ABSTRACT
“Have a look, have a look” beckons Mrs Williams 2 , a Yoruba vendor who trades in household goods of toilet paper, soap and laundry detergent, from the warm sanctuary at the back of her semi-enclosed wooden market stall. Next to her, David, a Jewish-English shoe vendor, who had his eye poked out by the mobile phone aerial of a disgruntled customer a few years back, shouts and curses from the back of his stall at the hoards in front, who, ignoring his venom, rummage and jostle for the latest bargain. Across from him, another English vendor, Tom, sits quietly at the back of his barrow, reading the Sun, a daily tabloid, waiting patiently for battery replacement requests or buyers of new watches to approach and ask for his attention. Nearby, a family of Turkish Kurds run a lively stall, offering apples, oranges, pears, and bananas for better prices per kilo than the more established English vendors situated at the entrance to the market. Across from them, another Yoruba vendor, Jo, standing at the front of her barrow, is engaged in a hard sell of her herbs and bottled tonics to two women. She is detailing how they are to take her products and what benefits these will bring, while a small crowd of market passers-through hovers loosely nearby to listen and consider if these products will suit their own health care needs. Next to her, an English couple, whose stall space is so crammed with rails of hanging clothes – bras, t-shirts, skirts and trousers – that they have to sit on chairs at the front, their abundance of goods leaving them no space inside or behind. Not far off, a Jamaican vendor of tropical fruits and vegetables chops up a melon, tempting customers with a sweet taster of his Caribbean garden selection. Wafting over from slightly further away, High Life, a pan West African musical genre which fuses African roots music with Western music, blares out from a television monitor playing sensual and sensational Video Compact Discs (VCDs). Aurally and visually these sounds entice customers to stop and look at this collection of music and films imported from Nigeria. They mingle with Christian hymns billowing forth from a Charismatic Christian bible, book and tambourine stall; the Yoruba Pastor of the Pentecostal church it supports sometimes present to sell his goods and his faith to anyone expressing interest.
