Travel around Ghana via road travel, and you’ll soon notice phrases plastered on the back windows or hatches of taxis and tro-tros (public transport vans). Many of them reference religious beliefs, but some of them are a bit more eyebrow raising.
Ghanaian culture is one in which people are very sensitive to insults and anything that could be mistaken as an insult. With that in mind, when someone wants to air grievances, they will often do so in an indirect way by either quoting proverbs, wearing cloth with a coded pattern or by saying things around the person without actually referencing the person. With that in mind, some of the phrases on vehicles may actually messages meant for specific people, with plausible deniability built in.
I’ve kept a running list on my phone of the phrases that I find amusing or interesting, Here is a sampling of them:
- Enemies are not god
- 4 + 4 = 11?
- Don’t rush
- Glitters is not gold
- Yours is coming
- Nowhere good
- Clean your mouth
- Park well
- Lazy man no food
- The young shall grow
- Becareful how u treat others in ur time
- Suffer and gain 3
- You lie bad
- The world is nothing
- Holy spirit fire explosion
- Fear woman and save your life
- Still under fire
- Vote for God
- Truck of the year ’90
- No speed limit
- Love your friend but don’t trust them
- Learn to say sorry
- It is a lesson
Have you seen the phrases on vehicles in Ghana? Do you have any favorites? What would your taxi say?