Urban Taxi Slogans - Am MIT spezialisierte KI-Forschung

Urban Taxi Slogans
The People’s Arts

Daniel E. Agbiboa
all photos by the author, except where otherwise noted

Those of us who live and work in Africa know firsthand that the
ways in which societies compose and invent themselves in the
present—what we could call the creativity of practice—is always
ahead of the knowledge we can ever produce about them.
—Achille Mbembe (Shipley, Comaroff, and Mbembe 2010: 654)

The contemporary African city runs on infor-

mal modes of public transportation. Typically,
minibuses provide the core, but motorbikes,
tricycles, and shared taxis all contribute to in-
formal transport ecosystems. These privately
operated services are ground-level responses
to growing demand for mobility in the face of absent or inade-
quate formal public transportation services. For many African
urbanites, it is impossible to imagine city life without its ubiq-
uitous minibuses, which constitute a distinctive feature of many
African urban environments and are the stuff of news, gossip,
rumors, and urban myths. Far from being mere containers that
form part of the mise en scène in African cities, the dilapidated yet
decorated bodies of these minibus taxis mirror for urbanites the
duplicity of the African city: both as a place filled with hope and
joie de vivre and as a redoubt of stuckedness and immiseration.
Minibus taxis account for an estimated 80% of Africa’s total mo-
torized trips (Medium 2018), contributing 50% of all motorized
traffic in some corridors (Kumar and Barrett 2008: 5). They go
by various appellations: danfo1 in Lagos (Feige. 1), trotro in Accra,
daladala in Dar es Salaam, poda-poda in Freetown, matatu in
Nairobi, otobis in Cairo, car rapides in Dakar, condongueiros in
Luanda, gbaka in Abidjan, kamuny in Kampala, magbana in
Conakry, sotrama in Bamako, songa kidogo in Kigali, and kombi
in Cape Town. Minibuses are supplemented by motorcycle taxis,
popularly known as okada in Nigeria, oleiya in Togo, zémidjan in

Daniel E. Agbiboa is assistant professor of African and African Ameri-
can Studies at Harvard University. His research uses mobile ethnography
to understand on how state and nonstate forms of order and author-
ity interpenetrate and shape each other, with particular focus on the
everyday life in urban Africa. His books include They Eat Our Sweat:
Transport Labor, Corruption, and Everyday Survival in Urban Nigeria
(Oxford University Press, 2022); Mobility, Mobilization, and Counter/
Insurgency: The Routes of Terror in an African Context (Universität
Michigan Press, 2022); and Transport, Transgression, and Politics in
African Cities: The Rhythm of Chaos (Routledge, 2019). danielagbi-
boa@fas.harvard.edu

42 | african arts SPRING 2023 VOL. 56, NEIN. 1

Benin, pikipiki in Kenya, and boda-boda in Uganda. This urban
transportation complex expresses, shapes, produces, and refracts
politisch, sozial, and economic relations.

Informal transport indicates an alternate mode of flexible pas-
senger transport services that cater to the urban poor in the Global
Süd. Unlike modern mass transit systems with fixed stops,
fares, routes, and timetables, informal transport services have no
predictable schedule: “they depart when they have reached maxi-
mum capacity and they arrive when they have successfully passed
through all the checkpoints, paid all necessary fees and bribes, Und
fixed all parts that have broken down during the journey” (Grün-
Simms 2009: 31). The failure of state-owned mass transportation
services occasioned the growth and popularity of these local and
ostensibly unregulated services. In Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial
capital and Africa’s most populous city, okadas emerged in the
1980s as a popular means of mobility for hard-pressed subalterns
during a time of massive economic crisis and urban population
Wachstum, when increased demand for mobility widened the gap
between supply and demand (Agbiboa 2022a).

In Nigeria, the Lagos state government aims to phase out the
use of the iconic danfos. Former governor Akinwunmi Ambode
(2015–2019) lamented that, “When I wake up in the morning and
see all these yellow buses … and then we claim we are a megacity,
that is not true and we must acknowledge that that is a faulty con-
nectivity that we are running. Having accepted that, we have to
look for the solution and that is why we want to banish yellow
buses” (NCR 2017). Ambode’s comment reproduces popular per-
ceptions of Africa’s informal transport sector as a chaotic embar-
rassment that needs to be “modernized.” The favored substitutes
are the Lagos light rail project (also known as Lagos monorail)—
contracted to the China Railway Construction Company—and
Lagos BRT (bus rapid transit) System,2 generally deemed more
befitting of a modernizing megacity with world-class ambitions.

This language of modernity combines with an aesthetic mode of
governing, or what Asher Ghertner (2011) calls “aesthetic govern-
mentality,” to (Re)produce pathological assessments of the African
megalopolis, a pathology of which Lagos is its ne plus ultra. Der
fabric of the African city is perfunctorily read as a planning black
hole, an insoluble problem. Johannesburg, zum Beispiel, is read as
nothing but a “crime city.” In similar vein, the rich complexity of
Lagos life is reduced to detritus, Krankheit, and death, reproducing
the colonial imaginary of “dirty natives” (Newell 2020) and an
“impending apocalypse” (Sommers 2010: 319). This dystopian and

D
Ö
w
N
Ö
A
D
e
D

F
R
Ö
M
H

T
T

:
/
/

D
ich
R
e
C
T
.

ich
T
.

e
D
u
A
A
R
/
A
R
T
ich
C
e
–
P
D

F
/

5
6
1
4
2
2
0
6
9
8
8
2
A
A
R
_
A
_
0
0
6
9
7
P
D

B
j
G
u
e
S
T

Ö
N
0
7
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3

agbiboa2.indd 42
agbiboa2.indd 42

11/2/2022 3:31:35 PM
11/2/2022 3:31:35 PM

1 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “Thank you
Jesus. Have you said it today?” Ikotun Egbe,
Lagos. November 2014.

2 A tricycle taxi with the slogan: “Punctuality
is the soul of business.” Ikotun Egbe, Lagos,
Oktober 13, 2014.

D
Ö
w
N
Ö
A
D
e
D

F
R
Ö
M
H

T
T

:
/
/

D
ich
R
e
C
T
.

ich
T
.

e
D
u
A
A
R
/
A
R
T
ich
C
e
–
P
D

F
/

5
6
1
4
2
2
0
6
9
8
8
2
A
A
R
_
A
_
0
0
6
9
7
P
D

B
j
G
u
e
S
T

Ö
N
0
7
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3

bland reading of the African city emboldens the leaky notion that
contemporary African cities are not quite cites, having failed to
meet the monolithic standard of (Western) modernity (Ferguson
1999; Myers 2011). While we now feel we know nearly everything
that African cities are not, we still know remarkably little about
what they actually are (Mbembe 2001: 9; see also Föster 2013).

of that more by studying an apparently chaotic system of automo-
bility like the danfo.

This paper builds upon new approaches to contemporary
African urbanism that interrogate the city as a lively archive
of expression and aesthetic vision (Mbembe and Nuttall 2008;

Focusing on the coastal city of Lagos,
with an estimated population of 18 mil-
lion (more than Greater London and New
York combined) and growing (von 2100,
Lagos is estimated to be home to some 90
million inhabitants), this essay interro-
gates the popular artistic slogans painted
on the exterior of danfos as a unique
window into the interior, workaday world
of their operators—marginal men strug-
gling to survive under the shadow of the
modern world system. My central argu-
ment is that slogans not only reflect how
informal transport operators see, Erfahrung-
enz, and socially navigate the endemic
crisis of city life; they are themselves in-
genious ways through which these op-
erators sustain a sense of agency in the
face of disempowering circumstances. In
so doing, my aim is to show that there is
more to informal transport than the pop-
ular narrative of dysfunction and crimi-
nality, and we gain a better understanding

agbiboa2.indd 43
agbiboa2.indd 43

11/2/2022 3:31:36 PM
11/2/2022 3:31:36 PM

VOL. 56, NEIN. 1 SPRING 2023 afrikanische Kunst | 43

THE OVERLAPPING
RHYTHMS OF LAGOS

The French sociologist Henri Lefebvre
argued that wherever place, Zeit, Und
energy interact, rhythm is invariably
present. And every rhythm indicates a
“relation of a time to a space, a localized
Zeit, or if one prefers, a temporalized
space” (Lefebvre 2004: 15). This triumvi-
rate of time–space–energy has its ultimate
reference point not only in the human
Körper, but also in the nonhuman vessels
that routinely move those bodies (z.B., Die
danfos). Inspired by Lefebvre’s conceptual
approach of “rhythmanalysis” (Lefebvre
2004: 23)—a method for analyzing the
rhythm of urban spaces and the effects
of those rhythms on bodies dwelling in
motion—I sought during my fieldwork
to capture the manifold, overlapping
rhythms that manifest themselves in the
Lagos sense-world, especially what they
tell us about the liminal space between
“dream world” and “catastrophe” (Buck-Moss 2002); in other
Wörter, the disconnect and contradiction between elite-driven
utopian aspirations to make Lagos “world-class” and the really
existing context of precarity and violence in which Lagosians
weave their existence. In Wisdom Sits in Places, Keith Basso (1996)
tells us that senses of place are intertwined with cultures, Dinge,
and shared bodies of local knowledge with which individuals
and whole communities impose meaning and social importance
on their places. This paper examines the ways in which public
transport operators in Lagos harness vehicle slogans as aesthetic
objects and archives of popular wisdom to negotiate visible and
invisible constraints to mobility.

