What Does The Nigerian Pidgin English Phrase "Carry Go" Mean? (with online definitions & comments from Nigerians)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post provides some definitions and examples of the Nigerian Pidgin English phrase "carry go" that I found online.

The content of this post is provided for cultural and linguistic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
[Added June 25, 2021]
"Carry Go" is a Nigerian Pidgin English phrase that has more than one meaning, and/or whose meaning/s has changed over time. The definitions below and/or the definitions that have been included by commenters in the comment section below, may not be accurate now. Please share what you think the Nigerian Pidgin English phrase "carry go" means. Thanks!

-end of June 25, 2021 addition-  

I first noticed the Nigerian use of the phrase "carry go" in a comment exchange in the YouTube discussion thread for the Afrobeats singer Simi's 2019 song "Jericho". Here is a portion of that exchange:
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v5DU1brzVw

nura bako, 2019
"Who else thinks simi deserves more credit and recognition not only in Nigeria but in Africa and the whole world. Tap like if you are proud of simi."

**

Edeh chichi angel, May 2020

"she deserves the best Simi carry go joor"
-snip-
I'm interested in learning about vernacular language words and phrases that are used by people of Black descent throughout the world. Since I had never read or heard the phrase "carry go" or the word "joor" before, I decided to look those terms up on Google.  Finding the meanings of "joor" was easier than finding the Nigerian meanings of "carry go". Here are definitions for "joor" that were published online in 2010:
http://naijawords.blogspot.com/2010/08/definition-joor.html#:~:text=Word%3A%20Joor&text=Noun%3A%20an%20exclamation%20used%20to,commonly%20to%20be%20left%20alone.

August 4, 2010
Word  - "Joor"
Word origin- Yoruba word of similar meaning, most commonly to be left alone
2. Used for emphasis at the end of a sentence.

Usage:
1. Leave me along joor!
2. That movie was a waste of time and money joor!
3. Joor oh!
-snip-
Comments for that blog post identified "jo" as the Yoruba word that is the source of the Nigerian Pidgin English word "joor" which is also spelled "jor". According to Sugabelly, October 24, 2010, 
"Jo" is a Yoruba word and grammatically correct Yoruba words do not end in "r", irrespective of how various people spell those words."

**
As of the date of this pancocojams post, I've found three definitions for the Nigerian phrase* "carry go". Only one of those definitions is dated (#1 given below which was published in 2002). . I'm assuming that the other two definitions that I've found for that phrase (and particularly definitions #3) were published after that 2002 date, but I don't know when those definitions were added online.

It appears to me that most of the online examples of the phrase "carry go" don't fit the definitions of that phrase that I've read in Chief Obi featuring Olamide's AfroBeats song "Carry Go".

Also, most of the comments that I've read in the YouTube discussion thread for that music video, in Nigerian singer Simi's 2019 Afrobeats song "Jericho" (as quoted above), as well as comments for Nigerian Mr. Dutch's December 2017 song "Carry Go" and Nigerian singer Mr. Dutch's 2017 song "Carry Go" don't appear to me to fit the meanings of the Nigerian definitions that I found for "carry go"- unless the tone of the definition "go ahead" is changed to be more congratulatory, encouraging, or otherwise positive.  I wonder if that means that older definitions and/or tone for this phrase in Nigeria* were completely replaced by newer definitions, or the older definitions of that phrase are seldom used anymore.

For instance, as found below in #3, an older meaning of "carry go" is "go ahead". "Go ahead" can be given as a positive exhortation for a person to "Carry on" (meaning You are doing well so keep [on] doing what your are doing"). This comment that was published in 2017 in the discussion thread for the YouTube music video "Carry Go" by Chief Obi featuring Olamide seems to support that guess:
"What a nice music

Keep it up

Carry on"

I think the somewhat dated (1990s or so) African American Vernacular English exhortation "Go on with ya bad self" could serve as a translation for that definition of "carry go".

