Paulina Opoku-Gyimah says: Duke Tagoe’s ‘What The People Say In Ghana’ is a revolutionary blog that must be read daily…
The real deal, Duke Tagoe gets to the heart of the matter by talking to the folks on the streets of Accra and prints out their words/stories verbatim…
A real eye opener, I find myself moved, angry and itching to do something -but what to do when you don’t have Chinese money to build factories -and give people work???
I love Duke Tagoe’s style of blogging. Really, I haven’t seen anything like and truly hope that he continues -and we, in return must support him, because I really believe that he’s on to something -and feel that this blog can be used for the good, for real change -and to make a difference.
Duke has many conversation pieces on this blog but the following insightful read about the plight of street hawkers in Accra really got my goat… It makes me sooo angry!!! Who is going to help our brothers and sisters???? Because I don’t believe that any government of Ghana is going to!!!!!
Title: The Plight of Hawkers on the Streets of Accra
By: Duke Tagoe
Blog: http://duketagoe.blogspot.co.uk/
INTRODUCTION:
There
has been a massive emigration to the South of the capital and in the
absence of industries to accommodate these numbers-perhaps because of
the liberalization of the economy, deregulation and privatization of
state owned enterprises with accusing fingers being pointed at the World
Bank and the International Monetary Fund (I.M.F)-an absolute flare-up
of the informal sector has occured and street hawking has become
lucrative. However, they (hawkers) will have to battle it out with the
Accra Metropolitan Assembly (A.M.A) which seeks to decongest the capital
of illegal structures and the hawkers who have almost taken over the
principal streets of Accra and worsening the traffic jams. We have heard
the AMA but lets go to the hawkers and find out what they have to say.
AKUA DARKUAH (PURE WATER SELLER)
“The
kinds of treatment being meted out to sellers along this street here at
the Airport Junction are very pathetic and we are getting angry about
the decongestion exercise of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly. It is not
our wish that we leave our homes and to come chasing after vehicles in
order to sell our goods.
Our
children are hungry and we have to feed them. We do not want to go into
prostitution in order to make a living because we have dignity and I
would prefer to roam the streets in search of livelihood than to hand
over my womanhood just to make a living. The macho men of the A.M.A must
know that we could be their sisters and their wives so they must
exercise patience when dealing with us.”
“We
have no meaningful work to do and even if you do, you are not assured
of patronage and that is why we have decided to come and sell at vantage
places like the side of the street. I believe that the government
cannot employ everyone and that is why we are making this attempt at
employing ourselves. There are some people in the Ghanaian society who
can afford to rent a stall in order to trade but we cannot. The last
time I checked, one has to have at least GHC 15,000 in order to rent a
shop to do any business and I have no clue where I can raise that money.
The state authorities must intervene on our behalf because the A.M.A is
really harassing us on the streets in our attempt to make a decent
living.”
KWESI BOAH (YOGHURT VENDOR)
“I
come from Agona-Swedru in the Central Region and because of the hassle I
have to go through in paying my fees I took the decision to come to
Accra so that I could do something and save money before school
re-opens. I first tried carrying concrete on two different construction
sites here in Accra but it was very difficult. I felt a lot of pain in
my back and legs after I carry a few pans of the mixture so I decided to
stop and find something else doing.
The
idea which came next was to sell credit cards but I needed some money
to start that and that is why I am selling ice-cream by the side of the
road. I feel so unsafe because I do not have the techniques for crossing
and chasing after the cars like my colleagues do but I have to manage
because school would soon be re-opened and the fees will be waiting to
be paid.”
MARGARET DARKO (DOUGHNUT SELLER)
“My
brother, nothing hurts so much like the aggressive nature of the
decongestion exercise of the A.M.A. On two occasions I was beaten up for
refusing to hand over my goods to the guards after a long tussle. I
wonder if these young men working for the Accra Metropolitan Assembly
would beat their wives in the house like they do to us on the streets.
What
pride can a country take for itself when its citizens are not engaged
in any meaningful employment so that they can take care of their kids
and pay the water and electricity bills? I pray that the Almighty God
would touch the hearts of these rowdy men so that they will exercise
some patients when dealing with us.”