Quayson 2014; Green-Simms 2017). Speziell, the paper an-
swers the call to defamiliarize commonsense thinking of African
cities by engaging “new critical pedagogies—pedagogies of
writing, talking, seeing, walking, telling, Anhörung, drawing, Und
making—each of which pairs the subject and object in novel ways
to enliven the relationship between them and to better express life
in motion” (Mbembe and Nuttall 2004: 352). The paper should
be read alongside Damola Osinulu’s “Painters, Blacksmiths, Und
Wordsmiths: Building Molues in Lagos,” published in African
Arts (2008), which invites us to explore how Lagosians translate
the day-to-day challenges of the city into arts. While Osinulu’s in-
cisive analysis focused on the now-banned molues (single-decker
buses between 8 Und 11 meters long),
this paper uses danfo slogans as a verita-
ble window into the aesthetics of order
and chaos, or “ordered chaos,” that mark
Lagos as simultaneously familiar and
strange, moving and moored. In so doing,
my goal is advance our limited knowl-
edge of the neglected but vital linkages
between texts, persons, and publics in
urban Africa and beyond.

3 A rickshaw taxi with the slogan: "NEIN
Girlfriend No Tension. Girlfriend is Tension. Hi
Tension.” Delhi, Indien, November 15, 2013.
Foto: Mollie Laffin-Rose

4 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “Ola Egbon”
[“brother’s generosity”]. Ikotun Egbe, Lagos,
Oktober 15, 2014.

44 | african arts SPRING 2023 VOL. 56, NEIN. 1

D
Ö
w
N
Ö
A
D
e
D

F
R
Ö
M
H

T
T

:
/
/

D
ich
R
e
C
T
.

ich
T
.

e
D
u
A
A
R
/
A
R
T
ich
C
e
–
P
D

F
/

5
6
1
4
2
2
0
6
9
8
8
2
A
A
R
_
A
_
0
0
6
9
7
P
D

B
j
G
u
e
S
T

Ö
N
0
7
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3

agbiboa2.indd 44
agbiboa2.indd 44

11/2/2022 3:31:37 PM
11/2/2022 3:31:37 PM

conductors off-loading and picking up
passengers at every bus stop and round-
abouts, shouting “owoo da?” (“where is the
money?”). The NURTW—the most polit-
icized and violent trade union in Nigeria
(Albert 2007)—employs agberos to extort
unreceipted fees and cash bribes (egunje)
from danfo operators. Agberos are typi-
cally “youthmen” between the ages of 20
Und 50 and can be easily recognized by
their gruff voices, bloodshot eyes, Und
sometimes missing teeth (lost in street
brawling). The list of bribes they collect is
endless and borders on the farcical, rang-
ing from loading fees (owoo loading) Zu
“money for party” (owoo faji). If the op-
erator fails to comply, his sideview mirror
may be smashed or his windshield wipers
and fuel tank cover removed. Sometimes a
conductor is mauled to death, in full view
of complicit police officers.

All this overlapping rhythm of Lagos constitutes an aspect, nicht
of the urban environment, but of the culture itself (Mbembe 2001:
147). They enfold socioeconomic exchanges into the day-to-day
ritual of Eko Ile (“Lagos, home”), turning the real into the semiotic.
Aus 2014 durch 2015, I conducted a year-long fieldwork
in Oshodi and Alimosho local government areas of Lagos state.
Oshodi and Alimosho are central to urban flows in Lagos and are
best imagined as “a living stage where a collage of scenes is acted
and played out without a script” (Aradeon 1997: 51). I collected a
total of 312 eclectic slogans from the mobile and stationary bodies of
danfos. These open, artistic texts (logos prophorikos) were analyzed

With my digital camera-cum-sound recorder, I was able to cap-
ture the hypervisuality and soundscape of Lagos as one zig-zags
along its potholed roads, trying to avoid piles of debris that com-
pete with pedestrians for rights of way. Hier, everything leads to
excess. There is the phalanx of Lagosians dwelling in a kind of
perpetuum mobile. There is the raw and percussive sound of Fuji3
blaring from danfos, revealing the confluences between music,
mobility, and urban spatiality. There are the syncopated cries
of piya wata piya wata by itinerant vendors, handing half-liter
sachets of cold water through the windows of vehicles stuck
in traffic jams4 (or go-slow, as they say in Lagos) to the keenly
outstretched arms within. There are the
rag-tag conductors sonorously calling
out their respective termini, jostling for
passengers, and warning passengers to
“wole pelu shenji e o” (enter with the exact
fare). There are the commercial motor-
Zyklus (okada) drivers weaving in and out
of traffic without regard for human life.5
Like danfo drivers, okada drivers occupy
what Gbemisola Animasawun (2017)
calls the “struggle economy” in Lagos—a
popular urban economy characterized
by disposability. And, finally, there are
the agberos—the dreaded tax collectors
of the National Union of Road Transport
Workers (NURTW) (see Agbiboa 2018)—
racing after public transport drivers and

5 A midibus taxi with the slogan: “O God! Do
not be silent!” and “Life Na Jeje” [“Life is gentle”].
Oshodi, Lagos, November 6, 2014.

6 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “Alubarika”
[“blessing”]. Ikotun Egbe, Lagos, Januar 26,
2015.

D
Ö
w
N
Ö
A
D
e
D

F
R
Ö
M
H

T
T

:
/
/

D
ich
R
e
C
T
.

ich
T
.

e
D
u
A
A
R
/
A
R
T
ich
C
e
–
P
D

F
/

5
6
1
4
2
2
0
6
9
8
8
2
A
A
R
_
A
_
0
0
6
9
7
P
D

B
j
G
u
e
S
T

Ö
N
0
7
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3

agbiboa2.indd 45
agbiboa2.indd 45

11/2/2022 3:31:37 PM
11/2/2022 3:31:37 PM

VOL. 56, NEIN. 1 SPRING 2023 afrikanische Kunst | 45

D
Ö
w
N
Ö
A
D
e
D

F
R
Ö
M
H

T
T

:
/
/

D
ich
R
e
C
T
.

ich
T
.

e
D
u
A
A
R
/
A
R
T
ich
C
e
–
P
D

F
/

5
6
1
4
2
2
0
6
9
8
8
2
A
A
R
_
A
_
0
0
6
9
7
P
D

in terms of their veiled meaning (logos endiathetos). In Lagos,
danfos change hands several times during their lifecycle, with var-
ious operators keen to impose their own unique slogans—i.e., pro-
sonal identity—on their newly acquired vehicles. My interpretive
analysis was informed by in-depth interviews with operators and
passengers. As an omo eko (child of Lagos), I tapped into my own
longstanding embodied experiences of the quotidian rhythms of
Lagos to enrich my data and content analysis. Some of the slogans
collected were so cryptic that it was only by looking at them with
the “inner eyes” (oju inu—which implies both a physical and meta-
physical episteme) of the driver/owner that I was able to apprehend
what Yuri Lotman (1988) calls “the text within the text.” In so doing,
I avoided the one-sidedness of textual interpretation (Jaworski and
Thurlow 2010: 1). Interviews were conducted in Yoruba, English,
and Nigerian Pidgin, the common languages in Lagos.

Occasionally, I was unable to interview the operators because I
photographed the slogans from moving danfos. dennoch, von
virtue of their semantic variability, popular urban arts are never
entirely under the owner’s control: “The text itself says more than
46 | african arts SPRING 2023 VOL. 56, NEIN. 1

7 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “No loss. NEIN
lack. No limitation.” Ikotun roundabout, Lagos,
Januar 20, 2015.

B
j
G
u
e
S
T

Ö
N
0
7
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3

it knows; it generates ‘surplus’: meanings that go beyond and may
subvert the purported intention of the work” (Barber 1987: 3).
Taking a cue from the Yoruba philosopher Olabiyi Yai’s argument
that art (visual or verbal) has ashe (or life force) and is both “unfin-
ished and generative” (1994: 107), I derived the slogan’s essential
character (iwa) from the insights offered by other transport oper-
ators and Lagosians who often commented on the slogans, joked
about them, or expressed their (dis)likes for one over another. Der
import of popular arts such as slogans to local perceptions and

agbiboa2.indd 46
agbiboa2.indd 46

11/2/2022 3:31:38 PM
11/2/2022 3:31:38 PM

8 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “Shot Up!”
Synagogue, Ikotun, Lagos, November 1, 2014.

