“UN, UN, UN, Libya, Libya, last one, last one!” Taxi drivers at the Madina Zongo Junction taxi rank called out to passengers to come and board their vehicles.
The taxi rank which was filled with taxi cabs waiting for their turn had some drivers sitting under a shed chatting, while others sat in their taxis either listening to the radio or dozing.
Taxi cabs which had their turn had boards on top of them with inscriptions indicating the destination. Some of the inscriptions read; ‘Washington’, ‘Chicago’, ‘UN’ and ‘Libya.’
Curious to find out the history behind these interesting names given to some vicinities within Madina, I walked straight to the shed where some drivers had gathered to probe and satisfy my curiosity. Amused by my interest, the drivers willingly agreed to give me a rundown.
The station master, Sulemana Adam offered to give me the juicy details. He disclosed that most of the names given to vicinities in Madina were given based on where the first settler had travelled to.
For Chicago, he indicated that an elderly woman once visited her son in Chicago in the United States and when she returned, she christened her home ‘Chicago’ and this later became a landmark for commercial transport drivers. Subsequently, the whole area was given the name ‘Chicago.’
The area called ‘Washington’ however was named after a wealthy building contractor called Washington who constructed several houses for the personnel of the Ghana Police Service working with the Madina area.
“As for ‘UN’, we gave the name to that place because someone built his house and inscribed ‘UN’ on his wall and as a result, the people in the area started calling that vicinity UN,” said Mr. Adam.
Asked whether the owner of that house had ever worked or still works at the United Nations, an amused Mr. Adam laughed and replied, “Oh no, he hasn’t worked there before. I am sure he just liked the name UN.”
The vicinity which had the most interesting story was ‘Libya’ and a lot of the drivers were eager to pitch in with what they knew about the history of the place. By now, the shed was filled with more drivers who had gotten down from their vehicles to join the conversation.
One diver who only gave his name as Iddris narrated that ‘Libya’ was a vicinity occupied mostly by Ghanaian Muslims who had gone to Lybia to hustle.
“It is not a rich community,” Iddris said. “They are Libyan hustlers and they decided to settle in the same area after they returned home.”
“It is one of the oldest communities in Madina Zongo. It was developed in 1982 and they are all hustlers,” the station master chipped in.
By: Efua Idan Osam