Opinions of Monday, 23 May 2016

Columnist: Timothy Ngnenbe

Do slum dwellers have a social life?

File photo File photo

It is true that the residents of this slum may not have seen celebrities such as Yvonne Nelson, John Dumelo, Shatta Wale or Amakye Dede, but they certainly have their own way of living up to the cliché, “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

The slum

Located in the Odododiodio Constituency in the Greater Accra Region, the slum houses people from various cultural and ethnic backgrounds, with the Konkombas and Dagombas being the two dominant tribes.

The Konkomba Yam Market provides the main source of economic activitys for the residents of the slum.

From dawn to dusk, the old and the young, male and female engage in one economic activity or another, ranging from truck pushing, head porterage, discharging of yams, to connecting buyers and sellers in the market.

The cosmopolitan nature of this slum community which has a population of about 100,000 per the 2010 Population and Housing Census figures, presents a wide range of avenues for social interaction.