Kantamanto Market: Resilience Amid Ruin and the Global Call to Accountability
In the heart of Accra, Ghana, lies Kantamanto Market, an emblem of African resilience and ingenuity, and a glaring reminder of global inequities. Known as West Africa’s largest secondhand clothing market, Kantamanto is an ecosystem where resourcefulness meets necessity, a place where discarded garments from the Global North are repaired, repurposed, and transformed into livelihoods for tens of thousands.
In May 2024, we invited Yayra Agbofah, the founder of The Revival, to our Fashion Experience event in Hamburg. The Revival is a Ghana-based organization and a community-led initiative that creates awareness, art, fashion, and jobs by upcycling global textile waste that arrives in Ghana.
But on January 2nd, 2025, this vibrant hub was dealt a devastating blow. A catastrophic fire swept through the market, consuming 80% of its sprawling space and displacing over 2,000 businesses. This fire, not the first in Kantamanto’s history, highlights the precarious conditions under which this community operates and casts a harsh light on the deeper, systemic issues plaguing the global fashion industry.
The Birth of a Marketplace: Creativity Born of Necessity
Kantamanto’s marketplace is rooted in the intersection of economic hardship and ingenuity in mid-20th century when Ghana, like many nations across Africa, began importing secondhand clothing from Europe and North America. What started as a trickle became a torrent in the 1980s and 1990s, driven by globalization and structural adjustment programs mandated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. These programs liberalized Ghana’s economy, paving the way for the exportation from the Global North of used electronic goods, including clothing, on a massive scale.
The market grew out of necessity. For many Ghanaians, the high cost of new clothing meant that affordable secondhand garments, locally referred to as obroni w’awu (“dead white man’s clothes”), were a lifeline.
Kantamanto’s Dual Role: Circular Economy vs. Waste Colonialism
While Kantamanto exemplifies a circular fashion economy, it also exposes the darker realities of waste colonialism—a term coined in 1989 to describe the Global North’s export of waste to the Global South. Each week, an estimated 15 million pieces of discarded clothing arrive in Ghana, with Kantamanto processing much of it. While traders labor tirelessly to recycle and upcycle these garments, a significant portion—between 10% and 40%—is unsalvageable, adding to the country’s mounting environmental challenges.
This practice of offloading waste disproportionately burdens countries like Ghana with managing the byproducts of overproduction and overconsumption in the Global North. The environmental toll is immense: discarded clothing clogs waterways, pollutes landfills, and contributes to fires like the one that devastated Kantamanto.
A Market in Flames: The Human and Economic Cost
The January fire is a stark reminder of Kantamanto’s vulnerability. Its ad-hoc construction, overcrowded conditions, and lack of safety measures leave it prone to disasters. Yet, this is not just a local crisis—it is a global reckoning. The destruction of Kantamanto reverberates through the lives of over 30,000 traders, artisans, and laborers who depend on the market for their livelihoods.
The images of charred stalls and bare ground are not just a scene of destruction; they are a call to action for a fashion industry complicit in these conditions. Kantamanto’s traders, despite their resilience, cannot shoulder this burden alone.
Global Solidarity: A Call for Responsibility and Change
The tragedy at Kantamanto highlights the urgent need for systemic change in the global fashion industry. It is a wake-up call for consumers, brands, and policymakers alike to address the inequities embedded in this system.
One proposed solution is the establishment of a Global Fashion Solidarity Fund, which would provide critical support to marginalized communities in the Global South in collaboration with the diaspora from the Global North. Such a fund would empower local innovators, advocate for equitable trade practices, and invest in sustainable infrastructure to protect markets like Kantamanto.
The Perspective: A Call for Empathy and Justice
For the diaspora, Kantamanto is not just a market—it is a symbol of the continent’s resilience, resourcefulness, and creativity. But it is also a reminder of the historical and ongoing exploitation that underpins global systems. Waste colonialism, like other forms of extraction, reflects the inequalities that have long defined relationships between the Global North and South.
As members of the diaspora, we carry a responsibility to amplify these stories, to challenge narratives that erase the ingenuity of African communities, and to advocate for systemic change. Kantamanto’s survival is a matter of global justice.
What you can do?
The path forward requires collective action. Here’s how to contribute:
- Support Relief Efforts: Donate to our Go fund me, so that we can support, The Revival which are providing support to those affected by the fire.
- Raise Awareness: Share our content, enable dialogues about waste colonialism, highlight marginalized platforms, highlight the impact of waste colonialism in institutions and advocate for systemic change in the global fashion industry.
- Advocate for Change: Be an Ally, activist for authentic representation, advocate for sustainable collaborations and practices in the fashion industry, and support the establishment of a Global Fashion Solidarity Fund. Let’s work together on this.
A Shared Responsibility
Kantamanto is a mirror reflecting the injustices of the global fashion system. Its story challenges us to question our consumption habits, to rethink the flow of goods and waste, and to commit to building a future where markets like Kantamanto, Gikomba, Owino, Kamwala etc. thrive—not as repositories for the Global North’s excess but as centers of innovation and empowerment. A way of sharing responsibilities is the work of the Or Foundation by funding research.
Let us honor Kantamantos resilience by weaving empathy, justice, and solidarity into the fabric of our shared future.
Foto credit: The Revival
Foto credit: Marche Noir Lomé Paris
Foto credit: Kantamanto market @kino_zen | @morrelyf_
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