The Saddest Thing in Ghana

So I’ll admit, walking through Ghana I don’t get particularly sad. Sometimes I get mad about world politics and neo-colonialism and social injustices, but I don’t feel overwhelmed with pity or tears or anything. The people I see work incredibly hard to eke out a living, but eke they do and they are generally very happy in their lives. (Not that that’s an excuse to ignore social injustice.)

But one group of people make me incredibly sad every time I see them.

Mus says they are originally from Niger and that the group migrated here in the early ‘80s. I don’t know if it’s true, but they’re complexion places them as being from Northern Africa. In any case, from what I’ve seen this group of people has made no effort to participate in Ghana’s economy in any real way. I’m not sure if they’re illegal immigrants or if they have trouble getting work permits, but they all make a living from begging. I’ve never seen a single one selling anything or working anywhere.

Which is strange to me, because most Ghanaians work in an informal economy without government interference. These people could hawk items on the street- many Ghanaians survive on what they make hawking. No work permit needed. If they had even a little capital to buy a bike or a phone or a charcoal pot, they could set up a street side business. The government doesn’t interfere with such things at all. It’s only large establishments like hotels, restaurants, and internet cafes that need permits or pay taxes. Most of Ghana works in informal institutions.

The parents in this group make me incredibly angry because of the way they exploit their children. They set up at a high traffic area, usually in an area with a lot of foreigners. The parents sit back against a wall, directing their children to latch on to certain people. Then the kids, some of whom are as young as three, go to that person and grab their hand, their clothes, their leg, begging for money.

Now, most Ghanaians at this point are so sick of these people who clog up their walkways and latch on to you so you can hardly walk, that they refuse to look at the kid and just angrily pull away.

What a horrible ordeal for this kid! Their parents push them to go do something that is obviously not socially acceptable in the wider society around them. In return they receive nothing but scorn. I can’t imagine how the kids are affected by this. It makes me so sad for the kids and so angry at the parents.

Let me interrupt to say, begging in Ghana is not uncommon, and Ghanaians are very tolerant of it. But in Ghana, the only time it’s acceptable to beg is if you have a physical disability that prevents you from working, such as being blind or having lost a limb. Since most of the work in Ghana involves manual labor, having such a disability exempts you from being part of the work force.

But as these people are healthy and have been living here for awhile, Ghanaians do not feel sympathy for them. In addition, many think it’s shameful for them to exploit their young kids, keeping them from school and making them withstand ridicule to provide the families income, especially since the parents are capable of going to work.

Those kids are going to have serious issues after having been shunned in such a physical way by the people around them. But what can passersby do? If you pause, the kid will latch onto your hand or leg in such a way that you can’t move. Yet, in all this, they are only obeying their parents, who are hiding in the background.

It breaks my heart.