Ethnology of Africa
Urban Poverty, Livelihood, and Gender: Perceptions and Experiences of Porters in Accra, Ghana Muriel Adjubi Yeboah
This paper reports the results of interviews and group dis- cussions elicited from a sample of forty males and eighty females who were working as porters in Accra, Ghana. The purpose of the paper is to generate and analyze new informa- tion about the nature and experience of poverty among this group. Porters of both sexes self-report livelihood strategies are affected by their lack of capital assets. Their perception of poverty is shaped by culturally accepted traditional beliefs regarding gender roles and gender ideologies. Further research is called for to confirm these results, but they already have implications for national and international policies that seek to address critical issues of exclusion and inequality.
Introduction
Most poverty studies in sub-Saharan Africa have focused on rural analysis, with little analysis in urban areas. Part of the reason for this urban neglect can be attributed to low urbanization rates in Africa. Globally, sub-Saharan Africa presents the lowest urbanization rate, of 40 percent, but this is pro- jected to increase to 48 percent by 2030 (UN-Habitat 2009). Recent analysis of sub-Saharan Africa’s urbanization indicates rapid urbanization rates, averaging 4.7 percent annually since the 1970s (Akinboye 2004:154). Rural– urban migration and natural population increase in urban areas are the major factors contributing to urbanization in sub-Saharan Africa.
Rural areas lack economic development; this is coupled with the removal of subsidies on agriculture inputs and increased interest rates on farming credits. These constraints on livelihoods have led to the migration of young adults into cities seeking jobs and other opportunities. Urban population growth in sub-Saharan Africa is associated with increasing pov- erty rates in cities (Rakodi and Lloyd-Jones 2002). Estimates by UN-Habitat show that about 70 percent of all urban residents in sub-Saharan Africa live in slums (UN-Habitat 2009).The urban poor experience a cash economy,
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overcrowding, low consumption rates, poor environmental sanitation, lack of security, and high levels of mobility. The outcome of urban growth is the presence of highly marginalized subpopulations within sub-Saharan Afri- can cities, with concerns over health and well-being and a feeling of being excluded from urban environments.
This paper explores the livelihood strategies of a selected urban sub- population who work as porters. The purpose is to generate and analyze new information about the nature and experience of poverty among this group. This analysis is necessary for a better understanding of the phenomenon, and for exploring the intersections of poverty, gender, and vulnerabilities. Porters transport goods from one location to another location in and around markets areas in southern Ghana, and this activity is usually undertaken by poor and marginalized people, especially women. These workers fit into the social category of urban poor people, and their strategies expose them to increased vulnerability and exclusion in the city. Little research and atten- tion has targeted them, and no specific policies have been implemented to help reduce their poverty.
This paper has eight main sections, including this introduction. Sec- tion two presents the conceptual framework in which this study is situated. It is followed by a brief review of literature on urban poverty and gender livelihoods in Ghana. The fourth section discusses the methodology used in gathering data. Findings of the study are presented in sections five through seven. A demographic profile of the respondents presented in section five dis- cusses ethnicity, age, education, marital status, and length of stay in Accra. Section six discusses the strategies adapted by porters to survive, and section seven analyzes porters’ perceptions of poverty and exclusion. Section eight concludes the paper with highlights on the main findings as they pertain to respondents and policy implications.
Conceptual Framework
This paper employs the livelihood framework to examine the overlapping concepts of poverty, gender, and vulnerability among porters in Ghana. Initially used for rural poverty analysis, this framework has been applied in urban analysis for more than a decade (Carney 1998; DFID 1999; Ellis 2000; Rakodi and Lloyd-Jones 2002). It provides a holistic way to assess urban pov- erty because it deviates totally from consumption-based analysis. Livelihood can be defined as “comprising the capabilities, assets, and activities required for a means of living” (DFID 1999). A livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks and maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets.
