The story arrived today to all of us who are subscribers to the BBC Newsnight and Panorama newsletters. While the Health Minister was interviewed in one of the BBC’s newsrooms, a lady walked past her in the background, carrying a tray full of teas on her head. Peter Barron, the editor of Newsnight, tells us that the lady in question is Nana Amoatin, originally from Ghana, and she’s been getting the teas in like this for years. As she put it, ‘anyone can do it’.
Indeed, I tried to do this is my childhood, when I was myself fascinated with this practice of carrying things on the head. I wouldn’t dare try to carry anything like tea cups, so I limited myself down to books, and I think I managed to make a few steps with a couple of thick volumes on my crown. I also think I began to lose balance, so I stopped, since books were even more precious to me, than tea cups. Either way I didn’t learn to carry things on my head then, but I’m thinking I might need to learn now. Quite frankly, it would help.