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In Pictures: Ghana's Market Girls - the Kayayo

February 15, 2010 | BBC
By
Peter DiCampo

The Kayayo is the name given the thousands of women and girls from Ghana's barren north who travel south to find work as porters in city markets. They make the journey to escape a place where meager subsistence farming is the primary occupation. Image by Peter DiCampo. Ghana, 2009.

In the south, they perform backbreaking labor for almost no money and sleep in cramped slums. While the Kayayo lifestyle is often considered a last resort, many of them see it as an opportunity to free themselves from the confines of village life. Image by Peter DiCampo. Ghana, 2009.

Lamisi Leiku (center), 25, completed secondary school in her hometown of Tumu before traveling to Accra to find work. She is saving up to continue her education and has registered for entrance exams at college, hoping to become a nurse or a teacher. Image by Peter DiCampo. Ghana, 2009.

"I don't like the work. At the end of the day, your whole body will be paining you. When I get home I can't even do my studies, I will just lie down and sleep," Lamisi said. Image by Peter DiCampo. Ghana, 2009.

Alietu is about 13 years old. She left home with her sister and moved to Kumasi, Ghana's second largest city. Her sister runs a small hairdressing shop there and is teaching Alietu, when she is not working as a Kayayo girl. Image by Peter DiCampo. Ghana, 2009.

"I came purposely to learn hairdressing. I didn't know about the Kayayo before. My sister brought me to learn hairdressing with her, but she needs money for a hair-dryer to help her business, so she asked me to work the Kayayo to help her," Alietu said. Image by Peter DiCampo. Ghana, 2009.

Alietu added: "At home, I had to work too much. Here I'm free. I don't work for anybody. After the market, I can sleep, I don't have to fetch water for anyone, or go to farm, or cook." Image by Peter DiCampo. Ghana, 2009.

Amariya went to Accra twice to work as a Kayayo girl. Women from her tribe, the Dagomba, are required to have their own full set of kitchenware before they can marry. Once she had enough money, she returned home and was wed. Image by Peter DiCampo. Ghana, 2009.

"When I was in Accra, if I didn't have money, I would suffer, but here if you don't have money they will cook and you eat," Amariya said. Image by Peter DiCampo. Ghana, 2009.

Amariya added: "I won't go back, because that place, they are suffering, so I don't want to go back. I want to get some money to start a business here." As a recently married woman, she performs the majority of the chores in her husband's family household. Image by Peter DiCampo. Ghana, 2009.

Hamama Mahama is a mother of four and makes more money than her husband, a farmer. Hamama is putting three of her children through school. She said: "Our children shouldn't have to come and do this." Image by Peter DiCampo. Ghana, 2009.

Image by Peter DiCampo. Ghana, 2009.

Peter Dicampo follows women and girls from Ghana's barren north known as the Kayayo as they travel south in search of work as porters in city markets.

View slideshow on BBC News.