By Ousman Seckan
Following The Gambia Government’s relaxation of Covid–19 restrictions on the markets, vendors wasted no time in resuming operations.
However, this isn’t the case at the Bakau Craft Market, as most of the vendors had been forced to totally shut down their shops due to lack of sales since the outbreak of the coronavirus Disease in The Gambia, in March, and the subsequent repatriation of tourists to their respective countries.
It’s been observed that only a handful of shops were opened, with shopkeepers, whose hope for the boom of this year’s tourism, dashed by the global pandemic.
As the vendors explained to Mansa Banko Online, they have no anticipation of making sales, but do only open their shops for air to enter to averting the destruction of the materials.
The President of Bakau Craft Market Vendors’ Association, Mr. Sainey Singhateh, who has been into the business for more than forty(40) years, said the repatriation of tourists has a considerably impact on him. He said he finds it difficult to provide food for his family sometimes, lamenting that old-age has not permitted him to do the work the young craft market vendors are doing to earn a living.
“We do not see anybody now; we sit here up to sunset without people coming to buy from us, since the outbreak of the coronavirus. Those who have other things to do, have gone to do them.
“However, those who do not have anywhere to work except here, sit here until sunset and go home,’’ Singhateh told this medium.
He continued: “Personally, it has affected me a lot as a breadwinner. I do leave my house early in the morning with the hope of making sales but I do return home without making sales at all.”
Mr. Singhateh, 67, admitted that the craft market business is no longer as usual, indicating that young people who accompany tourists now do teach them how to bargain prices.
He bemoaned: “The way the tourists were, they’re not like that now. Also, some of the people who accompany the tourists do enlighten them how to bargain prices each time a tourist wants to buy something. Instead of them siding with us, they tell us the tourists do not have that amount so we end up selling without earning much.’’
He recalled that during his childhood the craft market vendors used to have a cordial relationship with the Jawara’s government, which resulted in securing loans from Commercial Bank during the off-season. That, he went on, had made the business very lucrative, and as a result, some were able to buy compounds, and also performed pilgrimage in Mecca. The craft market President re-echoed that their business is no longer good as in those days.
Expressing her utmost dismay over the current atmosphere at the craft market, Ms. Assanatou Jallow, a vendor, said she opens her shop so that the breeze can enter, but she has not been selling at all, due to the outbreak of the coronavirus in The Gambia. She called on the government to the help them so as to pay their bills.
“There is no business here since Covid-19 started in the country in March. This has affected us a lot. We only open the shops so that the materials will not smell or spoil, but it doesn’t mean that we sell.
“So, if the president or the vice president can help us with money to start another business and close here, that will be fine,’’ she pleaded.
The local vendors sell tourist souvenirs such as sand painting, table cloths, masks, drums, tie dye curtains and sheets, batik and jewelry from gold, silver and other materials.
Like other sectors of the economy, the craft market has been hit so hard by the Coronavirus. This has been further aggravated by the repatriation of tourists due to the surge of the Covid-19 cases, globally.
Evidently, the Bakau Craft Market vendors are in dire need of assistance at this moment.
