The Kayayo girls of Ghana: The real life shopping baskets. They are young women, sometimes girls, coming from Ghana’s northern rural areas. They go by the name of Kayayo, the Kayayei in plural.
The word Kayayo comes from the GA local language literally meaning “girl-carrier”. Kaya meaning “load, luggage, good or burden” in the Hausa language and yei meaning “women or female”.
They travel from their villages to work in bustling cities like Accra or Kumasi, in search of a “better” life. This choice of lifestyle is often considered as a last resort in a desperate situation, many of them see it as an opportunity to free themselves from the confines of village life and be able to make their own money and feel a little more independent. Village life means taking care of their family and not having access to education.
