Castoff from London, Pearls in Kantamanto? A critique of second hand clothing

African countries are today the major importers of the lowest grade of second-hand (SH) clothing. As a result of the complexity and opacity of the international geographies of SH clothing trade, inequalities and imbalances between Global North (GN) and South (GS) continue to maintain a relationship of colonial dependence. With the opening of global markets and the intense circulation of fast fashion in the GN from the 1990s, the trade has exploded in the twenty-first century. This paper presents a critical look at the decades’ old SH clothing exchange in Kantamanto, the biggest SH market in West Africa, situated within the central business district of Accra, Ghana. The paper scrutinises the export of unwanted donated clothing, popularly known as ‘Obroni w’awu’ (white man is dead), to Kantamanto. We combine direct observation and an interpretive research design through the analysis of photos taken from Kantamanto that capture and document local circular practices, exposing a duality: on the one hand, clothing’s symbolic value that is lost in the GN is reconstituted in the GS through exchange and labour-creating economies. On the other, the global trade of SH clothing has become synonym with dumping, as supply exceeds demand and the GN uses this trade to dispose of unwanted clothing in landfills.