The local Ghanaian word is said to have originated from the combination
of two individual words from the Hausa and Ga languages-"kaya" and
"yei".
"Kaya" simply means load or luggage in Hausa circles whereas "yei"means girls,singular is "yo".
Kayayei is translated however into English as females who carry
goods,usually agricultural,other luggages and stuff of people from one
destination to another at a fee.They do this by carting the goods on
their head in large pans with only a moist-coiled rag,separating the pan
from their bare head.
In Ghana,and especially in the major cities,there is the possibility of
meeting these girls on any day at market annexes and bus terminals,who
would ask to carry your load to your end.
Unlike beggars,disability-struck persons and other derelicts of
society,who line up the streets and accost people every step of the
way,begging for alms,Kayayei and their activities are a tad more
dignifying than the art of street begging.
Far from being stereotypical about the issue,kayayei are predominantly
from the three northern regions of Ghana-Upper East,Upper West and the
Northern Regions,who come to urban and peri-urban areas,in an attempt to
make a living.
For many years,the activity has been seen by these young girls as a
better alternative to making a living,than the existing conditions in
their home regions.
According to the 2010 Population and Housing Census, more than 50 percent of Ghanaians now live in urban areas.
Part of this increase is due to the migration of women from rural areas.
Since the early 1980s, tens of thousands of females in northern Ghana
have fled growing rural poverty as their traditional source of
employment, rain-fed farming, could no longer sustain them,others an
attempt to run away from issues bordering on the culture and religion in
their home villages,like forced and early marriages,and the like.
These girls, the majority of whom are of school-going age, escape to
cities without knowing where they will live or work, and often
ultimately work as kayayei,carrying loads on their heads, and in other
menial jobs.
Kayayei (female head porters) are now a distinct urban poor group,
mostly operating in and around lorry parks and markets in Ghana's
cities,often living in very deplorable environments.
They have become almost a legal set of city dwellers,who go about their
kayayei duties with only one thing on their minds,how to make a better
living.
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| some kayayei have to endure sleeping in the open in the city |
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MIGRATION
Due to a myriad of reasons,young females flee the upper regions to the cities.
According to a 2010 survey of Kayayei, conducted by the Ghana Federation
of the Urban Poor (GHAFUP), an affiliate of Slum Dwellers
International, and Peoples Dialogue on Human Settlements, the majority
(58 percent) of 15,000 respondents were engaged in farming prior to
their migration.
Those who were engaged in farming felt their earnings from the rain-fed
farming activities were woefully inadequate to sustain themselves and
their families.Farm owners did we're not willing to pay them equally for
the hard work they undertake on their farms as farm hands or porters.
Only 11 percent had attended some school,basic level education,while 13 percent had been idle.
The low school attendance is inconsistent with the spirit and intent of
the Ghanaian Constitution which guarantees free compulsory basic
education to every child in Ghana. This is especially so in the north,
where youth have access to free senior high school education.
Over 90 percent of the survey’s Kayayei were northerners and had
migrated without taking full advantage of free education. Of the
surveyed Kayayei, 23 percent were 10-17 years old and, thus, in their
attempt to escape poverty, they had missed out on education.
Forced marriages,usually as early an age as twelve years,Aisha,a kayayo
from sirugu,tells us is a reason she fled her home village.Her parents
were compulsorily pressurizing her to marry a thirty five year old
man,which she would not kowtow to.
She is just one of the many girls who has migrated to the cities to avoid early marriages.
Because these young girls forced into early marriages are not
reproductively mature to bring forth babies,many of them who get
pregnant lose their lives during labour,and some develop a condition
known as Obstetric and Urogenital fistula.
A condition occasioned as a result of delivery through underdeveloped
pelvis,leaving permanent hole in the reproductive system of the female.
It occurs sometimes through delayed labour.A female with this health
defect is unable to control passage of urine and stool,because of the
fistula (hole) created,an embarrassing phenomenon which can only be done
with,by a corrective surgery.
Another group of kayayei lament the reasons why they came to Accra.They
were literally outcasts in their home villages because of a slight
deformity they had.Maria is eighteen,and has one daughter,she is blind
in one eye,a condition she was born with.As a result,her parents
neglected her describing her as a bad omen to the family.
No one in her immediate family associated with her for fear of being
bewitched.She took charge of matters and came to the city,where she
finds herself in the kaya business.
LIVING CONDITIONS AND ARRANGEMENTS
Ghana’s slums and informal settlements provide homes and places of
business for these poor female migrants,upon their arrival in the
city.Notable among such areas which serve as abode for the kayayei
include Old Fadama,Makola,Agbogbloshie,and some Zongo communities.
Because of their poor economic conditions,they have to come to terms
with living in makeshift wooden structures with their colleagues and
children.The unlucky ones who cannot even afford these makeshift
structures put up at lorry parks,underneath footbridges,and at market
centers in the evenings,awaiting the break of dawn for another business
day.
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| a kayayo in her slum |
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The obvious challenges that were always going to face these girls were
obvious upon our visit to one of the slum settlements of the
girls,Krokoyili.Issues with access to water,poor sanitation and the like
were glaring.