At the heart of the livelihood framework are categories of assets or capital, which traditionally were five, but recent adaptations have added a sixth. These are financial, human, physical, natural, social, and political. Financial capital includes money from income, savings, and loans; social
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capital is about the benefits derived from relations and associations. Human capital comprises all human capabilities, which include education, skills, and health of individuals and groups. Physical capital pertains to produced investment, such as infrastructure, equipment, shelter, and water, and natural capital is the stock of resources from nature, which include land, water, and solar energy. Political capital examines individuals’ and groups’ power and capacity to influence decisions. The availability and utilization of these assets influence how individuals, families, and groups can achieve positive livelihood outcomes (Rakodi 2002). Access to these assets can be profoundly affected by institutional structures and economic processes. These structures and processes can create assets, for example, government’s infrastructure or promotion of human capital via education and technology (DFID 1999). In general, individuals with more assets have a greater range of options and the ability to diversify or shift among multiple strategies for high-quality livelihood outcomes.
The use of the livelihood framework to explore the dynamics of pov- erty among individuals and groups lies in its ability to examine how poor people perceive themselves, following a line of thought similar to other well-being approaches, for example, Kakwani and Silber (2007), Narayan et al. (2000), Nussbaum (2000), and Sen (1997, 1999). Poverty is not static, but a dynamic relationship between people and their assets and the risk or opportunities they encounter in their day to day activities. Vulnerability is a key element in poverty and livelihood analyses, and it is simply the external environment in which people exist (DFID 1999). Vulnerability is both the economic and noneconomic shocks, trends, and seasons that can induce poverty or even make poor people’s situation worse. It can be a vicious circle, as the fragility of livelihood can lead to the prolonged unpredictable stress of deprivation and social exclusion.
Social exclusion has conceptual connections with poverty and depriva- tion; it focuses on factors that prevent members of a marginalized group from improving their life circumstances (Sen 2000). It is used to map out features that certain individuals or groups are excluded from or things that people perceive themselves to be excluded from (Figueroa 1999). The aspects and grounds of it are varied, and different people may experience social exclusion in different ways and for different reasons. Subpopulations who feel excluded include poor people, women, and the disabled. Just like vulnerability, social exclusion can be a vicious cycle, in which being excluded from the opportu- nity to be employed may lead to economic deprivation, which in turn can lead to other deprivations, such as homelessness.
Gender is pivotal in livelihood, poverty, and deprivation analysis. In the livelihood framework, it presents a structural way of assessing pro- cesses, factors, and institutions that affect men and women differently (Hapke and Ayyankeril 2004). It determines male and female roles in a society based on cultural ideologies, societal structures, and knowledge sys- tems. Women’s socioeconomic activities are shaped by sociocultural norms and structures that limit their livelihood outcomes (Agarwal 1994). The
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livelihood framework is useful in assessing the livelihood options of different subpopulation and the choices they make, based on their environment.
Urban Poverty and Gender Livelihoods in Ghana
In Ghana, gender is an important dimension of urban employment and pov- erty. Studies have shown that more women than men experience poverty, and the term feminization of poverty is applicable to the situation of women in the country (Ghana Statistical Service 2007; Lund et al. 2008; Wrigley- Asante 2008). Gender inequalities limit Ghanaian women’s opportunities in terms of the full development of their capabilities and freedom. A woman’s limited access to productive resources, services, and education impacts her livelihoods and increases her vulnerability. The sociocultural contexts in which women operate are the main source of their vulnerability.
Researchers have neglected or underestimated women’s contribu- tions to the country’s economy (Bortei-Doku Aryeetey 2000). This reflects the fact that women usually find employment in lower-skilled jobs and in the informal sector—a sector not often captured by national statistics. Most women in urban areas, a total of 69 percent, are self-employed in the informal sector; 18 percent of urban women aged 15 to 64 are employed in the formal sector, compared with 20 percent of men (Ghana Statistical Ser- vice 2008). Adunyame (1999) contends that lower educational backgrounds among women may be why most of them engage in the informal sector, as the sector requires no formal education. In the informal sector, trading of all kinds of items are women’s main activities. Most women trade in agriculture-related commodities, such as raw foodstuffs and cooked food, in and around markets. Studies of market women in urban Ghana show that some are successful in their activities in the sector, while others are barely making a living (Clark 1994; Yeboah 1998).