“Very
often we are advised to leave the streets and go back to school because
education is important. However I am the one who is fending for the
education of my junior brother at the University so what are they
talking about? If he completes his education and is able to acquire a
good job then he would also take care of my needs and I wouldn’t need to
come selling in the sun full of fumes from the passing vehicles. If I
leave the street my brother would suffer and I cannot imagine that
happening.”
YAA MAMUNA (PURE WATER VENDOR)
“Some
of the big men who drive past us every morning to work feel we are a
nuisance to the society. They wish they would drive to work without the
sight of these young men and women who are making a living on the
street. Some of them have the guts to open their window and ask us if we
have taken our bath in the morning and that is very disheartening. I am
sure their children and relatives have never gone hungry and do not
know what it looks like to carry water on the head.
The
A.M.A must not decongest the streets because of these men who believe
Ghana was made for them and we are meant to be slaves. I am very sure a
majority of us would leave the streets if these rich men and women are
to accept us into their homes so we can wash their bowls after meals. At
least we will be assured of a room without the stubborn mosquito and
perhaps have a fun blow some cool winds over your body when you sleep at
night.”
AKOSUA ADOBEA (BREAD SELLER)
“I
was working in a factory at the industrial area a few months ago but
the Lebanese man was not treating the workers well. The machines
generated a lot of smoke and heat which is often trapped within the
factory. I am one of the people who were sacked for complaining about
the persistent headache I was having as a result of the smoke. After
working for unbearable number of days through the month, we also had to
protest before we were given the meager salaries. They deduct Social
Insurance and other taxes from the salary so you go home with nothing. I
therefore had no option than to try selling something after I was
sacked from the factory. All that these people want is to use our labour
to make their monies without considering what happens to the workers.”
PHILIP ADJEI (COCOA DRINK VENDOR)
“One
needs strength in order to survive the harsh realities on the streets
these days because the A.M.A has become very vicious. You have to fight
them these days before you can have your peace of mind to sell on the
streets. Many things beat my mind about this whole decongestion exercise
of the A.M.A and I want some answers. Where do they want us to go when
we leave the streets? After all, I do not believe that our mere presence
on the streets litters the streets so why the harassment. We are not
mad men and women who are causing a nuisance or disturb public peace; we
are sane beings who are making a conscious attempt at trying to put in
place measures to help kill the hunger that appears in our stomachs from
time to time. The A.M.A must stop treating us as common criminals
because we have not robbed anybody of his possessions.”
CELESTINA ADAMS (CHOCOLATE VENDOR)
“I
agree that hawking along the streets often makes the streets dirty but
that must not be the reason why they treat us the way they do. The A.M.A
must give full responsibility to our work because we are Ghanaians and
we must work in order to make a living. I suggest that they begin taking
some taxes from us so that the authorities can also benefit from the
coins and pesewas we make if they are so interested. Refuse dumps must
also be provided along the streets so that the passengers and
pedestrians can drop their refuse into them in order not to litter the
streets. The A.M.A must be made to know that we are not in a jungle and
neither are we on the war-field.”
“The
impression is sometimes created that we have deliberately and
consciously decided not to leave the streets because there are
government built stalls which we have refused to occupy . That is never
true! Of course the government has provided stalls for us at the Kwame
Nkrumah Circle and other places but the cost for the rent is so high. In
fact before the stalls are completed, they have already been allocated
to certain individuals so when all of a sudden they come running after
us along the streets we have nowhere to go. In fact if they arrest us by
force and decide to force us into the stalls it would not be possible
because none of the stalls exist as it has all been occupied.”
GIFTY ABU (PEANUT SELLER)
“I
think the decongestion exercise must be targeted at the very little
children who one can otherwise say are engaged in child labour. They are
often at risk of being knocked down by a moving vehicle and their lungs
are not matured enough to accommodate the fumes from those vehicles. It
will be very difficult for any country to achieve complete decongestion
because none have been able to cater for the needs of every citizen.
What they can do would be to lure them into skills building programmes
with the assurance that they will be helped to acquire some employment
after the programme is over else they will naturally find their way back
into the streets. No one is an outcast in this country. The fact that
at a point in time, I would not have the means to meet certain basic
needs of mine is the reason we join the queue and vote for the political
parties every four years so they cannot be treating us this way.”