But on hindsight,the situation of those who sleep at lorry parks and
under footbridges are the more precarious,considering how dangerous it
is stay outside in certain parts of the capital at night.
There have always been cases of rape,murder and kidnapping of some of these girls reported often.
Despite these,kayayei are determined to make a better living.
Interestingly,a striking feature at some of these settlements where
kayayei predominantly live,is a traditional "children's home" operated
by nannies.
Kayayei who have children,leave them with nannies,who keep watch over
them at a fee during the day when the need to put body and soul together
drives them to the markets under scorching sunny conditions in search
for a livelihood.
Despite being an avenue for these nannies to themselves rake in some
income,the conditions under which these children are kept are damning.
At one such slum in the capital,Krokoyili in Agbogbloshie,Naadam uses
her room to house the kids of kayayo mothers all day until their mothers
return.
She charges one cedi per child,one cedi fifty pesewas for two and two cedis for three children,and so and so forth .
A visit to this slum put in my faces the bare issues.Under insanitary
conditions,these children are fed,some naked and sitting on the bare
floor,others with their noses running like a leaked tap,congested in a
room which in itself is untidy.
Even the job Naadaam is required to perform,hardly gets done since she
is also busy preparing tuozaafi and palm nut soup for sale in the
evenings.She pays little attention to these kids,but gets paid
everyday.Can you blame her?)
FAMILY LIFE IN THE CITY
Five out of every eight kayayei you meet in urban Accra,have younger
children strapped behind their backs,some with their nose running,others
barely wearing anything and others looking jaded and unkempt.
Many many young kayayei once they took the decision to migrate to Accra,inadvertently made the decision to be premature mothers.
While those that are raped at night get pregnant and deliver their
babies,others get deceived by men who promise them a better life,sleep
with them and run away.
Adiza and Majia are two seventeen year olds,who have a daughter
each.They tell me their husbands are in Tamale,leaving the burden of
upbringing on these girls alone in the city.Asked whether their husbands
sends ten money to cater for their daughters,the response was
expected;a big no.
There are however a few,whose boyfriends and husbands live with them in
the slums.Those that migrated with their boyfriends live with them.
City family structure of these girls is distorted,since they go to work
all day and return home late at night,and then those who have husbands
also leave home at night for their 'watchman job'.There's hardly a time
when man,woman and children share the moments together in the slums.
Even more serious is their healthcare regimes.With the meager earnings,a
visit to the hospital in the city or the healthcare facility is more of
a luxury.They prefer instead to purchase analgesics from mobile drug
peddlers in the markets where they work,to cure pain and ailments
themselves and their children may develop.That,at least is what they can
afford.
Rukia has one daughter,her husband is a night-shift informal security
personnel at the Makola market.Ever since she had her two year old
baby,she has never been to the hospital.She and her husband rely on
chemical shops and drug vendors in and around the market for their
health needs.
Other girls apparently have protracted husbands back in their home
villages,and are on a mission to gather a few cooking utensils to return
and enter marriage with these protracted husbands.
Sixteen year old Adamah is a case in point.She is in Accra to engage in
head porting activities to generate income for the purchase of some
cooking utensils,with which she would enter into marriage with Saddiq
back in Tamale.
After hearing her story,all I am asking myself is,whether the whole venture is worthwhile.
INTERESTING ASPECTS OF THEIR CITY LIVES
Despite all their troubles,these Kayayei,most of them,find time to cool
off.They sit together usually at night and dance to songs,to banish
their fears and worries.A number of them occasionally travel to visit
their families,back in the northern regions.
Interestingly,while a few of the girls told us they came to make
money,with which they would go back to the home villages to set up a
business,others came to gather monies to purchase clothes and shoes in
preparation for their marriages up north.
Some come along with older women to the cities who serve as nannies for
the children of the busy Kayayei daily.The mothers have to pay a token
while they leave for the markets,in order that their under-five children
can be taken care of,and fed.
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| click to watch video of kayayei children camped in a home |
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The nannies teach the children familiar Arabic songs and poems.
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| scores of kayayei children left in the care of a nanny for a fee |
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| a group of tired kayayei stop for a rest @ this basement |
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During the Muslim festivities as well as Christmas and Easter
celebrations,these kayayei join the rest of the world to delight
themselves and have some fun.They go for excursions,sight-seeing and
some travel to celebrate the festivities in the northern region.
With time,some of these people, get employed in chop-bars (local
restaurants), become trade assistants to market women, act as shop
attendants and house helps,which slightly earns them better incomes.
After making quite an amount,a number of the kayayei learn a trade in
tailoring,hairdressing,catering.bead-making,among others,after which
they establish their own enterprises.
Upon my rounds and upon witnessing life,at first hand of these kayayei
in their slum homes,lots of questions lingered on my mind.
Do these kayayei have hope for a better tomorrow ?
For how long will they continue like this in the kaya business?
What will become of their children,who are supposed to be our future leaders?
Notwithstanding all the challenges these females are fazed with upon
arrival in the capital,they see light at the end of the tunnel,however
dim.
