Galamsey has been a trending topic, but perhaps it’s time Ghanaians also reignite our opposition to another issue that is not only polluting our waters but also destroying our economy and how the Or Foundation & AMA works to maintain this destruction.

JUST AS BAD AS GALAMSEY

For years, the second-hand clothing industry has been used as an economic weapon to destroy the livelihood of Ghanaians and our ability to compete in the multi-million fashion industry. The import of second-hand clothes has damaged the ability of Ghanaian creatives to have their design talents reach a mass audience. This is due to the cheap, readily available second-hand clothing exported into Ghana from Europe and America.

Dead Europeans

Three million tons of textile waste and cheap clothes arrive in our country annually, unsanitized, dirty, moldy, and in some cases, rotten. Most of these clothes are from deceased Europeans aka ‘Obroni Wawu meaning the whiteman is dead’. In many cases we are unaware of the causes of their deaths.

Good Bye To Jobs

Europeans refuse to recycle their own fashion waste in their countries, for health purposes and because it is economically viable for them to get rid of old clothes. This enables them to maintain a sustainable economy by developing new clothes, which creates new jobs, talents, and opportunities for creatives, while Africa faces the brunt of their discarded trash. This diminishes our creative sector and turns us into a nation historically wearing European cast-offs.

Pollution

Just like Galamsey, textile waste from second-hand clothes significantly contributes to environmental pollution, with many discarded garments made from synthetic materials like polyester, which take hundreds of years to decompose. This is why our nation is plagued with filthy beaches. The pollution of our waters is not just a repulsion for tourism but it is also a health hazard as far as waters and sea food is concerned. Most of us are too young to envision the world we had prior to 2nd hand clothing.

Good Bye To Culture

The second-hand industry has not only destroyed our creatives’ ability to appeal to wider audiences and polluted our livelihoods, but has also eroded a large part of Ghanaian culture. Outside of second-hand clothing, our Ghanaian creatives could have utilized history, surroundings, and innovative homegrown materials to shape the future of our fashion, style, culture, and trends—trends that would have become commonly worn and appealing to foreign nations.

In fact, the mass appeal of our homegrown clothes would have invited international patronage and brought down the prices of homegrown fashion due to large-scale production. Unfortunately, our culture and clothing economy cannot experience this today because the second-hand industry continues to ravage our potential.

No Excuse

The common defense for the second-hand clothing industry is that provides low-income jobs to impoverished Ghanaians, however in the absence of second-hand clothing, we could have seen a thriving industry that would have transformed our culture, country, and possibly the world, providing far more jobs than the few 30,000 mentioned.

EUROPEANS WORKING AGAINST OUR GROWTH

There are organizations in Ghana working to ensure that our country remains in this dire situation. One such organization is The Or Foundation, headed by Liz Ricketts and Branson Skinner. Alongside their few Ghanaian employees, who either have little to no understanding of the destructive impact of second-hand clothes in Ghana or are willing to see their country deteriorate for the sake of a job, they are maintaining this system.

Their organization constantly works to promote a culture where Ghanaians adapt their creativity to remaking European trash with events like “Obroni Wawu,” which took place last October 2023. The show aimed to force-feed Ghanaians the idea that remade second-hand clothing is fashionable and should be proudly embraced. Other organizations also continue to fund such designers to travel around the world, in order to make the beacon on Ghanaian creativity.

The Or Foundation Works To Advocates For 2nd Hand Clothing

The Or Foundation might deserve applause if they were genuinely helping Ghanaians manage an existing second-hand crisis. Although, the foundation is actively working to maintain the very system that is destroying Ghana socially and economically. The Or Foundation ensures that the second-hand clothing industry, which benefits Europe and the USA but devastates Ghana, continues.

In collaboration with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), the Or Foundation has made it clear they oppose any ban on second-hand clothing imports to Ghana (link). In a joint press release regarding the second-hand clothing industry, which is polluting Ghana’s waters, they advocated for alternative ways to address the pollution, and by-passing the banning second-hand clothes. A demand which is odd for an non profit that claims it is ‘Working at the intersection of environmental justice, education and fashion development’.

Ghana’s rich culture has been stripped away by becoming the most populous second-hand clothing market. Only 10% to 15% of of our population regularly wear locally produced garments. This low figure is largely due to the dominance of the second-hand clothing market. The Kantamanto Market, which could have been a hub for Ghanaian culture, creativity, and tourism, is now a filthy location regarded as the largest second-hand clothing dump hub in the world.

LIE!!! 2nd HAND CLOTHING KILLS JOBS, NO PRODUCES JOBS

According to The Or Foundation and AMA, “the ban allegedly threatens the livelihoods of over 30,000 people” who work as retailers and street sellers. However, this perspective disregards the larger number of jobs that would be created in the absence of second-hand clothing—from designers, tailors, schools, and fabric production, to jobs in advertising, media, and fashion shows.

The textile industry alone employed more than 25,000 Ghanaians. Now, the country has only four textile factories, employing fewer than 2,500 workers. One can only imagine how many more jobs would exist in the absence of second-hand clothes, in thriving sectors like fashion design, education, and media. (link)

Take Your Trash Back To The West

The Or Foundation claims the real problem is the overproduction of clothes—a practice that originated in the West and among global fashion brands. Therefore concluding Ghanaians, who don’t even own any global fashion brands, must suffer from polluted waters and the destruction of economic livelihoods and culture, all to balance out the thriving lives of Western creatives.

Instead of taking this battle to the countries responsible for overproduction, The Or Foundation and AMA urged Ghanaian fashion brands to reduce production volumes and take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products under an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework.

Research has shown that discarded clothing tags from international brands are linked to the environmental degradation seen in Accra. This is nothing compared to the fact that over 70% of second-hand clothing ends up in landfills, so why would The Or Foundation oppose the ban?

2nd HAND CLOTHING IS A POLITICAL INTENT

The initiators of 2nd hand clothing in Africa would like for us to believe 2nd hand clothing is a charitable process of assisting the poor African people who are incapable of creating affordable clothes and jobs for themselves, when the truth is, it is a weapon to disarm us of our natural intent to do so in order to further help capitalist corporations behind the global fashion brands thrive in economic and branding dominance in Africa.

The nation currently spends $200 million on imports—money that could easily be invested in our local fashion industry, such as the textile industry alone which used to host 25,000 jobs in the 1960s. Imagine how thriving our industry must have been in fashion when one considers the designers purchasing these fabrics. Second-hand clothes hamper the growth of Ghana’s local textile and fashion industries, reducing demand for locally made garments and threatening the survival of small-scale artisans and tailors.

USA Sanctioning African Countries That Refuse Their Trash

The USA is now considering sanctions on countries like Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda for taking steps to ban second-hand clothes, some of which are already seeing growth in their clothing sectors. The U.S. Trade Representative said on Tuesday 6th August 2024 it was reviewing trade benefits to Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) after a complaint by U.S. interests about an East African ban on imports of used clothing. This exposes how imports is an imposed intention on our countries.

Banning second-hand clothes would force Europe and America to face the consequences of trash by their global brands and pollution, but organizations like The Or Foundation are set up in Ghana to ensure we don’t take such steps for our own benefit. Don’t be surprised when there are more functions and activities initiated to promotion and brand 2nd hand clothes as those it is a progressive form of fashion for Ghanaians under the banner of Sustainability.