Women in the informal sector in cities have to contend with multiple problems, which include lack of credit, overcrowding, lack of basic ameni- ties, and harassment. These women do not have minimum-wage or social- security benefits and must provide for their own health and retirement needs (Amu 2005). They often rely on household savings to raise capital for trading (Oberhauser and Hanson 2007). As much as 59 percent of all self-employed women generate their capital through household savings, and less than 2 percent can secure loans from banks and money lenders—1.3 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively (Ghana Statistical Service 2008). In addition, women are subject to harassment and exploitation from metropolitan authorities (Maxwell et al. 2000), who charge traders exorbitant fees as market tolls and stall charges.
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Researching Porters in Accra
The research uses both quantitative and qualitative instruments to examine the livelihood experiences of porters, an extremely marginal but transient population in Accra. Many of these porters do not have permanent places of residence. Their activity is highly mobile—which makes it challenging to contact and talk to them. This condition calls for the employment of a nonprobability sampling method (Nueman 2003). The convenience-sampling procedure was used in selecting participants, despite its potential bias and nonrepresentativeness. Findings are therefore not based on generalizations and inferences for all porters.
The instruments used to generate data for this project include a survey, in-depth interviews, observations, fi eld notes, and focus-group discussions. The fi eldwork period lasted six months, from mid-June to mid-December 2005, at four selected sites in the central business district of Accra: Makola, Tema Station, Cocoa Marketing Board, and Agbogbloshie (fi gure 1).
The survey was conducted with one hundred and twenty respon- dents, of whom thirty were selected from each of the four study areas. The survey instrument consisted of structured and semistructured question- naires on themes such as porters’ demographics, family structure, working and living conditions, and vulnerability factors. Of the respondents, eighty were women and forty were men. The justifi cation of having more women than men is that initial observations at the markets revealed that there were more women than men. On their demographics, specifi c questions on age, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, and migration pattern were asked. The questions on working and living conditions centered on earnings,
Figure 1. Map of Ghana and Study Areas. Source: Adapted from Google map at www.google.com/maps.
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pricing, expenditures, working hours, client relationships, and housing; the vulnerability questions touched on consumption, health, infrastructure, and safety issues.
In-depth interviews with twenty-five respondents, ten of whom were men and fifteen women, were held at all four sites, and six focus-group dis- cussions and observations with field notes were undertaken. Recruitment of the respondents was mainly based on availability and willingness to par- ticipate. The in-depth interviews were useful in generating detailed informa- tion on the life histories, livelihood strategies of respondents, vulnerability contexts, and perceptions of poverty. The focus-group discussions focused on porters’ social deprivation, gender dynamics, and the politics in the trade.
demographic Profile of Porters
The demographic profile of respondents in the study is shown in table 1, which describes respondents’ ethnicity, age, education, marital status, and length of stay in Accra. The profile is a useful way of identifying the “caliber” of people engaged in this activity. Though some findings on the profile of the women substantiate previous research on women porters, no previous study has targeted men.
In the study, seven ethnic groups were represented, and these indi- viduals were all migrants from other parts of the country, particularly the three northern regions; this is interesting because the three northern regions have the highest incidence of poverty in Ghana (Ghana Statistical Service 2007). All the women who participated are from the three northern regions, and their ethnicity confirms prior observations that women from northern Ghana tend to migrate to cities in the south to engage in portering1 (Agarwal et al. 1997; Awumbila and Ardayfio-Schandorf 2008; Opare 2003) The Ghana Living Standard Survey 5 (GLSS5) reports that the proportion of women migrants from northern Ghana is higher than men migrants—47 percent and 37 percent, respectively (Ghana Statistical Service 2008). Sixty-five per- cent of the men respondents are from the northern regions, compared to 25 percent Akans, from various parts of southern Ghana, and 10 percent Ewes from southeastern Ghana. Gender differences exist in the age structure of porters, with the modal age of men being 31 to 40 years (62 percent) and that of women 11 to 20 years (49 percent). Only 13 percent of men are in the age bracket of 11 to 20 years, while 17 percent of women are in the age bracket of 31 to 40 years. Twenty-four percent of women are in the age group of 21 to 30 years, compared with 18 percent of men in that age group. Female porters in the study are younger, in their teens and early adulthood, even though the majority of both men and women porters fall between 11 and 30 years—75 percent for men and 73 percent for women. Meanwhile, the GLSS 5 indicates that there are slightly higher proportions of male rural–urban migrants in the younger age group (10 to 24 percent), compared with female migrants in the same age group (Ghana Statistical Service 2008).