9 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “Let Them
Say.” Ile-iwe, Ikotun Egbe, Lagos, Oktober 15,
2014.

has long been a trademark of danfos.
Nigeria Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka
describes the danfo as a form of “transpor-
tation torture on four wheels,” not simply
because of the dangerous roads it plies.
He describes “humans crushed against
one another and against market produce,
sheep, and other livestock suffocated by
the stench of rotting food and anonymous
farts” (quoted in Agbiboa 2022b: 99).

The form of danfos often conform to
the slogans painted on them. Rickety
danfos tend to be driven by older men
(über 30 Jahre alt) and bear slogans like “E Still Dey Go” (“It’s still
going [strong]”), “Slow but Steady,” “No Shaking,” “Tested and
Trusted,” “Experience is the Best Teacher,” and “All That Glitters
Is not Gold.” Conversely, newer looking danfos are often driven by
younger men (unter 30 Jahre) and generally bear slogans such as
“Lagos to Las Vegas,” “Star Boy” (Feige. 2), “Fresh Boy No Pimples,”
“Obama,” and “Land Cruiser.”

The danfos are meeting points for daily conversations
about corruption, endless road delays, dysfunctional services,

worldviews is ably emphasized by Barber (1987: 8): “The view that
ordinary people express may be ‘false consciousness’ (a concept
not without its own problems) but they are also their conscious-
ness: the people’s arts represent what people do in fact think, glauben
and aspire to” (my emphasis).

THE ANATOMY OF THE DANFO
Danfos are typically fashioned out of Mercedes 911, Bedford,

or Volkswagen chassis and engines de-
rived from preowned buses (tokunbos)
imported from Europe, around which the
steel frame is constructed. Depending on
the model, the danfo is designed to seat
anywhere between twelve and sixteen
Menschen. Constructing the outer body of
a danfo is very much a process of “hy-
bridization” that—much like the slogans
painted on them—“reflect not only con-
stant absorption of ideas from the outside
but also long-standing adaptive processes
through which Africans have always
been innovative players in world forums”
(Roberts 2020; see also Osinulu 2008: 49).
Danfos are notorious for their squeal-
ing breaks, bald tires, and rattling ex-
haust pipes emitting thick, black smoke.
Most have lost the padding that is placed
in the ceiling to insulate passengers from
heat. Their windows are also permanently
sealed off, creating a stuffy atmosphere
inside. And the practice of overloading

D
Ö
w
N
Ö
A
D
e
D

F
R
Ö
M
H

T
T

:
/
/

D
ich
R
e
C
T
.

ich
T
.

e
D
u
A
A
R
/
A
R
T
ich
C
e
–
P
D

F
/

5
6
1
4
2
2
0
6
9
8
8
2
A
A
R
_
A
_
0
0
6
9
7
P
D

B
j
G
u
e
S
T

Ö
N
0
7
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3

agbiboa2.indd 47
agbiboa2.indd 47

11/2/2022 3:31:39 PM
11/2/2022 3:31:39 PM

VOL. 56, NEIN. 1 SPRING 2023 afrikanische Kunst | 47

10 A tricycle-taxi with the slogan: “Owo-Lewa”
[“Money is Beauty”]. Idimu, Lagos. November
23, 2014.

11 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “Ododo lowo”
[“Money is desirable”]. Ikotun, Lagos, Dezember
16, 2014.

entities (Morgan 2008: 228). They exude
powers of enchantment and symboliza-
tion through which the operator comes
to think of his urban existence “not in a
purely politico-instrumental way, but also
as an artistic gesture and an aesthetic proj-
ect open as much to action as to medita-
tion and contemplation” (Mbembe 2002:
629; see also Meyer 2004: 105), even re-
sistance. By way of illustration, the Lagos
State Road Traffic Law 2012 stipulates
that “Except as prescribed by the Motor
Vehicle Administration Agency and the
Lagos State Signage and Advert Agency,
the use of slogans, stickers, painting,
photos etc. on commercial vehicles is pro-
hibited” (Lagos State Government 2012).
By implication, the stylistic danfo slogans
mark the rise and flourishing of an un-
stable and shifting public sphere that can
resist confinement to the place assigned
it by the urban government (Meyer 2004:

moribund infrastructure, occult econo-
mies, and marginal gains (Agbiboa 2020,
2022B; vgl. Guyer 2004; Comaroff and
Comaroff 1999). Danfo passengers are
typically crowded together, like sardines
are in cans (“full loading,” as they say
in Lagos). A passenger trying to squeeze
into the back of a danfo will ask the other
passengers seating cheek-by-jowl on the
hard wooden seats to “abeg dress small,”
meaning “please move over a little.” At
bus stops, the driver slows down but never
quite halts, leaving passengers to judge the
best time to jump off/on. As passengers
jostle to enter/exit danfos in slow motion,
pickpockets may seize the opportunity to
steal their valuables.

THE MORPHOLOGY OF
THE SLOGAN
Danfo slogans are not only abstract
and discursive but also embodied and felt

48 | african arts SPRING 2023 VOL. 56, NEIN. 1

D
Ö
w
N
Ö
A
D
e
D

F
R
Ö
M
H

T
T

:
/
/

D
ich
R
e
C
T
.

ich
T
.

e
D
u
A
A
R
/
A
R
T
ich
C
e
–
P
D

F
/

5
6
1
4
2
2
0
6
9
8
8
2
A
A
R
_
A
_
0
0
6
9
7
P
D

B
j
G
u
e
S
T

Ö
N
0
7
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3

agbiboa2.indd 48
agbiboa2.indd 48

11/2/2022 3:31:40 PM
11/2/2022 3:31:40 PM

12 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “Fear of God.”
Ile-iwe, Ikotun Egbe, Lagos. Oktober 31, 2014.

13 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “One Day.”
Ikotun Egbe, Lagos, Oktober 31, 2014.

92, 95). In this light, Dann, danfo slogans signal a dominant “rep-
resentational economy”6 (Keane 2002) clearly underscored by the
assertion of power through a dialectics of presence.

Like paratransit services, vehicle slogans feature prominently
in the informal urban economies of Africa and the Global South
generally (Mutongi 2006: 550). In India’s capital city, Delhi, A
slogan painted on the windshield of a rickshaw (tuk tuk) reads:
“No Girlfriend No Tension. Girlfriend is Tension. Hi Tension”

(Feige. 3). This slogan reflects the view among some young men in
Delhi that relationships with women are complicated, stressful,
and best avoided. Given the intense visuality of the African city-
scape, it is surprising that many studies still overlook the ocular,
tactile, and emotional materiality of the city (Clammer 2014: 66).
Danfo slogans are translocal in nature. In terminals across
Lagos, operators fiercely compete for passengers with slogans
ranging from Tupac’s “All Eyes on Me” to Obama’s “Yes We Can”
and Bob Marley’s “Africa Unite.” Slogans cover a wide range of
sentiments: They may express the operator’s gratitude to a family
member who provided the down payment on the vehicle (d.h.,
“Ola Egbon”—“brother’s generosity,” Fig. 4); they may relate to

D
Ö
w
N
Ö
A
D
e
D

F
R
Ö
M
H

T
T

:
/
/

D
ich
R
e
C
T
.

ich
T
.

e
D
u
A
A
R
/
A
R
T
ich
C
e
–
P
D

F
/

5
6
1
4
2
2
0
6
9
8
8
2
A
A
R
_
A
_
0
0
6
9
7
P
D

B
j
G
u
e
S
T

Ö
N
0
7
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3

agbiboa2.indd 49
agbiboa2.indd 49

11/2/2022 3:31:41 PM
11/2/2022 3:31:41 PM

VOL. 56, NEIN. 1 SPRING 2023 afrikanische Kunst | 49

14 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “One Love.”
Ikotun Egbe, Lagos, Januar 20, 2015.

woman recounted: “When I see a danfo
slogan like ‘Relax: God Is in Control,’ or
‘Fear of God’ [Feige. 12], I feel good about
entering it because I feel like the driver
really trusts in God’s powers, not in his
own abilities.” Structure-wise, slogans are
typically short and pithy (d.h., “One Day”
or “One Love” (Figs. 13–14) and tend to
draw on religious texts (d.h., “Blessed from
Über,” Fig. 15), local slang (d.h., “Chop
Liver”—to show courage), and proverbs
(d.h., “Ise loogun ise”; “work cures pov-
erty”). The Yoruba saying that “Owe lesin
oro” (“The proverb is the horse of speech”)
is more than relevant here. Through their
slogans, operators convey their life his-
tories, hopes, Ängste, and philosophies to
road users. Noch, these slogans may blur
the lines between fact and fiction. Für
Beispiel, despite the fact that driving in
Lagos can be lethal (one life is lost every
two hours), some slogans controvert this
truth—i.e., “No Cause for Alarm,” “Be
Not Afraid,” and “Just Relax.” While re-
assuring for some, such slogans constitute
an aspect of the everyday deception in
Lagos. Perhaps, the most tongue-in-cheek slogan that I photo-
graphed was, “Police Is Your Friend” (Feige. 16). For the rest of this
Artikel, I want to focus on a “deep” reading of slogans—which is
at the heart of this paper—as a window into the social navigation
of daily life in Lagos.

