ETHNOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVE OF FEMALE KAYAYEI IN THE TAMALE METROPOLIS

Abstract

The activities of kayayei (head porters) particularly in southern Ghana are a dominant phenomenon which characterises the business districts of metropolitan areas. In recent times, the phenomenon has gradually built-up in the Tamale Metropolis. This sets out to understand the cultural and gender dynamics that determine females’ choice and participation in kayayo. To do this, I approached the subject from an ethnographic perspective. I used fieldwork as the main tool to gather information. Content analysis was used to analyse field information to arrive at conclusions. Through content analysis, it was revealed that there are gendered cultural factors such as ‘talia’ (the material things girls acquire to prepare for marriage), ‘moni’ (taking responsibility of cooking family meals) and ‘ŋanbara’ (providing bowls from which family members eat) behind the material, social and economic reasons already identified by existing literature. The study revealed that kayayei make gains to provide some of their basic needs, but given all the challenges they face, the study concludes that the trade can only be an option that sacrifices human dignity under the guise of pursuing wellbeing. Also, payment of bride price by the man, force marriage, polygyny and foster parenting of girls and other patriarchal practices have been identified to be responsible for kayayei activities. Current interventions, fall short of achieving the goal of getting kayayei to practice the skill they have been trained in. This is because the interests of benefactors (governments and NGOs) of training interventions are paramount in the implementation of such interventions. Given this, interventions are characterised with short duration for training, insufficient training materials and lack of start-up capital. The study, therefore, proposes a participatory approach to interventions by engaging kayayei in deciding the type of intervention to implement, how to implement them, when to implement them and way forward after implementation.