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Table 1. Demographic profile of respondents. Percentages
Male Female
Ethnicity Akan 25 0 Dagomba 22 70 Ewe 10 0 Frafra 8 0 Gonja 5 5 Mamprusi 10 5 Wala 20 20
Age 11–20 13 49 21–30 16 24 31–40 62 17 41–50 7 8 51+ 2 2
Educational level None 5 82 1–3yrs 30 8 4–6yrs 25 5 7–9yrs 40 5
Marital status Married 82 66 Betrothed/engaged 0 20 Never married 18 11 Divorced/widow/separated 0 3
Length of stay in Accra 6 mths to 1 year 0 48 1–2 years 0 28 3–5 years 5 11 6–10 years 20 9 11–20 years 75 4
Total 100 100
Formal education, an important tool for human capital development, is low among the respondents. The level of education among porters is the most striking gender difference in their demographic characteristics. Eight out of every ten of the women have never been to school, compared with one out of every twenty men. The men tend to have higher levels of education: about 30 percent of men have between one and three years of schooling, compared with 9 percent of women (table 1). Only 5 percent of women had
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between seven and nine years of schooling, while 40 percent of men had up to junior secondary level. The four females who had up to junior secondary level education are students who migrated during their school holidays to work and save money toward their own education and that of their siblings. The low level of education among female porters is consistent with data from Awumbila and Ardayfio-Schandorf (2008), who observed that 61 percent of the female porters they interviewed did not have formal education. National statistics indicate that about 80 percent of women, compared with 62 percent of men aged fifteen years and above in the northern regions of Ghana, have never had formal education (Ghana Statistical Service 2008). With regard to their marital status, more than half of both men and women were married (82 percent for men and 66 percent for women), and while none of the men reported being divorced or betrothed, 20 percent of women were betrothed, and just 2 percent were divorced or separated.
Gender is played out in the length of stay of porters in Accra. Findings of the study indicate that the majority of the women are temporary migrants who come to Accra to work for an average of two years and then return home. The men are rather permanent migrants. About 77 percent of the women have been in Accra from six months to about two years, compared with 0 percent of men, and while all the men have been in Accra for three years or more, only 22 percent of the women have been in Accra that long. The pattern of the women’s migration is cyclical. Most of the women have been to Accra a couple of times and have gone back to their villages and returned again. Opare (2003) is of the view that female porters’ migration is seasonal, based on the planting and harvesting of traditional crops in the northern savanna. This study argues that cultural and social factors also explain why the women are temporary and men are permanent migrants. Marriage and its associated obligations prevent women from being permanent migrants. Culturally, they cannot migrate with their spouses, but being in polygamous marriages allows them to take turns and migrate temporarily to work as porters to generate income and then go home. The younger women who are betrothed are in Accra to work and raise money as capital for marriage. The men, for their part, are the heads of households, able to make decisions for their families and migrate with them to Accra.
Porters’ Strategies and Experiences
Porters’ strategies and experiences are examined in this section. The discus- sion is centered on porters’ capabilities and how they manage their resources. The survival strategies they employ depict how they diversify their resources and use their agency to pursue a livelihood. Assets and the way individuals and households access them are important building blocks, which shape people’s livelihoods and outcomes (Ellis 2000). These porters’ assets are therefore important in the discussion of their livelihood.