“AIYE MOJUBA” (“I RESPECT THE WORLD”)
City life in Africa is a process of constant negotiation of visible
and invisible forces. Now more than ever before, argues Danny
Hoffman, “what one cannot see, or cannot see clearly, determines
one’s fortunes” (2011: 959). Nowhere is this more evident than
on the bottlenecked roads of Lagos, governed as they are by the
paradigm of danger. Hier, widespread distrust and suspicion in-
creasingly call for protection against enemies that are invisible
(Mbembe 2006: 310) and situations that are “predictably unpre-
dictable” (Peteet 2017: 96).

Whenever the double entendre aiye/aye (worldly life)—in con-
tradistinction to orun (the hereafter, heaven)—is painted on a

a personal idol (d.h., Nelson Mandela); they may remind people
to show gratitude (“Thank You Jesus. Have You Said It Today?”
Feige. 2); they may reflect the operator’s supplication to God (d.h.,
“Oh God! Do Not Be Silent!”; “Alubarika” [“blessing”]; “No Loss,
No Lack, No Limitation,” Figs. 5–7); they may indicate an opera-
tor’s loyalty to a soccer club (d.h., “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and
“Red Devils”); they may convey a message/warning to enemies
(d.h., “Shut Up!” or “Let Them Say” (Figs. 8–9); they may cele-
brate the operator’s yearning for money (“Owo-Lewa”: “money is
Schönheit,” and “ododo lowo”: “money is desirable,” Figs. 10–11); Sie
may represent the operator’s approach to business (“Punctuality
is the Soul of Business,” Fig. 2); or relate to his personal phi-
losophy (d.h., “Life Na Jeje”: “life is easy,” Fig. 5, and “No Lele”:
“stay vigilant,” Fig. 2).

In Lagos, danfo slogans shape the moods and choices of com-
muters on a daily basis, involving Lagosians in “operations of the
productive imaginations” (Mbembe 2001: 159). During my field-
work in Lagos, commuters described to me how slogans influence
their decisions on which danfos to enter or avoid each day. As one

50 | african arts SPRING 2023 VOL. 56, NEIN. 1

D
Ö
w
N
Ö
A
D
e
D

F
R
Ö
M
H

T
T

:
/
/

D
ich
R
e
C
T
.

ich
T
.

e
D
u
A
A
R
/
A
R
T
ich
C
e
–
P
D

F
/

5
6
1
4
2
2
0
6
9
8
8
2
A
A
R
_
A
_
0
0
6
9
7
P
D

B
j
G
u
e
S
T

Ö
N
0
7
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3

agbiboa2.indd 50
agbiboa2.indd 50

11/2/2022 3:31:41 PM
11/2/2022 3:31:41 PM

D
Ö
w
N
Ö
A
D
e
D

F
R
Ö
M
H

T
T

:
/
/

D
ich
R
e
C
T
.

ich
T
.

e
D
u
A
A
R
/
A
R
T
ich
C
e
–
P
D

F
/

5
6
1
4
2
2
0
6
9
8
8
2
A
A
R
_
A
_
0
0
6
9
7
P
D

B
j
G
u
e
S
T

Ö
N
0
7
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3

15 A tricycle taxi with the slogan: “Blessed from
above is above all.” Ikotun Egbe, Lagos, Oktober 13,
2014.

16 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “Police is your
friend.” Isolo, Lagos, Januar 6, 2015.

17 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “Aiye Mojuba” ["ICH
give my humble respect to the world”]. Iyana Ipaja,
Lagos, November 26, 2014.

danfo, it is usually in recognition of the insecurity and radical un-
certainty of road life, particularly the underworld or mysterious
forces that have the power to cause misfortune en route. Aiye/aye
is a superior agent that must be respected and supplicated (d.h.,
“Aiye Mojuba,” “I respect the world,” Fig. 17) lest one’s destiny be
wickedly altered. The slogan “Aiye Ogun” (“life is war”) conveys
the driver’s constant struggle against in/visible enemies of prog-
ress. In the slogan “aye lo’ ja” (“the world is a marketplace,” Fig.
18), the danfo driver sees the world (aiye/aye) as a marketplace,
as a journey (ajo) to our eternal home in heaven/the spirit world
(orun ni’le). According to Lawuyi (1994: 190), “aye is character-
ized as a market and so is a place where the experiential, reflexive
nature of day to day living implies the transformation of orga-
nized forms, transactional exchanges, and strong beliefs. To be
alive is to experience the ups and downs of this journey.” Through
the repetitive/replicative power and unclosed possibility of

slogans, danfo drivers reclaim “a positive orientation to the near
future” (Guyer 2017), which is steeped in Yoruba worldview. Für
these mobile subjects, hope is at once temporal and eternal. Als
Guyer notes, “Hope endures as a kind of daily promise that there
Ist, In der Tat, an eternity, and it lies more in the recurrence by which
it ‘springs’ than in any confident comprehension of an ultimate
horizon” (2017: 152).

The habitus of fear and uncertainty that drivers/owners occupy
is hardly surprising if we consider that car ownership symbolizes
wealth and status, giving rise to envy. During the course of my
fieldwork in Lagos, danfo owners expressed fears of being struck
by sorcery orchestrated by awon ota/aiye (in/visible enemies of
progress). Which is why some operators fortify their vehicles with
protective amulets—a dry animal skin twisted into a rope and
tied to the rearview mirror—to ward off evil forces and attract
VOL. 56, NEIN. 1 SPRING 2023 afrikanische Kunst | 51

agbiboa2.indd 51
agbiboa2.indd 51

11/2/2022 3:31:43 PM
11/2/2022 3:31:43 PM

that words possess ashe, or life force. Das
meaning is conveyed in slogans such as
“Wibe Jebe” (“Say it, and it shall come
to pass”) and “No Loss, No Lack, NEIN
Limitation” (Feige. 7). Slogans like “Back
to Sender” expresses the owner’s prayer
that any bad wish towards his business
backfires on the wisher. Others, like “Sea
Never Dry,” reflect the owner’s wish that
his danfo, his primary source of social
livelihood, never leaves the road. Implicit
in slogans such as “No Weapon Fashioned
Against Me,” “Do My Prophet No Harm,”
“Heaven’s Gate,” “The Presence of God”
(Feige. 22), “Angels on Guard,” “Any
Attempt!” or “Iwo Dan Wo” (“You try”),
is a warning—a “Last Warning” (Feige.
23)—of the superior source of the owner’s
power. Hier, the message to awon ota is
clear: by taking me on, you are taking on
God himself (Olodumare—“the owner
of the source of creation” in the Yoruba
spiritual pantheon), whose power is unri-
valed. This meaning is implied in slogans
wie, “No King as God” (Feige. 22), “Jesus Is
Lord” (alongside a crucifix), “Oba ju oba
lo” (“kings are greater than kings”) oder
“Oga oga” (“boss of bosses”) (Figs. 24–26).

passengers. One study of Yoruba taxi drivers found that 80% von
Muslims and 60% of Christians had protective charms in their
vehicles (Lawuyi 1988: 4). These charms reinforce the argument
that “local reality itself has become impossible without a ‘knowl-
edge of the hidden’ and of the spiritual worlds beyond the phys-
ical reality of everyday life” (De Boeck,
Cassiman, and Van Wolputte 2009: 36).

Other operators wield their slogans as
a talisman, reinforcing the Yoruba belief

REMEMBER UR SIX FEET

While the road remains one of the city’s most distinctive signs
of modernity, it also embodies all the contradictions and trap-
pings of modernity: “its inescapable enticements, its self-con-
suming passions, its discriminatory tactics, its devastating social
costs” (Comaroff and Comaroff 1993: xxix). Nigerian writers

D
Ö
w
N
Ö
A
D
e
D

F
R
Ö
M
H

T
T

:
/
/

D
ich
R
e
C
T
.

ich
T
.

e
D
u
A
A
R
/
A
R
T
ich
C
e
–
P
D

F
/

5
6
1
4
2
2
0
6
9
8
8
2
A
A
R
_
A
_
0
0
6
9
7
P
D

B
j
G
u
e
S
T

Ö
N
0
7
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3

18 A tricycle taxi with the slogan: “Aye Loja” [“The
world is a marketplace”]. Agodo Egbe, Lagos,
November 23,2014.

19 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “I Am Lifted.”
Ikotun, Lagos, Oktober 5, 2014.

