Burning Dreams

A portrait of the juvenile condition in the scrap yard of Agbogbloshie. Salasi started rapping when he arrived in the dump, five years ago. In his songs he talks about the challenges that he and his friends have to overcome every day living and working in a place where the only earnings come from few Ghana Cedis left as tips for burning cables, wires and other appliances, in order to extract raw materials like copper and aluminum. His dream is to have his music recognized and become a professional rapper. So far, Salasi has performed twice at the Bukom Boxing Arena in Accra. Chief, whose dream is to finish his apprenticeship in tailoring and be a professional tailor in his hometown Tamalè, has become the pusher in the so called “Kilimanjaro" burning area, selling marijuana for 1 Cedi per dose to round off the daily earnings. Gaffarou instead arrived in Agbogbloshie six months ago and his hope is to save money and find a treatment that could make him hear and speak again. He became deaf when he was a child following strong headaches and, because of his condition, he couldn’t attend school. He’s never been diagnosed by a doctor and he can only communicate lipreading and gesticulating. All sons of farmers and butchers these guys, as many others in the scrap yard, represent a new generation of young workers who migrated from the same rural area in the North of Ghana to Accra, seeking for a better job that could ensure them and their family a better future, without giving up to pursue their dreams.