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Migration, identified as a human capability but with some social assets, is used as an important livelihood-diversification strategy among porters and their families (Ellis 2000:70; Francis 2000:58). For most of the women, about 65 percent, the decision to migrate to Accra is a household decision; this is particularly the case for the young betrothed women and students. Only 5 percent of the men had their families making the decision on their behalf. Porters expressed various reasons for migrating, and the underlying cause is poverty and economic constraints—which causes rural dwellers to migrate to cities (World Bank 2008). The general lack of economic opportunities, lack of infrastructure, and impact of structural adjustment are some of the structures and processes that impact porters’ access to important assets in their villages (Hashim 2007). In addition, some cultural and social factors prevalent in northern societies push mostly the women to migrate. These factors relate to a general discrimination against girls, which leads to gender bias in education and the denial of property and land rights to women. Other traditional practices associated with marriage and its practices include arranged marriage, polygyny, and the preparation for marriage.
The main human capital asset porters rely on is physical strength. With the low levels or lack of education and lack of access to financial capital, they lack the means of achieving high-quality livelihood outcomes. Chambers (1989) asserts that poor people’s main asset is their body, in the form of “labor power” or “labor availability” used to generate income. Women in particular find it convenient to engage in portering because, unlike other informal jobs, portering is a quick-turnaround job for them, without much commitment to a permanent location, clients, and invest- ment. The entry and exit eases their cyclic migration between Accra and their villages without losing anything in particular.
Education and health are the core dimensions of human capital, and the lack of these are the core dimensions of poverty. The men’s educational attainment is slightly higher than that of their female counterparts; however, it is not up to a level required for secured public-sector employment. About 40 percent of the men have seven to nine years of schooling, up to the junior secondary-school level.2 Recent studies in Ghana demonstrate that educa- tion becomes beneficial only when a person can go beyond basic education to complete senior secondary and postsecondary education (Hashim 2007). A few men, about 15 percent, who benefited from their education were laid off from their public-sector jobs as messengers during the implementation of structural-adjustment policies.
Financial capital is another important asset that porters access mainly through their activity and occasionally through social networking. This asset type is important for urban residents because urban environments run on cash (Moser 1998; Wood and Salaway 2000). However, the porters’ earnings are low, with a gender gap between the men and the women. This gap stems from the fact that the activity itself is gendered, with men using some simple equipment: the use of trolleys, flatbed four-wheeler trucks,3
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Ay 56(3) and wheelbarrows are some physical assets that the men use to cart heavy loads over longer distances. Transporting heavier loads over longer distances results in higher earnings. In addition, the men can attract clients who are mainly wholesalers, businessmen or women, and upscale traders. These types of clients usually transport goods in bulk, and the men present the means to achieve that objective. Also, they are likely to work in groups, and are therefore in a better position to negotiate for higher payment for their services (fi gure 2b). It was observed that men often developed long and cor- dial relationships with their clients, and their clients served as a safety net in times of fi nancial need. About 45 percent of the men had received fi nancial support from their permanent clients, either once or multiple times.
Women carry out their activities using basins on their head, and they fi nd employment soliciting for the services of travelers, petty traders, and marketers who shop in fairly large quantities (fi gure 2a). These clients do not pass on the cost associated with porters’ services to their customers, so they are sometimes reluctant to pay high prices for these services. Besides, the women cannot transport heavy loads over long distances like their male counterparts. To make more money, the women have to undertake multiple trips in a day, walking an average of about six miles. In addition, porters work long hours, from dawn to dusk. This is true of both the men and women. On the average, they work about ten hours a day, six days a week. About 75 per- cent of the women and 65 percent of men indicated in the survey that they work an average of ten hours a day. The earnings of both men and women depend on market fl uctuations, but female porters’ negotiation skills and the number of clients they attract in a day affect their earnings. Figure 3 shows the average weekly income of porters. Women’s income averaged between 25,000 and about 100,000 cedis,4 while that of men averaged between 86,000 and 125,000 cedis and above. Most of the women respondents, about 80 percent, earn 75,000 cedis or less on the average in a week, when men earn from 76,000 cedis or more.