52 | african arts SPRING 2023 VOL. 56, NEIN. 1

agbiboa2.indd 52
agbiboa2.indd 52

11/2/2022 3:31:43 PM
11/2/2022 3:31:43 PM

danfos that ply them) described by an age-old Yoruba saying as
the “long coffin that holds 1,400 corpses.” Potholes are numerous,
leading drivers to swerve around them, putting themselves and
other road users at risk. A local reporter compared the scale of
deaths caused by potholed roads in Lagos to Boko Haram, Die
Islamist group in northeast Nigeria. The reporter adduces the case
of the Lagos-Badagry expressway, which in the past seven years
has become a death trap, accounting for “over 10,000 potholes
and several other valleys that are big enough to consume a car”
(Osun Defender 2012). Taxis plying this road are easily damaged,
making owners spend a lot of hard-earned money on repairs. Der
danfos are not only victims but also perpetrators of road accidents
because they normally ply for hire without licenses and brazenly
flout traffic rules. “You wonder how these yellow buses secured
roadworthiness certificates in the first place,” a vehicle inspection
officer told me. “And when you ban these buses from the roads,
they still find a way of returning to them.”

Due to their propensity to cause accidents, Lagosians refer to
danfos as “flying coffins.” As one trader recounted: “Many of us
know that danfos are death traps, but since we can’t afford the
high taxi fares, we have no choice but to use them. What else can
we do?” Ironically, many danfo slogans announce to passengers
their potential fate: “Carrying Me Home,” “Pray and Hope,” “See
You in Heaven,” “Home Sweet Home,” “Orun Ile” (“Heaven, Mein
Home”), “Free at Last,” “Remember Now Thy Creator.” A driver
with the slogan “Remember Ur Six Feet” (Feige. 25) on his rear

have graphically described the highways
as an ogre that “swallows people” (Okri
1992) or as a “National Road Slaughter”
(Soyinka 1977). Data from the Nigeria
Bureau of Statistics and the Federal Road
Safety Corps suggest that every year,
um 20,000 of the 11,654 million vehi-
cles in Nigeria are involved in road acci-
dents. Between January 2013 and June
2018, a staggering 28,195 people lost their
lives on Nigerian roads, an equivalent of
415 lives per month, Und 14 persons per
day (Vanguard 2018). With an estimated
33.7 deaths per 100,000 a year, Nigerian
roads are the second most dangerous out
von 193 United Nations member countries
analyzed in a World Health Organization
Bericht (Blueprint 2014).

A large portion of accidents in Nigeria
occurs on Lagos roads—roads (and the

20 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “The Presence of
God.” Ikotun market, Lagos, Januar 26, 2015.

21 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “Last Warning.”
Ikotun, Lagos, Januar 26, 2015.

D
Ö
w
N
Ö
A
D
e
D

F
R
Ö
M
H

T
T

:
/
/

D
ich
R
e
C
T
.

ich
T
.

e
D
u
A
A
R
/
A
R
T
ich
C
e
–
P
D

F
/

5
6
1
4
2
2
0
6
9
8
8
2
A
A
R
_
A
_
0
0
6
9
7
P
D

B
j
G
u
e
S
T

Ö
N
0
7
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3

agbiboa2.indd 53
agbiboa2.indd 53

11/2/2022 3:31:44 PM
11/2/2022 3:31:44 PM

VOL. 56, NEIN. 1 SPRING 2023 afrikanische Kunst | 53

22 A tricycle taxi with the slogan: “Jesus is Lord.”
Ikotun, Lagos, Januar 26, 2015.

23 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “Oba ju Oba
lo” [“Kings are greater than kings”]. Ikotun, Lagos,
Januar 2015.

windshield told me he chose it as a warning to other road users
behind him to “stay vigilant” because of the many demonic spirits
yearning for human blood. “Six feet” is a common euphemism
for death and dying because of the notion that cemetery workers
always dig gravesites to a standard depth of six feet (1.83 meters).

24 HOURS ON THE ROAD
The poor/impassable condition of Lagos roads mirrors the op-
pressive and wretched conditions of road transport labor. Wie
most informal workers in Africa’s struggle economy, danfo oper-
ators have no fixed income, no days off, and no social protection.
In 1958, sociologist Everett Hughes used the phrase “dirty work”
to describe occupations and labor conditions that are perceived as
degrading. This term well describes the workaday world of danfo
operators in Lagos. Despite lengthy workdays averaging around
twenty hours (or “24 Hours on the Road,” as one danfo slogan puts
it—Fig. 4), operators take home meager incomes due to the cul-
ture of extortion among law enforcement agencies (z.B., officials
of LASTMA [Lagos State Traffic Management Authority]), Die
exacting demands of danfo owners, and the extortionate powers

D
Ö
w
N
Ö
A
D
e
D

F
R
Ö
M
H

T
T

:
/
/

D
ich
R
e
C
T
.

ich
T
.

e
D
u
A
A
R
/
A
R
T
ich
C
e
–
P
D

F
/

5
6
1
4
2
2
0
6
9
8
8
2
A
A
R
_
A
_
0
0
6
9
7
P
D

B
j
G
u
e
S
T

Ö
N
0
7
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3

54 | african arts SPRING 2023 VOL. 56, NEIN. 1

agbiboa2.indd 54
agbiboa2.indd 54

11/2/2022 3:31:45 PM
11/2/2022 3:31:45 PM

operators are usually under immense pressure to meet the finan-
cial targets set by owners or else be replaced: there is a crowd of
unemployed youth in Lagos ready to learn on the job. This pres-
sure results in long working hours, high accident rates, and poor
Gesundheit. To meet their daily targets, drivers must race between the
two end points of their chosen routes, weaving in and out of traf-
fic with reckless abandon. For these chauffeurs, navigating Lagos
requires constant improvisation and experimentation. They de-
scribe their driving work as kosere (a do-or-die situation, Feige. 26).
As one slogan puts it: “Ghetto Boy. No Time to Check Time” (Feige.
27) This supports Kenda Mutongi’s (2006: 564) argument that,
“Long hours, ruthless police and gang harassment, and suscep-
tibility to deadly traffic accidents all render the work of [minibus
taxi] operators one of the most dangerous jobs.”

In Lagos, according to the State Ministry of Transportation,
99% of danfo drivers suffer from hypertension (PM News 2015),
a health challenge directly related to the demanding and danger-
ous nature of their driving work. Survey evidence from the Lagos
State Driver’s Institute shows that 22% of danfo drivers are par-
tially blind (Vanguard 2013). Noch, um 95% of sensory input to
the brain needed for driving comes from vision (General Optical
Council 2008). The poor condition of Lagos roads, especially the
dust and debris, partly accounts for this problem (though many
drivers told me they never had to undergo a vision test since they
work without license). To complicate matters, danfo operators
have easy access to a variety of alcoholic beverages sold in and
around motor parks,7 from alomo bitters (herbal-based liquor)
to ogogoro (a distilled spirit from the raffia palm tree). Rollups of
different brands are also available, from igbo (marijuana) to co-
caine and heroin. Some drivers justify their drinking habits by
claiming that the herbs blended into the alcoholic beverages helps
to boost their (driving and sexual) Leistung, while providing

of the mafia-like agberos who roam bus stops and junctions, col-
lecting onerous fees from operators with impunity. “This work is
just daily income,” said one driver. “What you get today you use
Heute, and tomorrow you start again from scratch.” After witness-
ing firsthand a danfo driver in Lagos set himself ablaze in protest
after the seizure of his danfo by bribe-demanding LASTMA offi-
cials, a danfo driver lamented:

LASTMA officials are treating us like slaves. They arrest and extort
us at will. We go through hell in their hands and those of agberos
and local government officials. How much do we make? Out of the
money we make daily, we will buy fuel, return money to the vehicle
owners, and at the end of the day, we are left with little or nothing.
We are appealing to the state government to
wade into the matter and save us from the
hands of LASTMA officials (Isaac 2022).

Drivers must remit a specific target
income to the owner each day; sie sind
paid according to how much they bring
In. The driver is responsible for all over-
head costs, including fines violently im-
posed by agberos and their partners in
crime, the traffic/mobile police. Als solche,

D
Ö
w
N
Ö
A
D
e
D

F
R
Ö
M
H

T
T

:
/
/

D
ich
R
e
C
T
.

ich
T
.

e
D
u
A
A
R
/
A
R
T
ich
C
e
–
P
D

F
/

5
6
1
4
2
2
0
6
9
8
8
2
A
A
R
_
A
_
0
0
6
9
7
P
D

B
j
G
u
e
S
T

Ö
N
0
7
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3

24 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “Oga Oga” [“Boss
of bosses”]. Ikotun, Lagos, November 23, 2014.

25 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “Remember Ur
Six Feet.” Idimu, Lagos, November 23, 2014.

agbiboa2.indd 55
agbiboa2.indd 55

11/2/2022 3:31:46 PM
11/2/2022 3:31:46 PM

VOL. 56, NEIN. 1 SPRING 2023 afrikanische Kunst | 55

26 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “Kosere” ["A
do-or-die situation”], Ikotun, Lagos, August 20, 2014.

