The women and girls who carry loads on their heads for a fee in Accra’s markets. Singular kayayo. From Hausa kaya (goods) and Ga yei (women).
Most are migrants from northern Ghana who have come south looking for work, many of them very young. They carry enormous loads for very small sums, sleep in makeshift accommodation or in the open, and are among the most vulnerable people in the city.
You will see them at Makola, Kaneshie, Agbogbloshie and Madina.
Kayayei are a standing subject of Ghanaian public debate about internal migration, the north-south economic divide, and what the city owes the people who make it work.