Dead White Man’s Clothes is the translation of the Akan expression Obroni Wawu, which is a common term for secondhand clothes in Ghana meaning ‘the white man has died clothes.’ This expression comes from the idea that someone would have to die to give up so much stuff, implying that the concept of excess was foreign.

• 15 million items of secondhand clothing pass through the market on a weekly basis.

• 30,000 people work within the market ecosystem to recommodify those items through resale and various means of upcycling.

• Clothing is not given to Ghana for free. Even the items donated by consumers in the Global North are sold into Ghana for the profit of the exporting businesses. This commercial trade has existed since at least the 1960s, and today is fueled by debt, with many of Kantamanto’s retailers owing months worth of bales to various banks at interest rates of 30% or more.

• Every four months Kantamanto recommodifies 100 million items.

• Despite those efforts, 40% of the clothing that is opened for sale at Kantamanto Market leaves the market as waste. In some cases this is actual trash, torn and tattered garments, but more often than not it is simply because the supply far outweighs the demand.

• Six days a week the city of Accra carries 70 metric tons to the City’s overflowing landfill.

• An additional 40 tons or more are dumped “informally.”

• This represents the largest consolidated source of waste in the City of Accra.

• Women and girls work as head porters, known locally as Kayayei (pl., Kayayo, singular). They carry bales weighing between 120 - 200 lbs throughout the narrow, crowded market aisles, often paid less than US $0.30 for trips over 1km long. These young woman, many climate migrants from the north of Ghana, are effectively trapped in debt slavery.