27 A tricycle taxi with the slogan: “Ghetto Boy.
No Time to Check Time.” Ile-Iwe, Lagos, Januar 6,
2015.

o sise a ma jale” (“the one who refuses to work will steal”), “Ole
darun” (“laziness is a disease”). Slogans such as “No Success
without Struggle” and “No Pain No Gain” (Feige. 28) reinforce the
Yoruba philosophy that each man is spiritually bestowed with
the capacity for success, but has to make that success by himself.
Sociologist Asef Bayat has suggested that, “although the poor are
powerless, nevertheless they do not sit around waiting for their
fate to determine their lives. Rather they are active in their own
way to ensure their survival” (2000: 539). Many transport work-
ers in Lagos see agberos and police officers as the epitome of lazi-
ness and daylight robbery—in short, as “thugs” who reap where
they have not sown, so to speak. As one common danfo slogan
puts it: “Monkey de work, Baboon de chop” (“one person works

much-needed relief for work-related hazards caused by long driv-
ing hours along dusty and bumpy roads. These hazards include
respiratory problems resulting from prolonged hours of exposure
to air pollution, back pain, aching joints, swollen and painful legs,
vision conditions, dust-related issues, sore throats, headaches,
and ulcers. The dangers of driving in Lagos are best exempli-
fied by slogans such as: “Are You Following Jesus this Close?” (A
sticker on a rear windshield of a danfo), “Drive Soft—Life No Get
Duplicate,” “Choose—Home or Mortuary?” “Be Easy, Life No Get
Part 2,” and “Last Warning” (Feige. 21).

The struggle to maximize profit forces many operators to re-
produce the transgressive system that they condemn. Behaviors
such as overloading passengers, speeding, engaging in arbitrary
pricing, failing to comply with the rules and protocols of the road,
and feuding contributes to the criminalization and stigmatiza-
tion of danfo operators. Drivers struggle to construct a positive
self-image. They see their work not as a “real job,” but as a tem-
porary one to which they resort faute de mieux. But many still
derive great pride from their vehicles—the material symbols of
their survival, manhood, and respectability. It is not uncommon
in Lagos to see operators wiping dirt off their minibuses at the
slightest opportunity or using the water that has accumulated on
monstrous potholes to wash their vehicles, especially while stuck
in go-slow. In a Nigerian context where a man’s social and marital
status are closely entwined, driving work is not infrequently a way
out of “social death” for unmarried men. This is particularly true
of the predominantly Muslim cities (z.B., Maiduguri) in northern
Nigeria, where achaba (commercial motorcycle) business enables
youth waiting for adulthood to pay the oft-inflated bride price,
heiraten, and acquire the esteemed status of masu gida (household
Kopf) (Agbiboa 2022a).

NO PAIN NO GAIN
Despite their precarious existence, public transport operators
believe that hard work is a conditio sine qua non for survival and
recognition. Steeped in Yoruba culture and philosophy, this view
of work as the antidote for success is implied in slogans such
als, “No Friend in Poverty,” “No Food 4 Lazy Man,” “Work and
Pray,” “2Day’s Struggles, 2Morrow’s Success.” Other slogans draw
upon traditional Yoruba worldview that ties laziness/idleness to
theft/the propensity to steal—such as, “Alapa ma sise ole ni da”
(“the one with hands yet refuses to work will turn a thief”), “Eni
56 | african arts SPRING 2023 VOL. 56, NEIN. 1

D
Ö
w
N
Ö
A
D
e
D

F
R
Ö
M
H

T
T

:
/
/

D
ich
R
e
C
T
.

ich
T
.

e
D
u
A
A
R
/
A
R
T
ich
C
e
–
P
D

F
/

5
6
1
4
2
2
0
6
9
8
8
2
A
A
R
_
A
_
0
0
6
9
7
P
D

B
j
G
u
e
S
T

Ö
N
0
7
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3

agbiboa2.indd 56
agbiboa2.indd 56

11/2/2022 3:31:47 PM
11/2/2022 3:31:47 PM

28 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “No Pain, NEIN
Gain.” Ikotun, Lagos, Januar 6, 2015.

29 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “Aiye Osenikanse”
[“No man is an island”]. Egbeda, Lagos, November
26, 2014.

independence. Rather they seek ever-more powerful mediators who
can use personal influence to get them jobs and scholarships and
protect them from heavy-handed government bureaucrats or jeal-
ous neighbors who might trump up destructive court cases against
ihnen. Tatsächlich, the more desperately individuals need something, Die
more they need patrons with contacts and resources, and the more
they grow vulnerable to demands of recompense (Bledsoe 1990: 75).

In Lagos, danfo drivers enact the “wealth in people” approach
by aligning themselves with patrons who will stand for them in
time of trouble. As one slogan admits: “Aiye Osenikanshe” (“no
man is an island” or “no one is self-sufficient,” Fig. 29). Absent

while another eats his sweat”). This slogan
resonates with Dawson and Fouksman’s
study of an informal settlement in South
Africa, which found that “surplus popu-
lations” often connect labor and income
together within “a bidirectional logic that
posits both that income must be deserved
through work, and that the hardworking
deserve income” (2020: 230).

NO MORE PERSON
Research suggests that the urban poor
tendentially build relationships with
urban “big men” or patrons who can
advocate for them and boost their aspi-
rational capacity (Appadurai 2004). Für
ihren Teil, big men often accumulate po-
litical power by amassing followers in
urban life (Paller 2014: 123–24). In the
risky and unpredictable environment in
Lagos, big men are key to personal secu-
rity and upward social mobility (z.B., finden-
ing gainful jobs). Hier, patron-client rela-
tionships fulfill “the need for mechanisms
of ‘social insurance’” (aus der Walle 2001:
118; see also Smith 2010: 248). As Caroline
Bledsoe notes, “things work by influence”:

People do not seek a dangerous state of

D
Ö
w
N
Ö
A
D
e
D

F
R
Ö
M
H

T
T

:
/
/

D
ich
R
e
C
T
.

ich
T
.

e
D
u
A
A
R
/
A
R
T
ich
C
e
–
P
D

F
/

5
6
1
4
2
2
0
6
9
8
8
2
A
A
R
_
A
_
0
0
6
9
7
P
D

B
j
G
u
e
S
T

Ö
N
0
7
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3

agbiboa2.indd 57
agbiboa2.indd 57

11/2/2022 3:31:47 PM
11/2/2022 3:31:47 PM

VOL. 56, NEIN. 1 SPRING 2023 afrikanische Kunst | 57

D
Ö
w
N
Ö
A
D
e
D

F
R
Ö
M
H

T
T

:
/
/

D
ich
R
e
C
T
.

ich
T
.

e
D
u
A
A
R
/
A
R
T
ich
C
e
–
P
D

F
/

5
6
1
4
2
2
0
6
9
8
8
2
A
A
R
_
A
_
0
0
6
9
7
P
D

B
j
G
u
e
S
T

Ö
N
0
7
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3

such as “Givers Never Lack,” “Oganla” (“Big Man,” Fig. 30), “Oga
mi” (“My Big Man”), “5 & 6” (reflecting a driver’s closeness to his
Patron, Feige. 30) and “Oga tie da” (“Where’s Your Big Man?”). In
the slogan “Ola Mummy” (“mother’s benevolence,” Fig. 20), Die
operator celebrates his mother, who played a major (financial)
role in his danfo business. In an urban context where auto loans
from banks or even loan sharks are virtually nonexistent, für
many drivers, family members become the most promising ave-
nues for obtaining start-up capital.

adequate social support, argues Sasha
Newell (2012: 90), “a mere unfounded ac-
cusation can threaten one’s entire social
identity.” J.-P. Olivier de Sardan (1999:
41) puts it bluntly: “Woe betide the man
who knows no one, either directly or indi-
rectly.” While some patrons may assist op-
erators in time of trouble, others may not.
Patrons who have the resources to help
and do so are fondly celebrated in slogans

(clockwise from top left)
30 A tricycle taxi with the slogan: “Oganla” [“Big
Man”]. Ile-iwe, Lagos, Januar 21, 2015.

31 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “Iwa Eda”
[“Human behavior”]. Ikotun, Lagos, Oktober 13,
2014.

32 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “Your worst
enemy can be your best friend.” Ikotun, Lagos,
Oktober 21, 2014.

58 | african arts SPRING 2023 VOL. 56, NEIN. 1

agbiboa2.indd 58
agbiboa2.indd 58

11/2/2022 3:31:49 PM
11/2/2022 3:31:49 PM

Friend” (Feige. 32). This harsh reality is conveyed by slogans like,
“Such Is Life” (Feige. 5), “Helpers Are Scarce,” “If Men Were God,”
“No Competition in Destiny” (Feige. 33), “Delay Is not Denial,” and
“Trust No Body.” The slogan “No More Person” (Feige. 34) laments
the loss of the organizing African philosophy of ubuntu (“I am
because we are” or humanity towards others)—that is to say, Die
lack of the normative notions of personhood emerging from tra-
ditional African cultures and couched in terms of a dominant
communitarian ethic (see Oyowe 2015).

