Makola Market

Marabastad on Steroids

- 9 March 2013 -

After my trip to the beach and a shower, I popped round to Zima's room. There was lots of activity going on there... let's just say wine was involved. The room had various friends and family of Adu, one of which offered to take was to the Makola Market in the heart of Accra.

Makola market is a massive gathering of traders which spreads across a significant portion of the the city centre. Most active on the weekend, especially on Saturdays. We went this day at midday to catch the caos.

The first thing you notice is the shear volume of people, it can easily be overwhelming if you not prepared for it. This is not like a busy day at the mall, it doesn't even compare. The market consists of just about anything you need, from clothes and accessories to food. I doubt I would find a 50 inch LCD TV, but just about anything else you will find. 

I'm pretty sure that 90% of the clothes, accessories and anything else that can be shipped in a container is from China or India. The food appears to be from all over, I even notice food and consumables from South Africa, stuff like grapes...

We continued to walk through the market, but if you not careful it is very easy to lose each other in the maze of stalls. There are larger main walkways which branch off into various smaller corridors. We branched off into a clothing section, I must admit that the quality of the clothes and accessories appear to be of a reasonable quality.

Our "guide's" daughter accompanied us. Zima being an experienced mother chose to carry the little girl on her back. Wise choice.... you think losing your child in a mall is worry, come try this place.

Like in my previous posts the "head" is a key tool for transporting your goods around. This isn't new to me being from South Africa, this practise is probably performed all over Africa and abroad, but in Ghana you just see it more often than other places. When looking down a street, you can be certain to see someone balancing a box or crate of something on their head.

At times the size of the items is almost unbelievable. 

The the first photo below.... that massive rack of boxes.... is actually on someones head.

While walking around with my camera, I get some stares but more often than not I'm invisible to the crowd regardless of my skin colour. On the other hand, my camera, especially when I'm taking a photo, is what gets a lot of attention... Some like it and some don't.

When reaching the food section of the market you get to see a lot that you are familiar with. Tomatos, onions, green peppers, carrots and bananas... at least it looks like bananas. I was introduced to "plantain", it looks exactly like a banana but it isn't a banana. According to Wikipedia there is no technical difference, however plantain is less sweet and needs to be cooked before you can eat it. You can buy the grilled plantain on the streets in Ghana and can also purchase plantain chips.... it's quite tasty.

It being midday in Ghana, you can imagine the heat which I have spoken about in the past 2 posts "Arriving in Accra" and "Pigs on the Beach", so at this point I was pretty wet and hot and it was time to go back to the hotel, so we redirected towards the car.

It was time for the 3rd shower of the day and to hang my clothes out to dry.