Particularly in the last decade, used clothing has become an important export item from western countries to Africa south of the Sahara. The USA alone collects about 100 million tons of used clothing annually. Part of this is sold to the well-appointed used clothing shops in the West, while about half of it goes to charity. The remainder is bought up by hundreds of firms that recycle and export clothing at great profit to countries in the Third World. Figures from 1997 show that used clothing is the sixth largest export item from the USA to Africa south of the Sahara. It is, however, in the interest of countries with their own textile production, to limit this importation. State authorities in Senegal have therefore established an annual ceiling for the import of used clothing.
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| In search of used clothing of good quality |
In Dakar, it is the Colobanne Market which is most famous for the sale of used garments. It functions as a central location from which part of the clothing is distributed to rural markets and the neighbouring countries of Mali and Burkina Faso. The garments arrive graded into three categories. West Africans are extremely knowledgeable about textiles, and this, combined with the importance they place on being welldressed, gives rise to the situation where it is not surprising that retailers in Dakar talk about the difficulties they have in selling clothing of the lowest quality.
Imported garments can be used as they are, or they can be adapted to local styles and tastes. For a long time there have been batches of batikked T-shirts for sale in every imaginable colour in the Sandaga Market. Taking a closer look at these T-shirts, one finds that no two are alike, and all are presumably purchased in the market for reuse. They are dyed bright colours and thereafter offered once more in the marketplace. The bright colours force one to look closely to determine whether they are reused items.
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| Used shoes for sale in rural Mali |
Some of the used clothes undergo an even more fundamental treatment and are transformed into completely different kinds of garment. The thread from a cotton sweater can be wound up into balls and used to embroider imitations of costly materials that are used for women's slips. Tailors and seamstresses buy cheap used sewing materials, sew them together to form larger pieces of cloth, dye them, and sell them in the market as bed linen.
Even if used clothing is an important import item, such products make up only a part of West Africans' need for clothing. Clothing in African patterns and fashions are conspicuous both on the urban scene and in the villages.
Source: Hansen, Karen Tranberg. 1999. Second-hand Clothing Encounters in Zambia: Global Discourses, Western Commodities and Local Histories. Africa 69(3):343-365.
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