Apart from the aforementioned factors, other structures and processes that affect porters and lead to their gendered livelihood include exploita- tion by clients, competition, cultural perception on technology use, the cyclic migration of women, and the lack of an organization among porters.
Figure 2a. A female porter at work. Figure 2b. Male porters at work.
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The porters were observed to be exploited by their clients, particularly the women. In the women’s focus-group discussions and during some individual interviews, women said that their clients often exploited them, and some even refused to pay them, or paid them less for their services.
Our clients often exploit us. They pay us less than what we ask for. Usually, we are forced to accept whatever fee they pay us without arguing, but we sometimes ask for more if the goods are heavy. (Rita: fi eldwork, 2005).
Part of the reason for the women’s exploitation lies in the fact that they are not organized and do not work in groups. Even though they rely on social capital in other aspects of their strategies, their economic operation is more individualistic. They have a tendency to congregate at some specifi c loca- tions to wait on clients, but in the actual execution of their jobs they are by themselves. In addition, there are no criteria for setting prices for their activities. The goods they transport vary by weight, size, and distance to be transported, but since there is no organized body to devise a mechanism to price their services, they are left at their clients’ mercies. The men do not have any laid-down structures either, but they use estimates to set prices; for instance, they can estimate that a full load or a half load of a trolley should earn a certain amount of money, and that reduces their risk of exploitation.
Additionally, cultural factors infl uence the women’s use of machinery and technology. Some of the women perceived the use of machinery to be exclusively for men; others related the nonuse of equipment to their cyclic migration. While 65 percent related masculinity to the use of equipment, about 69 percent associated their nonuse of equipment to their cyclic migra- tion and short-term stay. Portering can be a lifelong activity for the men, but
Figure 3. Average weekly income of porters.
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not the women, who generally engage in it for a few years, to accumulate capital and move on to undertake other economic activities or go back home to marry. Besides, married women have to go home periodically to fulfill their family and conjugal obligations; while in Accra, they remit money, food, clothing, drugs, school supplies, agricultural inputs, and other things to family members back home. The cyclicality of their migrations affects their long-term investment in portering and prevents them from establishing permanent and regular clients.
The low earnings of porters result in a spiral of poverty and lead to other forms of vulnerability and exclusion. Housing, an important physi- cal capital, is a major concern. The men are likelier to obtain decent living quarters, but their available sleeping places still put them at risk. Among the women, communal living through sleeping in open spaces and in wooden kiosks is common, with 58 percent living on pavements at the Tema station, or sleeping in front of shops at the Makola market. Additionally, 39 percent of the women rent and share wooden kiosks, which are often crowded. These congested rooms often have multiple uses, serving as living, bed, dining, stor- age, and sometimes laundry room when it rains. Some of the men (47 percent) rent these kiosks, but they do not share with other porters; they live with their family members instead. Another 25 percent of the men rent rooms in suburbs close to the central business district so they can conveniently walk to work. Shelter is a basic human need, and the lack of it exposes porters to other forms of vulnerability (Yeboah and Appiah-Yeboah 2009). The women are exposed to all forms of vulnerability like rape, harassment, prostitution, teenage pregnancy, and other forms of reproductive illness.
Other survival strategies porters adapt include eating less frequently and in smaller quantities, particularly among the women. This has impli- cations on health, as health is an important component of human capital, required for quality livelihoods outcomes. Their job is labor-intensive— which requires them to eat healthy and nutritious food to replenish lost nutrients, as well as to stay healthy. The following is a statement by female participant attesting to this fact.
I do not eat three meals in a day. I can afford to eat twice a day to enable me save and remit money home. But even that, I do not eat two heavy meals. I usually go to work on an empty stomach and eat only when I have earned money. I buy light food, like porridge with no bread, around noon, and in the eve- ning I buy a heavy meal like kenkey or tuo zafi to eat before I go to bed. (Trishia: fieldwork, 2005)
These women porters tend to moderate their consumption as a strategy to increase their financial capital for other family obligations. Maxwell et al. (2000) found that in Accra, households adopt food-consumption rationing and reduction in expenses as coping strategies. The men often ate three meals in a day; as many as 72 percent of them ate dinner at home prepared
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by their wives. The responsibility of having to remit to family members and to save for ventures like marriage, raising capital for investment, and other factors accounts for the women’s moderation in consumption.
