Around the streets of the world, I’ve heard buskers fill alleyways with music, strumming their guitar and singing well-loved tunes. I’ve walked past hippies selling colorful gemstones laid out on old blankets. I’ve smelled local food cooking in crowded market stands lining the street. There are a variety of ways that cultures make money selling their skills and goods on the street. I thought I had seen it all, but I had never seen the style of selling that hawkers in Ghana practice.

Driving down the main streets of Ghana, hawkers press up against the car. On top of their head rests a circular cloth that is used to help balance large baskets filled with different products. It seems to defy gravity that the sellers can be balancing so many goods on their head as cars whiz past them. Some baskets are themed, such as baskets filled with bread, or plates of eggs. Some baskets are almost comical in assortment. On a daily commute, a person could buy a comb, a game of scrabble, laundry detergent and gum all from the same basket. These people are practically carrying an entire department store aisle on their head.

            The way that food and items are sold on the street melds with the way Ghanaians live their daily lives. The heavy traffic and lack of large department stores makes this style of selling extremely useful, but there are some issues that come with this practice. Ghanaian driving tendencies do not create safe environments for street hawkers. Drivers quickly dart into lanes without turn signals. Motorcyclists create their own paths, speeding in-between cars. Horns loudly honk as old damaged cars cut their way into traffic. Headlines such as this find their way into newspapers; “Taskforce arrests 9 street hawkers after gory Ashaiman accident: Despite last Thursday’s accident claiming one life and injuring many more, some traders have surprisingly returned to selling on the street.” After events like this, hawkers dissipate, but they are quickly replaced. Wherever there is business, people will sell.