It is my fifth month in Benin and every time I am out for a walk or wherever it is I am headed, I am bound to see hawkers, the females with their goods on their heads while the males push their hawking trucks through the streets.
I was out with the neighbor yesterday and she stopped a hawker selling kids clothes. My neighbor couldn't buy it because there isn't the size she want for her son.
I watched on with thoughts and questions running through me.
Keen on knowing how much a clothing costs, I asked my neighbor and she said between 300 to 400 CFA which is equivalent to $0.66.
Street hawking is dated way back, I grew up seeing hawkers in the streets of Nigeria, it is probably still a thing in Nigeria today and it can be associated with most part Africa whole.
I never saw street hawking in South Africa, even in the rural where I traveled for work, I never saw one that reminded me of home in West Africa except for the ones in traffic.
So even in the 20th century, we are still witnessing a historical means of selling goods still in the streets, which sends deep thoughts through me.
The lady that sells the baby clothing for example could walk the entire street the whole day and not sell, the process could repeat itself for three days or more.
And should an item or two be sold how does that impact business sustainability? Perhaps it only put food on the table for a day.
These hawkers could wander far away from home under sometimes unfriendly weather, it could be rain or the scorching hot weather.
Safety is a concern to consider, in various ways, the moment we are out there on the streets we are exposed to hazards that are sometimes beyond our control to avoid.
We can look at sexual harassment of female hawkers, it might not be common but can't be ruled out where humans are concerned.
It is heartbreaking that we are still growing through this in Africa, we should be advancing past this way of life and one of the ways is through empowerment.
We should have empowerment programs from the government and the private sector. By offering vocational skill training.
If we get a bit inquisitive we will discover most of these traders are uneducated, so they rather engage in this way of earning income. There should be programs and initiatives for people like this in our society.
With a bit of training and education, perhaps some of these hawkers might find their way into the digital world where opportunities exist.
We have a long way to go in Africa in combating poverty.
We owe it to ourselves to make Hive great
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