An Inside Into the 51st African Women's Day (Investigation/CAMEROON)

51^st African Women’s Day

Ladies Emerge As Breadwinners

Josepha. B, a “Buyam Sellam” in Mvog Mbi Market struggles to eke a living.

The African Women’s Day commemorated yesterday July 31^st, 2013 came to throw more light on the efforts of women such as Josepha, a market woman in Yaounde. She is one of such dynamic women struggling to raise their families with income-generating activities.

Josepha Bikomo, as a single mother in her forties, wakes up at 4 am and gets to the market at 5:30 am to buy goods. Usually when the truck arrives from the rural areas with the goods, she fights alongside other buyam sellam women to get a parcel of the goods she would later sell.

“It is not an easy job for I have to be alert in order to reserve goods in time before they are selected by others,” she says. Otherwise, she would not be able to sell and thus earn no income that she needs to run her family of nine. After struggling to buy vegetables such as okok, waterleaf, green, and keleng keleng as well as lemons, the lady installs the goods on the plastic mat and starts yelling for customers.

In order to attract customers, Miss Bikomo has developed several phrases. She often uses “My friend, I sell good okok and good waterleaf, come check it out”. After a day of hustling, she goes home at about 5:30 pm or 7pm, depending on how the business went back during the day. She has to stand under the sun and sometimes under the rain to sell her goods. She does not have the best location because she always has to pack all her stuff before leaving the market, unlike other buyam sellams that often leave some of the goods because they are sitting under stalls. After selling all day long, she earns an income of about FCFA 5,000 or 6,000. She uses the money to feed her kids and pay the bills. “It is very hard to cope,” says the petty trader.

To salute that entrepreneurship and dynamism of women in Africa, and in this case market women, an African Women’s Day was created in 1962. It is celebrated every 31^st July. Under the theme of African Renascence: The Role Played by the Pan-African Women’s Organization (PAWO), this year the event aims at rewarding women for their active participation and involvement in decision-making amongst other things. Under the patronage of the Minister of Women’s Empowerment and Family, a conference was held yesterday Wednesday July 31^st at the City Council Hall in Yaounde.
 Anne EDIMO