It also seems to me that in the YouTube music video thread for Chief Obi's March 2017" Afrobeats song "Carry Go" and some other YouTube comments, the phrase "carry go" has the abbreviated meaning of  "You want it, you got it" (so carry it and take it with you).

*I emphasized "in Nigeria" because as a result of my online search for definitions and examples of the Nigerian phrase "carry go", I learned of the very similar Jamaican phrase "carry go bring come". . The Jamaican definition for "carry go" means to gossip".  This is an entirely different meaning than the Nigerian definition. I don't know if the Jamaican phrase influenced the Nigerian phrase or vice versa. Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/06/justin-hinds-and-dominoes-carry-go.html for a June 2020 pancocojams post about that phrase.

**
I've divided this post into two sections which I've labeled Older Definitions of "Carry Go" and Newer Examples of "Carry Go".

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 OLDER DEFINITIONS OF THE NIGERIAN PHRASE "CARRY GO"
These excerpts are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.
Some explanations are given for non-English words. I've also added my guesses about what the phrase "carry go" means in a few these comments.

I.
From http://onlineslangdictionary.com/meaning-definition-of/carry-go#:~:text=carry%20go,Nigeria%20on%20Feb%2026%202002.
"carry go

used to tell someone to stop messing with people.

Carry go man.

Last edited on Feb 26 2002. Submitted by Pepe from Nigeria on Feb 26 2002."

**
2.
From http://bwari.tripod.com/FGGCABUJA/id18.html Federal Government Girl's College Bwari Abuja Pidgin Dictionary
"Carry go: Used playfully to mean - Get away or Get out of here.                       

**
3.

From http://naijalingo.com/words/carry-go

"Carry go

Definition:
1.Go ahead.

2. Help your self.Example:Oh boy if you like that shoe make you carry go, I no need am again. Means, you can have that shoe if you like it, I don't wear it anymore."

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NEWER EXAMPLES OF THE NIGERIAN PHRASE "CARRY GO"
These are some of the comments from the linked sources that include the phrase "carry go".

These excerpts are given in no particular order. Most of these comments are given without any quoted explanations or any attempted definitions by me.

I've added numbers for referencing purposes only. 

I.
From https://genius.com/Chief-obi-carry-go-lyrics

[...]

Chorus:

I wanna give you all carry go

I wanna take your jerry coil

For your love I go catch cold

Omalicha please come be my shelter

Porsche Cayenne carry go

Love me tender carry go

Light my fire carry go

Gucci Prada carry go

[...]
-snip-
I wonder if "jerry coil" is the African American originated hair style "Jheri curls" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jheri_curl

**
"Omalicha" is a Igbo (Nigeria) word meaning "beautiful".

**
"Porshe Cayenne" is a brand of luxury car and "Gucci Prada" are a brand of expensive shoes.

II.  

Chief Obi - Carry Go ft. Olamide (Official Video)

ChiefObiVlogs, Jul 21, 2017 [discussion thread]

1. Ayuba Hassan, 2017
"Obi level🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌

Vid so lit🔥🔥, I really waited 2 see d Vid to one of my 2017 fav song. Obi - carry go🙋🙋"

**
2. China China, 2017

"who else is loving Uche Mba? A nurse, fitness queen now a video vixen😍😍"

**

REPLY

3. Francis, 2017
"oh is that the lady's name??

she is effing fit, that her back na carry go!
-snip-
In this comment the word “back” refers to "backside" ("butt", "behind"," ass" etc.)

**
4. Chinedu Ngwudike, 2017
"Who else has this video on repeat since it dropped? Chief Obi, carry go💍! Olamide baddest! 💪🏽 Uche, i di ka nwanyi si adi 💃🏻"-snip-
Google translate of "i di ka nwanyi si adi" from Igbo to English - "you look like a woman".

**
5. Yoba Ging, 2017

"So we just gonna act like olamide wasn't in the video? You Igbo ppl get issues.