The ultimate lesson in disappointment for operators is that the
pursuit of survival is “Not by Struggle” (Feige. 35) alone but by the
grace of God. This sense is conveyed in slogans such as “If Not for
God” or “God Dey” (Feige. 15). Zusamenfassend, operators are reminded that
“Igbekele omo araye, asan ni” (“reliance on people gives rise to dis-
appointment”). While many still see the world as generally ruled
by the rich (“Olowo lo oga”), they also recognize that “Olowo kin
se Olorun” (The rich person is not God). That realization compels
operators to turn to God—”Oga pata pata” (“Biggest Man”)—to
lift themselves out of disappointments. This meaning is conveyed
in the slogan, “I Am Lifted” (Feige. 19). In his classic work State
and Society in Nigeria, Gavin Williams (1980: 114) argues that,
“In an uncertain and competitive world were fortunes are seen
to be made and lost and one’s own fortune often appears to be
beyond one’s control, God, fate and luck are common (and not
unwarranted) categories for the explanation of success or lack of
it.” This perspective reverberates with Guyer’s (2017) point about
the productivity and infinite possibilities of hope that springs
eternal from the practice of repetition and replication.

Patrons (especially one’s relatives) who have the means to help
but fail to do so are subsumed under the category of “Awon Aiye”
(“the wicked world”), demonstrating the benign and malignant
possibilities that flow from social/familial relationships. Wann
patrons disappoint, transport operators
are reminded of the frailty of human be-
havior (d.h., “Iwa Eda,” Fig. 31) and the
wicked irony of Lagos life that serves at
once to make the familiar strange and
the strange familiar. As one slogan puts
Es, “Your Worst Enemy Can Be Your Best

D
Ö
w
N
Ö
A
D
e
D

F
R
Ö
M
H

T
T

:
/
/

D
ich
R
e
C
T
.

ich
T
.

e
D
u
A
A
R
/
A
R
T
ich
C
e
–
P
D

F
/

5
6
1
4
2
2
0
6
9
8
8
2
A
A
R
_
A
_
0
0
6
9
7
P
D

B
j
G
u
e
S
T

Ö
N
0
7
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3

33 A tricycle taxi with the slogan: “No Competition
in Destiny.” Ile-iwe, Ikotun Egbe, Lagos, Oktober 28,
2014.

34 A minibus taxi with the slogan: “No More
Person.” Iyana Ejigbo, Lagos, Oktober 28, 2014..

agbiboa2.indd 59
agbiboa2.indd 59

11/2/2022 3:31:49 PM
11/2/2022 3:31:49 PM

VOL. 56, NEIN. 1 SPRING 2023 afrikanische Kunst | 59

D
Ö
w
N
Ö
A
D
e
D

F
R
Ö
M
H

T
T

:
/
/

D
ich
R
e
C
T
.

ich
T
.

e
D
u
A
A
R
/
A
R
T
ich
C
e
–
P
D

F
/

5
6
1
4
2
2
0
6
9
8
8
2
A
A
R
_
A
_
0
0
6
9
7
P
D

B
j
G
u
e
S
T

Ö
N
0
7
S
e
P
e
M
B
e
R
2
0
2
3

35 A tricycle taxi with the slogan: “Not by strug-
gle.” Ile-iwe, Ikotun Egbe, Lagos, Dezember 21, 2014

CONCLUSION
Through an interpretative approach to, and deep reading of,
vehicle slogans in Lagos, this article has shed fresh light onto the
neglected linkages between texts, persons, and publics in urban
Africa. By using danfo slogans as a unique window into the life-
worlds of mobile subjects in extremis, we have gained a better
understanding of the aesthetic forms of self-expression through
which urban survival, recognition, and belonging become legible.

By exploring the aesthetics of chaos in Lagos, this essay advances
our limited knowledge of the visual, spatial, and temporal as-
pects of city life in Africa. Through a close analysis of the texts
and contexts of danfos, we come to see informal transport as si-
multaneously a place (of action and meaning) and a “nonplace”
(of anonymity and depersonalization) (Auge 1995). Über alles,
the danfo is a way of life that cannot be simply wished away by
“world class” city ambitions. At issue here is not just the danfos,
but the cultural economy and social imaginary of informal trans-
port. As a vital technology of mass mobility, danfos are archives
of popular wisdom that are integral to the productive imagina-
tion of Lagos and the reproduction of life therein (Simone 2004;
Mbembe 2001). For now, the danfos continue to drive commuter
journeys. But for how long?

In 2008, Lagos opened the first ever BRT system

Lagosians spend on average of 30 hours in traffic

Notes
1 The word danfo in Yoruba roughly translates as
“everyone for himself” or “you’re on your own.”
2
in Africa. Heute, the system boasts different lines
which cover over 35.5 km of track and transport over
350,000 commuters on a daily basis (Otunola et al.
2019: 3).
3
Fuji is a popular Nigerian musical genre which
arose from the improvisational Ajisari/Were music
tradition. This is a kind of music performed to wake
Muslims before dawn during the Ramadan fasting
season.
4
each week—or 1,560 hours annually—while drivers
in Los Angeles and Moscow traffic spent only 128 Und
210 hours respectively in the whole of 2018 (Akorede
2019).
5 Okadas are also known as dàfàa-dukà (“cook all”)
taxis because of their reputation of being frequently
involved in road accidents—where, metaphorically, alle
will be “cooked.” Across Lagos, nay Nigeria, allgemein
hospitals have special wards named after motorbike
brands (d.h., “Jincheng Ward”) where victims of okada
accidents are treated.
6 A term used by Webb Keane (2002: 95) to “cap-
ture the ways in which practices and ideologies put
Wörter, Dinge, and actions into complex articulation
with one another.”

7 More than just bus stations or bus stops, motor
parks (also known as garages) are zones of commerce,
social interactions, and everyday politics (z.B., Stasik
and Cissokho 2018).

References cited
Agbiboa, D.E. 2022A. Mobility, Mobilization, Und
Counter/Insurgency: The Routes of Terror in an African
Context. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Agbiboa, D.E. 2022B. They Eat Our Sweat: Transport
Labor, Corruption and Everyday Survival in Urban
Nigeria. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Agbiboa, D.E. 2020. “How Informal Transport Sys-
tems Drive African Cities.” Current History 119 (817):
175–81.

Agbiboa, D.E. 2018. “Informal Urban Governance and
Predatory Politics in Africa: The Role of Motor-Park
Touts in Lagos.” African Affairs 117 (466): 62–82.

Akorede, S. 2019. “Employees in Lagos are Stressed,
Burned Out and Exhausted because of ‘Hellish Traf-
fic.’” CNN, August 2.

Albert, Isaac Olawale. 2007. “Between the State and
Transport Unions: NURTW and the Politics of Motor

Parks in Lagos and Ibadan.” In L. Fourchard (Hrsg.),
Gouverner les villes d’Afrique: Etat Governement Local
et acteurs Prives, S. 125–38. Paris: Karthala.

Animasawun, G. 2017. “Marginal Men and Urban
Social Conflicts: Okada Riders in Lagos.” In W.
Adebanwi (Hrsg.), The Political Economy of Everyday
Life: Beyond the Margins, S. 239–63. Rochester, New York:
Boydell & Brewer.

Appadurai, Arjun. 2004. “The Capacity to Aspire: Cul-
ture and the Terms of Recognition.” In V. Rao and M.
Walton (Hrsg.), Culture and Public Action, S. 59–84.
Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Aradeon, D. 1997. “Oshodi: Replanners’ Options for
a Subcity.” Glendora Review: African Quarterly on the
Arts 2 (1): 51–58.

Auge, M. 1995. Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthro-
pology of Supermodernity. London: Verso.

Barber, K. (Hrsg.). 1997. Readings in African Popular
Culture. Bloomington, IN: IAI.

Basso, Keith. 1996. Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscapes
and Language among the Western Apache. Albuquer-
que: University of New Mexico Press.

60 | african arts SPRING 2023 VOL. 56, NEIN. 1

agbiboa2.indd 60
agbiboa2.indd 60

11/2/2022 3:31:50 PM
11/2/2022 3:31:50 PM

Bayat, A. 2000. “From ‘Dangerous Classes’ to ‘Quiet
Rebels’: Politics of the Urban Subaltern in the Global
South.” International Sociology 15 (3): 533–57.

Jaworski, A. and C. Thurlow (Hrsg.). 2010. Semiotic
Landscapes: Language, Image, Space. London: Con-
tinuum.

Bledsoe, Caroline H. 1990. “‘No Success without
Struggle’: Social Mobility and Hardship Foster Chil-
dren in Sierra Leone.” Man 25: 70–88.

Blueprint. 2014. “Nigerian Roads as 2nd Most Danger-
ous in the World.” September 22.

Buck-Moss, S. 2002. The Dialectics of Seeing: Walter
Benjamin and the Arcades Project. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press.

Clammer, J. 2014. Vision and Society: Towards a So-
ciology and Anthropology from Art. Oxford: Routledge.

Comaroff, J., and J.L. Comaroff. 1993. Modernity
and its Malcontents: Ritual and Power in Postcolonial
Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Comaroff, J., and J.L. Comaroff. 1999. “Occult Econo-
mies and the Violence of Abstraction: Notes from the
South African Postcolony.” American Ethnologist 26
(2): 279–303.