Porters’ Perceptions of Poverty
Porters’ perceptions of poverty deal directly with the lack of important liveli- hood resources, basic needs deprivation, political alienation, and physiologi- cal needs. In porters’ situation, the lack of multiple basic needs results in a vicious condition, which makes them incapacitated to feel excluded. Much as porters acknowledged low income, consumption, and calorie intake, they outlined structural issues that lead to their exclusion in the city.
Basically, both the men and women porters are concerned about their inabilities to secure better jobs to enable them to earn enough income to provide for their own basic sustenance and that of their families. According to them, earning an average of 75,000 cedis a week is not enough to provide good food, clothing, shelter, and healthcare for themselves and their fami- lies, and this constitutes deprivation of basic needs, as is apparent in the following narratives.
Working as a porter prevents me from making enough money, and if I am unable to make enough money to buy food and clothing for myself and also unable to remit my children in the north, what do you think it is? It is because I am poor. Poverty does not affect me alone, but my whole family, because my family depends on my remittances to feed, clothe, provide healthcare, and also school fees for my children. (Florence, 2005; female porter)
Though I am working, I sometimes feel like I do not work. This is because the money I make is not enough for anything. The money I make is not even enough for food, let alone to pay for school fees and other things. I give my wife money for food, but I know it is not enough to feed the family, so my wife supplements it. The whole family shares a kiosk, but I wish we could afford a decent accommodation. (David, 2005; male porter)
A strong feeling of marginalization and economic exclusion is evident in the way the porters view their situation. The deprivation of employment opportunities prevents them from engaging in the mainstream economy. Though they have to contend with their portering as the most viable choice for now, they still feel disconnected. This feeling of exclusion is a result of the interactions of different economic processes and social transformations. In Ghana, the implementation of structural-adjustment policies has been one
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of the main structural economic processes that have impacted livelihoods. These policies have been associated with the loss of real wages through the mass layoffs of people from public-sector jobs. Some porters were directly or indirectly affected by mass layoffs.
I was a messenger with the Ministry of Agriculture, and in 1990 I was layoff, so I was forced to find another job, and this is what I found. One cannot be layoff in portering, but you do not make enough and regular income. I have tried to find something else to do, but I cannot find anything. (Michael, 2005; male porter)
My husband was a watchman in Tamale, but he was layoff about five years ago, and all the money he got from being layoff has been spent. He tried to invest in farming, but due to low yields and increasing cost of inputs like fertilizers and insec- ticides, all the money is gone. (Cynthia, 2005; female porter)
Porters can relate their experiences to broader socioeconomic processes that affect their livelihood. For men to have nine years of schooling and still engage in portering is a development that can be explained by such institu- tional structures and economic processes like structural-adjustment policies. Other sources of livelihoods, such as agriculture, have been precarious, as subsidies on agricultural supplies, which had supported rural and northern households, were taken away, exposing families to further threats and risks.
Despite the consensus among male and female porters that the lack of basic needs, livelihood resources, and social deprivation amounts to poverty, gender ideologies and differences affect their perception of poverty. These perceptions are shaped by sociocultural norms and societal expectations (Wrig- ley-Asante 2008). Men related poverty to powerlessness, loss of control and respect, loss of dignity, and other conditions that threatened their positions as heads of households, breadwinners, leaders, and decision-makers in their homes and communities. Some of them expressed concerns about their alien- ation in the political processes of the city—a fact that in turn has implications on their living conditions. They commented that they live on the fringes of the city, in areas that are environmentally unsanitary, with dilapidated struc- tures, and that no government policies positively affect them. Politically, their voices go unheard, and they do not contribute to decisions that affect their own lives. Porters are heard only around election time, when politicians are vying for their votes, as is evident in the statement by Deon, a middle-aged porter.