I beg CARRY GO"
-snip-
I believe that "I beg" has the same meaning in that comment as the Nigerian Pidgin English word "abeg"
From https://neologisms.rice.edu/index.php?a=term&d=1&t=2840
..."In Nigerian English "abeg" is used very informally and frequently just as "please" in used in Englisn."...

My guess is that "I beg" CARRY GO" means "Please leave and take the nonsense you wrote with you." 

This comment was probably directed to many of the Igbo commenters in that video's discussion thread who were praising Chief Obi who is Igbo (and the Igbo woman Uchemba who was featured in that video), but weren't mentioning the Yoruba singer Olamide who also performed in that song and video.  

**
6. Saint Michael, 2017
" Chief Obi ! Chief Obi ! Chief Obi how many times i call u! You sabi carryooo ok carry go!"
-snip-
"Sabi" is Nigerian Pidgin English for "know"/"to know how to" - Wkipedia Nigerian Pidgin English

I believe that one translation of this comment into African American Vernacular English is "'You know how to do your thing. Keep on keeping on!

**

7. Scotoskii Emmanuel, 2017
"I go carry this music go"

**
8. Sunny Olu, 2017
"Omo oba Olamide I see you........Ko si ori won ni be.........Carry go!!! Shout out Chief Obi.....Wicked Jamz

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III. Mr Dutch - Carry Go [discussion thread]

Mr. Dutch, Dec 8, 2017

-snip-   

According to https://www.afro.video/en/artist/mr-dutch/      

Mr. Dutch is a Nigerian singer/songwriter/record producer who recorded his first song "Carry Go" in South Africa.

1. R & R INDENT, 2018
"Carry goooooooooooooooooooooooooo"

**

2. AUGUST, 2018
"Carry go go o o o o o o o"

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Visitor comments are welcome.

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Justin Hinds And The Dominoes- "Carry Go Bring Home" (Ska & Rocksteady Sound Files, Lyrics, Information, & Comments)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post provides information about Jamaican singer/songwriter Justin Hinds and showcases sound files of Justin Hinds & The Dominos' Ska and Rocksteady records "Carry Go Carry Go Bring Come".

The lyrics for this song and selected comments from one of these YouTube sound files are also included in this post.

The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purpose.

All copyrights remain with their owners. 

Thanks to Justin Hinds and the Dominos for their musical legacy. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of this song on YouTube.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/06/what-does-nigerian-pidgin-english.html for the somewhat related pancocojams post entitled "What Does The Nigerian Pidgin English Phrase "Carry Go" Mean? (with online definitions & comments from Nigerians).

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INFORMATION ABOUT JUSTIN HINDS
From https://www.furious.com/perfect/justinhinds.html Justin Hinds and the Dominoes

by Eric Doumerc, (May 2007)

"Justin Hinds began to make records with the Dominoes (Junior Dixon and Dennis Sinclair) forming a Jamaican harmony trio in the early 1960's and later gained some popularity abroad in the 1990's. Sadly, today Hinds and his comrades have remained rather unknown outside the circle of reggae cognoscenti and their music deserves much wider exposure.

Justin Hinds was born in the small village of Steertown on the Jamaican north coast in 1942 and came to Kingston to make his way in the music business in the early 1960's. He hooked up with the producer Duke Reid in 1963 and recorded his fist song in the same year with the cream of studio musicians at the time (Tommy McCook on saxophone, Drumbago on drums, Jah Jerry on guitar). The dominant sound at the time was ska and the Dominoes' first song, entitled "Carry Go Bring Come" (a Jamaican phrase meaning a gossip) was recorded in that style, with blasting horns and a driving rhythm. The song was a hit, remained in the charts for seven weeks, and launched Justin Hinds' career, becoming a transatlantic smash with the UK West Indian immigrant community and with the early incarnations of the skinhead movement (the Selecter covered the song in the late '70's and the Specials would later cover it with Desmond Dekker).