Dawson, H.J., and E. Fouksman. 2020. “Labor, Lazi-
ness and Distribution: Work Imaginaries among the
South African Unemployed.” Africa 90 (20): 229–51.

De Boeck, Filip, A. Cassiman and S. Van Wolputte.
2009. “Recentering the City: An Anthropology of
Secondary Cities in Africa.” African Perspectives,
33–42. https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/han-
dle/2263/59948/Boeck_Recentering_2009.pdf?se-
quence=1&isAllowed=y.

Ferguson, J. 1999. Expectations of Modernity: Myths
and Meanings of Urban Life on the Zambian Cooper-
belt. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Föster, Till. 2013. “On Creativity in African Urban
Life: African Cities as Sites of Creativity and Eman-
cipation.” In S. Newell and O. Okome (Hrsg.), Popular
Culture in Africa: The Episteme of the Everyday, S.
27–46. London: Routledge.

General Optical Council. 2008. “National Glaucoma
Awareness Week: How Big is Your Blind Spot.” June 9.

Ghertner, D.A. 2010. “Calculating without Numbers:
Aesthetic Governmentality in Delhi’s Slums.” Econo-
my and Society 39: 185–217.

Green-Simms, L. 2017. Postcolonial Automobility: Car
Culture in West Africa. Minneapolis: Universität
Minnesota Press.

Green-Simms, L. 2009. Postcolonial Automobility:
West Africa and the Road to Globalization. PhD diss.
University of Minnesota.

Guyer, J. 2004. Marginal Gains: Monetary Transac-
tions in Atlantic Africa. Chicago, IL: Universität
Chicago Press.

Guyer, J. 2017. “When and How Does Hope Spring
Eternal in Personal and Pouplar Economics? Thoughts
from West Africa to America.” In H. Miyazaki and
R. Swedberg (Hrsg.), The Economy of Hope, S. 147–71.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Hoffman, D. 2011. “Violent Virtuosity: Visual Labor in
West Africa’s Mamo River.” Anthropological Quarterly
84 (4): 949–75.

Isaac, Dachen. 2022. “Danfo Bus Driver Sets Self-
Ablaze after LASTMA Officials Seized Vehicle.” Rip-
ples Nigeria, Februar 16. https://www.ripplesnigeria.
com/danfo-bus-driver-sets-self-ablaze-after-lastma-
officials-seized-vehicle/

Keane, W. 2002. “Sincerity, ‘Modernity,’ and the Prot-
estants.” Cultural Anthropology 17 (1): 65–92.

Kumar, A. & Barrett, F. 2008. “Stuck in Traffic: Urban
Transport in Africa.” World Bank and the SSATP.
Januar. https://www.eu-africa-infrastructure-tf.net/
attachments/library/aicd-background-paper-1-urban-
trans-summary-en.pdf

Lagos State Government. 2012. Lagos State Road
Traffic Law 2012. Alahusa, Ikeja: Lagos State.

Lawuyi, O.B. 1988. “The World of the Yoruba Taxi
Driver: An Interpretive Approach to Vehicle Slogans.”
Africa 58 (1): 1–13.

Lawuyi, O.B. 1994. “Yoruba Ritual: Performers, Play,
Agency by Margaret Thompson Drewal” [book re-
view]. Journal of Religion in Africa 24 (2): 189–91.

Lefebvre, H. 2004. Rythmanalysis: Space, Time and
Everyday Life, trans. Stuart Elden and Gerald Moore.
London: Kontinuum.

Lotman, Yuri. 1988. “Text within the Text.” Soviet
Psychologie 26 (3): 32–51.

Mbembe, A. 2001. On the Postcolony. Berkeley: Uni-
versity of California Press.

Mbembe, A. 2002. “On the Power of the False.” Public
Culture 14 (3): 629–41.

Mbembe, A. 2006. “On Politics as a Form of Expen-
diture.” In J. Comaroff and J.L. Comaroff (Hrsg.), Law
and Disorder in the Postcolony, S. 299–330. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.

Mbembe, Achille, and S. Nuttall. (Hrsg). 2008. Johan-
nesburg: The Elusive Metropolis. Durham, NC: Duke
Universitätsverlag.

Medium. 2018. “The African Commute: City Trans-
port Trends.” May 3. https://medium.com/impact-en-
gineered/the-african-commute-city-transport-trends-
cf369e5106bd

Osun Defender. 2012. “Lagos-Badagry Expressway: A
‘Boko Haram’ in the West.” October 25.

Otunola, B., Ö. Harman, and S. Kriticos. 2019. Der
BRT and the Danfo: A Case Study of Lagos’ Transport
Reforms from 1999–2019. International Growth Center
(IGC) Cities That Work Case Study. Oktober.

Oyowe, O.A. 2015. “This Thing Called Communitar-
ianism: A Critical Review of Matolino’s Personhood
in African Philosophy.” South African Journal of
Philosophy 34 (4): 504-15.

Paller, J. 2014. “Informal Institutions and Personal
Rule in Urban Ghana.” African Studies Review 57 (3):
123–42.

Peteet, J. 2017. Space and Mobility in Palestine. Bloom-
ington: Indiana University Press.

PM News. 2015. “99% of Lagos Danfo Drivers are
Hypertensive.” December 10.

Quayson, A. 2014. Oxford Street, Accra: City Life and
the Itineraries of Transnationalism. Durham, NC:
Duke University Press.

Roberts, M.N. 2020. “Aesthetics: Africa.” Encylo-
pedia.com. https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/
dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/
aesthetics-africa

Shipley, J.W., Comaroff, J. & Mbembe, A. 2010. “Africa
in Theory: A Conversation between Jean Comaroff
and Achille Mbembe.” Anthropological Quarterly 83
(3): 653–78.

Simone. A. 2004. “People as Infrastructure: Intersect-
ing Fragments in Johannesburg.” Public Culture 16
(3): 407–29.

Schmied, D.J. 2010. “Corruption, NGOs, and Devel-
opment in Nigeria.” Third World Quarterly 31 (2):
243–58.

Sommers, M. 2010. “Urban Youth in Africa.” Environ-
ment & Urbanization 22 (2): 317–32.

Soyinka, N. 1977. “National Road Slaughter.” Sunday
Times (Lagos), Juli 31.

Meyer, B. 2004. “‘Praise the Lord’: Popular Cine-
ma and Pentecostalite Style in Ghana’s New Public
Sphere.” American Ethnologist 31 (1): 92–110.

Stasik, M. and S. Cissokho. 2018. “Introduction to
Special Issue: Bus Stations in Africa.” Africa Today 65
(2): vii–xxiv.

Morgan, D. 2008. “The Materiality of Cultural Con-
struction.” Material Religion: Journal of Objects, Arts
and Belief 4 (2): 228–29.

Van de Walle, Nicholas. 2001. African Economies and
the Politics of Permanent Crisis, 1979–1999. Nocken-
Brücke: Cambridge University Press.

Mutongi, K. 2006. “Thugs or Entrepreneurs? Percep-
tions of Matatu Operators in Nairobi, 1970 to the Pres-
ent.” Africa 76 (4): 549–68.

Myers, G.A. 2011. African Cities: Alternative Visions of
Urban Theory and Practice. London: Zed Books.

NCR. 2017. “2017 Marks End of the Road for ‘Danfo’
Buses in Lagos, Says Ambode.” February 8.

Newell, S. 2020. The Modernity Bluff: Crime, Con-
sumption, and Citizenship in Côte D’Ivoire. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.

Okri, B. 1992. The Famished Road. New York: Anchor
Books.

Olivier de Sardan, J.-P. 1999. “A Moral Economy of
Corruption in Africa?” Journal of Modern African
Studien 37 (1): 25–52.

Osinulu, D. 2008. “Painters, Blacksmith and Word-
smith: Building Molues in Lagos.” African Arts 41 (3):
44–53.

Vanguard. 2013. “14,300 Lagos Drivers Are Partially
Blind.” September 17. https://www.vanguardngr.
com/2013/09/14300-lagos-drivers-are-partially-blind-
lasdri-boss/

Vanguard. 2018. “Highways of Death: 28,195 Killed in
Road Accidents in 68 Months.” September 9. https://
www.vanguardngr.com/2018/09/highways-of-death-
28195-killed-in-road-accidents-in-68-months/

Williams, G. 1980. “Political Consciousness among
the Ibadan Poor.” In G. Williams (Hrsg.), State and
Society in Nigeria, S. 110–20. Idanre: Afrgrafika
Publishers.

Yai, O.B. 1994. “In Praise of Metonymy: The Concepts
of ‘Tradition’ and ‘Creativity’ in the Transmission of
Yoruba Artistry over Time and Space.” In Rowland
Abiodun, Henry J. Drewal, and John Pemberton III
(Hrsg.), The Yoruba Artist: New Theoretical Perspectives
on African Arts, S. 107–18. Washington, Gleichstrom: Schmied-
sonian Institute Press.