AGYEMAN WAHAB (COCOA DRINK SELLER)
“Everybody
on the street is blaming the government for what the A.M.A is doing to
them and the President must be mindful about that. It is not right that
because people want to make a living they break the law by jumping onto
the streets to sell one item or the other. There is a reality which must
be recognized that poverty has really visited a number of people and as
the state has not provided alternative livelihood, every citizen of
this country will find a way to survive. You will never know what I am
talking about until hunger comes knocking on the doors of your stomach.
Even the university degree holders are finding it tough to cope with the
situation of joblessness so how much we who have never had the
opportunity of having taught how to hold a pen.”
EDINAM SETSIOFIA (BISCUIT VENDOR)
“I
was schooling in my hometown in the Volta Region when my grandmother
who was fending for me died. Some well wishers first started showing
concern especially with respect to the payment of my fees but it stopped
and I had to cope with the situation all by myself. All I want is
another opportunity to go back to school and I am willing to do anything
in order to do that. My biscuits called “Ayigbe Buiscuit” are best
bought on the streets and that is why I would continue to be here.”
FLORENCE ATTA (EGG SELLER)
“What
amazes me most is that they (A.M.A) do not harass the newspaper vendors
like they do to us. When we ask them why, we are told that they are
working for the government but we are working for ourselves. I do not
think that if all was well in the villages where we come from, we would
have dreamt of coming to the streets of Accra. Even after one has toiled
to plant tomatoes and harvested, the tomato buyers prefer to go to
Bourkina Faso to purchase from there and that is our downfall. We plead
with the city authorities to exercise a little restraint when dealing
with us because the maltreatment is becoming just too much for us to
bear.”
MAAME YAA YEBOAH (TOFFEE VENDOR)
“I
am a student and was helping my mum on our farm in the Western Region
but something unfortunate happened to us. A gold mining company came and
said that the government has sold our farm to them and that if we agree
they were willing to relocate us to another place to farm. We disagreed
because of the huge investment we had put into the farm and as the
cocoa trees had almost reached maturity. My father then wrote a letter
to the company asking them not to only relocate us, but that they should
pay for the fees of his children and build him a 2 bedroom house. They
turned down the request with anger and one day we were in the house when
we heard that an excavator had brought down all of the trees on the
farm and had set them on fire with police men guarding that activity.
This is my story and that is why I have come to Accra.”
ALEX AMARTEIFIO (C.D VENDOR)
“I bought my goods on credit and now I can’t pay because we cannot find the A.M.A people and the goods cannot be traced. The
effect of this robbery on my life was very devastating and I would
never forget that terrible experience. We are willing to leave the
streets, however something must be put in place for us to do so that we
do not go starving. I cannot find a reason why factories cannot be built
in every region of this country so that the young men and women can go
and work there to make a living. The unemployment situation is huge and
it is a well organized factory system which can cure the problem.
Everybody must sweat before he feeds himself because thievery and
robbery is not right before the eyes of God and that is why we are
asking the government to give us work to do.”
Source: http://duketagoe.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/plight-of-hawkers-on-streets-of-accra.html
More Info:
Duke Tagoe is not exactly a street kid but he has lived by the street for most part of his life. He was born at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra on January 7th 1984 to Christian Tagoe and Rebecca Ofori of Asere and Mayera respectively. He started his schooling at Jamhuri Academy at Accra, then moved to De'youngsters International for his Junior High School Education. In 2000,he started his Senior High School education as a Science student at the O'reilly Senior school but later moved to further his education at Apam Senior High School where he studied Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Mathematics. But for his love for journalism, he enrolled into the School of Professional Studies after which he subjected himself to rigorous training by Kwesi Pratt Jnr, an icon of Journalism and political activism in Ghana and the world over.Duke is currently the Political Correspondent to the Insight Newspaper and the Secretary of The Socialist Forum in Ghana and a member of The Committee For Joint Action, a pressure group opposed to corruption, and maladministration of public officers in public offices.
I loved these stories! Great post
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