Hinds and his friends then recorded exclusively for Duke Reid until the producer's death in 1974 and then began to record for the late Jack Ruby in 1976, a partnership which led to the release of the Jezebel LP on Island, which included a remake of "Carry Go Bring Home." In spite of one of the songs from the LP (the jubilant "Natty Take Over") being included on the soundtrack to the film Rockers, lasting recognition still failed to come and Hinds went into semi-retirement. Although he returned to recording in the mid-1980's when he made an album for the American Nighthawk label (Travel with Love, 1985), he still missed out on the acclaim he deserved. The Dominoes had to wait until the 1990's for international recognition to come when they first performed at the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival in 1996, which led to more touring in the USA and in Europe. Justin Hinds died of cancer in Jamaica on March 17th, 2005.

[…]

For Hinds and the Dominoes, their belated recognition may be accounted for by the fact that they recorded in a style which was far removed from the mainstream of Jamaican music but which was nevertheless steeped in the Jamaican oral tradition. Their music (in the ska, rock steady and reggae modes) is best described as "rural" and could be said to belong to a type of reggae music sometimes known as "country reggae." Groups like Stanley and the Turbines and the Ethiopians recorded in a similar style.

The Dominoes' harmonies were church-based and Hinds himself came from a deeply religious family and loved to sing religious hymns in church. Parallel to that, he also liked listening to American popular music and his favourite artists included Fats Domino (hence Justin Hinds and the Dominoes), B.B. King, Smiley Lewis and Louis Jordan.

Hinds' lyrics were influenced both by his religious background and by the Jamaican oral tradition, which is based on storytelling, proverbs, sayings and songs. His first hit, "Carry Go Bring Come," was about a gossip, a "news-carrier":

[...]

The song was an immediate hit in 1963, during the ska era, and Hinds later re-cut it the rock steady idiom in 1967, and later as a Reggae song in the 1970s (on the Jezebel LP). The lyrics are a mixture of folk sayings and biblical allusions ("Jezebel", "Mount Zion", "the wicked") which struck a chord with the audience. Everyone was able to relate to the general feelings expressed in the songs about the wicked oppressing the weak. After all, the song was released in 1963, just one year after Jamaica became independent and the colonial legacy was certainly visible at the time.”…

**
From

Work with Duke Reid

His first recording with Duke Reid was "Carry Go Bring Come", made in late 1963 in one take. It became a big hit topping the Jamaican chart for two months, just before the Wailers got their big hit with "Simmer Down". "Carry Go Bring Come" would later be covered by the British ska band The Selecter on their 1980 album Too Much Pressure, and by Desmond Dekker and The Specials on King of Kings.

[…]

He also released "Carry Go Bring Come" in 1963 in conjunction with Jonathan Bevan, an English-born Jamaican national, a successful collaboration which drew much admiration amongst Jamaican music producers. The track was described by esteemed Ghanaian music aficionado Zahid Chohan as "simply wonderful; belongs in any reggae fan's collection"….
-snip-
A number of other Reggae singers recorded "Carry Go Come Back" including Freddy McGregor, Millie Smalls, and the Skatalites.

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WHAT "CARRY GO BRING COME" MEANS

From http://wiwords.com/word/carry-go-bring-come 

"Noun

Gossip. Idle talk, rumours, or salacious news about the private affairs of others.

Synonyms

brango, commesse, he say dem say, labba labba, labrish, melee, pung melee, pung name, seetful, shush, shushu, sip sip, skyat, suss, sussu, sussu sussu, yerriso"

Tags

Belna, May 19, 2015

JahMar 17, 2017

"Dwl!! Dis one old ennuh mi granny always seh dis."
-snip-

The phrase "carry go" is known in Nigeria, but has a different meaning (or meanings). I'm curious if there is any connection between the Jamaican phrase "carry go bring come" and the Nigerian phrase "carry go".A series of posts on the Nigerian use of "carry go" will be published ASAP on pancocojams and the link to that first post will be added here.    