Due to poverty, we cannot participate in policies that affect us. Our voices are not heard. It is only the rich who participate in politics, and all we hear are promises which are never fulfilled around elections time. Right now, some of us do not want to
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vote because the people we vote for always forget about us when they go to parliament. (Deon, 2005; male porter)
Such feelings of political marginalization do not affect the women porters, as they do not ordinarily participate in decision making at the community level.
As a woman, I do not care very much about politics and who come to power. All I look for is to be able to make some money to take care of myself and family. (Susan, 2005; female porter)
The women porters perceived poverty as the lack of basic survival needs for themselves and their families, especially among those who were married. This assumption fits perfectly well into their traditional gender roles as nur- turers and homemakers. The betrothed viewed poverty as the lack of initial capital and resources to begin life, because they were basically in Accra to work as porters to prepare themselves materially and financially for mar- riage. For them, their families’ inability to provide them with traditionally required items for marriage, like clothing, cooking ware, and some capital as a start-up resource for marriage, motivates them to come to work and provide their own start-up capital for marriage (Yeboah 2008).
Conclusion
This paper explores the intersection of gender, livelihood experiences, and poverty perceptions among selected porters living and working in Accra, Ghana. Central to the discussions is an understanding of how porters use limited resources to earn a living in a precarious urban environment. The analysis reveals that sociocultural factors combine with economic structures and processes to affect their livelihood strategies. The discussion identifies their strategies as they relate to capital assets and diversifications and how they access assets as outlined in the livelihood framework (DFID 1999). The most important asset porters rely on is their physical strength, but this same asset marginalizes them in urban environments. They are economi- cally vulnerable, and their economic vulnerability leads to other forms of deprivation and exclusion.
The paper maps out how gender is played out in porters’ strategies from their premigration status to postmigration activities. Sociocultural factors shape their livelihood strategies and lead to gender differences. Gender differ- ences in access to assets and resources are manifest through technology, cli- ents, shelter, earnings, and consumption. In addition, the porters’ migration and settlement patterns are a factor in structural and institutional processes. The men’s position as primary decision makers allows them to migrate with their families to Accra, while the women migrate alone.
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Porters’ perception of poverty relates to their inability to provide basic needs for themselves and families, but men’s perception goes beyond that. While the women related poverty to the lack of basic needs that support their nurturing roles, the men’s perception of poverty relates to social and political vulnerabilities that threaten their positions as head of households and com- munity leaders. In addition, both the men and the women porters outlined structural institutions and processes, such as macroeconomic policies, that impact their livelihood. Porters’ social exclusion occurs mainly from labor market policies—which in turn limit their access to employment and other basic necessities.
Though further research is called for, the findings of this study have implications for policy implementation. From a policy standpoint, a national poverty-eradication program that includes gender-sensitive macroeconomic processes and microscale interventions should be adopted, by both rural and urban groups, as well as international and local organizations (Owusu 2007; Yeboah 2005). Gender-sensitive programs that target women and grant them access to education, skills, and credit should be implemented. In the case of female porters particularly, governmental and nongovernmental organi- zations should partner with local community leaders in northern Ghana to initiate female empowerment programs that will eventually lead to the development of female human capabilities.
AcknowLedGeMents
i am grateful to all the porters who participated in this research for their time and cooperation, and for the opportunity to interview them. i am thankful to Michael shaver of the University of Memphis, who read through the first draft of the paper. i want to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their critical comments.
notes
1. Agarwal et al. make the assertion that portering has become an occupational niche for women
from northern Ghana.
2. the educational system in Ghana currently refers to basic education as two years of kinder-
garten, six years of elementary school, and three years of junior high school. therefore, basic
education comprises of eleven years of schooling. however, when the study was conducted,
basic education comprised of nine years of schooling: primary 1 through junior high school 3.
thus, all the computation in this paper is based on nine years of basic education.
3. Popularly known as “truck,” which has earned the men the name “truckpushers.”
4. At the time of the fieldwork, Ghana was using its old currency, and the official conversion rate
was 9000 cedis to the U.s. dollar.
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