnam obi so. (It is through somebody.)
Nyame yε kεseε. (God is big/great.)
Wo daakye nti. (It is because of your future.)
Yesu nti. (It is because of Jesus.)
Twεn Nyame. (Wait for God.)
Yesu mo. (Well done, Jesus.)
εyε Awurade. (It is God/Jesus.)
Awurade kasa. (God/Jesus, speak.)
εyε adom. (It is grace.)
Gye Nyame. (Except God, as in Nothing can harm me except God.)
Tumi wura (Power-owner, as in God)
Awieeε nti bכ כbra pa. (Because of the end [of the world], live a good life/behave well.)
Sereε nyε כdכ. (Laughter is not love.)
Fa wo ho bכ Yesu. (Join yourself to Jesus.)
Mpaebכ tiefoכ (Listener of prayers)
Yesu Mogya (Jesus' blood)

Here are a couple scenes of my tro-tro stop across from campus, also for context:





There's a lot of analysis to be done on this, I think: What do the constant references to God, grace, Jesus, and faith in general mean? As my friend Kathleen wondered, are most Ghanaians (at least in the south--the north is primarily Muslim) so reliant upon God in every way that they simply can't help to declare Him always--even on their tro-tros--or do these sayings just signal the continuation of some unexplained trend to write Christian-y things on tro-tros?

I guess bumper stickers are the equivalent of tro-tro wisdom in the United States, so what do they mean? Do they speak louder than the literal meaning of the words they contain? If people looked at America from the perspective of a curious child stuck in traffic, left with no entertainment alternative than to watch the bumper stickers crawl by, what would they conclude?

I can't say I have much of an answer to these ponderings, but I invite you to join in a little speculation.