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YOUTUBE EXAMPLES
Example #1: Justin Hinds & The Dominoes/Carry Go Bring Come

Soberphobe, Feb 5, 2007

-snip-
Here are selected examples of comments (including lyrics) from the discussion thread for this sound file. Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.

1. Jimmy Fantabulous, 2011
"this song plays in the background during the following scene from Last Days of Disco:   look up "last days of disco" and "to thine own self be true."

**
2. Ruby Morris, 2012
"sounds awesome!! just like it should. authentic, none of that over-engineered sound processing - thank you :)"

**
3. Mike Ballard, 2012
"1963 top of the pops with a bullet, according to Keith Richards in his bio, LIFE."

**
4. Elkaosenpanama, 2014

This carry go bring come, my dear, brings misery

This carry go bring come, my dear, brings misery

You're going from town to town making disturbances

It's time you stopped doing those things, you old Jezebel

The meek shall inherit this Earth, you old Jezebel

It needs no light to see you're making disturbances

It's better to seek a home in Mount Zion high

Instead of keeping oppression upon innocent man

Time will tell on you, you old Jezebel

How long shall the wicked reign over my people?

It's better to seek a home in Mount Zion high

Instead of keeping oppression upon innocent man

Time will tell on you, you old Jezebel

How long shall the wicked reign over my people?

How long shall the wicked reign over my people?

How long shall the wicked reign over my people?

**
5.  Carlton Ayre, 2017
"masterpiece of ska  they hail from the hills steer town in the parish of  ST ANN
**
6. sherwood991, 2017
"This song was banned from airplay in Jamaica, at one point.  An interesting fact, given what's allowed to play today."

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REPLY
7. beanyjazz, 2018
"Any idea why sherwood991 dude?"

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REPLY
8. Andrew Palmer, 2019
"It is a protest song ,how long should  the wicked  rain  over my people is a cry for help its a cry for help  over prejudice"
**
9.  Jahson Ntare, 2018

"TYPICAL ENGAGED MUSIC

"Carry Go Bring Come" by Justin Hinds and the Dominoes was very popular in 1964 and is claimed to have criticised the then powerful J.L.P. political leader, Alexander Bustamante, also a trade unionist (founder and leader of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union, which has been nearly coalesced into the J .L.P., whereas the P.N.P. has obtained a strong connection with the National Workers Union, established by Norman Manley). The J.L.P. was organised under the leadership of Bustamante in 1943, and the P.N.P. by M. Manley in 1938. (Interestingly Bustamante and Manley were cousins.)

The following is an excerpt from the song:

Carry go bring come, my dear, bring misery

Yuh goin' from home to home, making disturbancy

Time, yuh stop doin' those t'ings, Yuh ole Jezebel

The meek shall inherit the earth ...

Better to seek a home in Mt. Zion I

Instead of keepin' oppression upon a (h)innocent man

Time will tell yuh, yuh 01' Jezebel

How long shall de wicked reign over my people

RASTAFARIAN MUSIC IN CONTEMPORARY JAMAICA: A Study of Socioreligious Music

of the Rastafarian Movement in Jamaica

By Yoshiko S Nagashima"
-snip-
This is the only lyric transcription that I have found online that gives the line "Better to seek a home in Mt Zion I" instead of "Better to seek a home in Mt. Zion high". The phrase "Mt. Zion I" fits the Rastafarian language use of  the word "I"*. However, this may be\is a Rastafarian adaptation of Justin Hinds' lyrics and not the way Hinds wrote that line.

*Click https://debate.uvm.edu/dreadlibrary/grant02.htm for a 2002 paper about Rastafarians written by William Grant.  I'll quote the section of that paper about Rastafarians' use of the word "I" in the comment section for this pancocojams post.  

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Example #2: Justin Hinds - Carry Go Bring Come (Rock Steady Version)



The Rickynow, July 1, 2010

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