From Ghana to Nigeria.

The young Ghanaian men and boys who come to this farm in Osun state, Nigeria, each year to find work mostly say they do it in order to improve their lives once they return home.

They have been brought in to the country in groups by a “master” – usually an older Ghanaian who has lived for several years in Nigeria. At the end of nearly a year of hard work hoeing ridges, weeding and planting in often difficult conditions, they will return to their homes with a motorbike as the prize for their labour.

Some motorbikes will be sold to help support families, others will be put to use – often as motorbike taxis to provide an income. Aside from this, farm workers do not earn any money – they are only provided with food and basic accommodation.

During these months away from home, many find some comfort in the personal possessions they brought with them. Through these precious items – an old wristwatch, a bag, clothes, a chain and pendant – they carry a part of their country, their memories of home and family, and their dreams for the future.

“The work is always too much. I don’t want to make the thing spoil quick,” he says. He is worried the necklaces will be damaged if he works while wearing them. Once he takes his bath after returning from the farm, he puts them back on.

The words – “The Methodist Church, Ghana” – are imprinted on the pendant of one of the necklaces.

“That is my church in Ghana,” he says. “This was my grandmother’s gift to me while growing up.”

Lewin says he remembers his late grandmother whenever he looks at it.

Yellow, 19, is always admiring his wristwatch even though he barely wears it. He frequently takes it out of his bag and stares at it. It is not the look of someone checking the time, but rather checking that it is still working. The wristwatch was a gift he bought for himself while in Ghana, a product of his hard-earned labour from the year before.

“Every time I get tired of being here, I look at it. It reminds me to continue to work hard. One day – one day – it will be better,” he reflects.

Yellow says that looking at the evidence of a time when he could afford the watch is a reminder of the possibility that he will one day have enough money to buy more things.

This is 17-year-old Richard’s first time working in Nigeria. He is planning to sell the motorbike he will earn from the farm to pay for his education.

Bought a year before he came to Nigeria, his bag not only reminds him of his friends – who had bags in similar designs – but is also a sign of maturity and status.

“It is when you have ‘level’ that you carry this kind of bag,” Richard says smiling. He recalls days in Ghana when he would go out with friends, their backpacks strapped to their backs, even when empty. For them, these bags are a sign of belonging to a different “level”, of having “arrived”, he explains. Boys who did not have such a bag “quickly went to get theirs,” Richard laughs.