KAYAYO,THE OTHER SIDE OF KAYAYO

THE OTHER SIDE OF KAYAYO

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All hopes are not lost because the "Kayayo" has the other side of life where she goes to her own shopping mall after a hard days work to shop for some new attires and some groceries to use at home. This is unbelievable I guess, but remember that they have a life to lead and make themselves better persons.

In her abode, she engages in some indigenous games, amidst singing with her friends to shake off their worries through the dance.

Do you know that the Kayayo" also “goes high-tech’’. Here, they always keep expensive mobile phones on which they communicate with their customers and also for whoever God knows.

  CONCLUSION

I really think all hopes are not lost because there is one "Kayayo" I happened to interviewed who is multi-tasking. She braids,sews, sells and also carry loads for a living...as the picture depicts

KAYAYO,ABODE

graphic.com.gh/news/...8207-woes-of-kayayei-at-the-kasoa-market.html 
KAYAYO’S ABODE

Where does the "kayayo" pass the night after a hard day’s work? They improvise; they have corridors of shops for rooms, cardboards for bed, each other for pillows and the night breeze for comfort as the night chameleons today. 

One cannot help but sympathize with these unfortunate children of nature. How safe are those who sleep in giants houses? The rich fellow has built a large house furnished it with all the goodness of life, he has fastened its corners with iron gates, he has hired a night watch, he may even have a loaded gun under his sleeves, yet sleep hardly comes to him because he is thinking about the deviant outside who can pounce on him despite his security networks.   What should the little "kayayo" who has no roof over her head? She has no protection, nothing. She could be raped by anyone who wants somewhere to release his lust, abused by any nonchalant who has no respect for womanhood, kidnapped by any business … or be killed by anyone whose wheels have taken the wrong turn. 

KAYAYO,WOMANHOOD

KAYAYO, WOMANHOOD

It is difficult to think of how the "kayayo" cope with womanhood; or is it motherhood? One of the pillars of every society is continuity realized through procreation. And because the kayayo is as human as we are, she has the feelings that we have for procreation; the feeling to touch and be touched. That is not funny, is it?  If you see little ones strapped at her back, do not chastise her, she too has feelings; for she is like you. Her problem, unlike you, is that, she has limited places where she can release those feelings: so the tendency is that, she releases it anytime a “good” chance shows its head. And her agony becomes unbelievable when she has to chase cars around town with a protruding stomach which habours another ambassador of poverty. And when the ambassador finally arrives after the ninth month of her ‘unfortunate’ existence, “wahala.” 

DOUBLE-DECKED KAYAYO

If she were you the child would be left in the charge of a responsible nanny; her child is left with a nanny anyway. If she were you, her child would grow in school; hers grow in the streets. If she were you her child could enjoy the little pleasures of family life; her child endures the hardships of the street. Your child could dream of becoming the world’s best; her child grows from a mugger into something bigger.   

Where is the man who pumped air into her stomach to produce the next group of "kayayo"? He is probably at another corner of the same city pushing something that is bigger than him.

 Monkeys play by sizes, is that what they say?  Who cares whether Awisanga thinks he is not responsible or not for the girls pregnancy because

KAYAYEI KIDS TAKE IT EASY WITH NANNY

 

the other day he saw her creeping out of Asampana’s cubicle?What happens  then when both Awisanga and Asampana claim the ambassador belongs to them? So the ambassador is introduced into the world of struggles with a "kayayo" mother but no father or multiple fathers.

 

KAYAYO,"BEASTS OF BURDEN"

KAYAYO, “BEASTS OF BURDEN”

ARE THEY" HORSES"?

How does it feel to see a girl, who is barely twelve, run after a rickety 207 bus in any city across West Africa? This girl could be your daughter. This girl has a mother. This girl has rights; the right to sound education, free or quality, the right to belong to a home, the right to be protected, the right to sleep and wake under a shelter, the right to enjoy such things as fit for humans to enjoy. But she wakes up from the struggles of the night to face the day with an agony of the dejected soul. She …begins… the day from the darker side of life and ends it even more pathetically. People run after vehicles in our part of the world for various reasons but none is as awful a sight to behold as the marathon of competition the girl does across the disordered streets of our major cities. Before the vehicle could descend on “gear one” the "Kayayo"  runs and some of the time gallops on the rusty wheels of the moving vehicle just to spy whether or not it carries something she could further carry to where the car would not go just for a fee as insignificant as her vision.

Do you know what struck the soft part of the heart, the society abuse her. I witnessed one incident. The girl carried a load that only a "kayayo" would agree to carry to a lorry station. The owner of the bunch of louver blades, who happens to be a mother (she had a female saddled at her back), offered two cedis. Imagine. She had carried the load over half a mile. She looked up to the woman and asked politely, “Would you let your child, when she reaches my age, do this for a living?” I do not want to talk about what happened. You think about it. WE scorn THEM because of their background; WE fight THEM when they charge us for the work they have done for us; WE cheat THEM even when they deserve better; and WE even beat THEM when we disagree with them. Why do we exploit them? Is it because they have no “life” or because we have no love?

KAYAYO,HER AGONY(INTRODUCTION)

INTRODUCTION

 “Kayayo'' in local parlance refers to head porter, a trade with female predomination.  The menial job is commonplace in urban Ghana, notably the national capital, where hordes of eager and vibrant young girls migrate to in anticipation of improved living conditions.

Though a preserve of women, some agile men join the exodus, as they struggle to eke out a living in the numerous crowded markets of the capital.They mostly migrate from the three northern region of Ghana (northern, upper east and west) where poverty is endemic owing to the absence of job opportunities.

The drudgery associated with this job is better witnessed. The porters are predisposed to ill-health, rape and other physical attacks. Some relent and give up, but others plod on eager and determined to make good their life-ambition which often is to make up some money and return to school. Policy makers often profess to have their interest at heart, sometimes promising hostel facilities complete with vocational training while down south. Another school of thought has suggested that the best way out is to provide job opportunities up north, to nib the practice in the bud.