‘Dead white man’s clothes’ - The cost of the Global North’s fast fashion demand on Ghana

Riya Burham, BA Politics and International Relations 28/10/2024

A new report by Greenpeace Africa and Greenpeace Germany has revealed the alarming scale of environmental and human costs the fast fashion industry is having on Ghana. As the world’s biggest importer of secondhand clothing, the region receives 15 million pieces every week. The clothing is locally known as obroni wawu or ‘dead white man’s clothes’. A devastating consequence of the fast fashion industry which produces 100 billion garments each year.

Only 20% of charity shop donations are sold, with the excess being distributed to other countries in the global south, including Ghana. An estimated 30,000 people depend on Ghana’s clothing market for their livelihood. Nearly half of the garments imported are low-quality, often made from synthetic fibers such as polyester, nylon and acrylic, rendering them difficult to sell. Consequently, 40% of clothing imported into Ghana ends up as waste. According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, in 2020, the biggest exporters of second-hand garments were, and still are, the US, UK and China. 

Kantamanto market, once a thriving economic engine for the country, is now swamped by mounds of clothing waste. Only 30% of clothing waste is collected by the city, the excess being dumped into open-air landfills, water sources or burned. Near Kantomoto market is Old Fadam, with an estimated 80,000 residents being forced to construct their houses and reside above masses of textile waste. To deal with the overwhelming textile waste, the wash houses in Old Fadma are burning textiles to heat the bath water. Burning synthetic textiles releases dangerous chemicals into the air, each chemical including one or more CMR (carcinogenic, mutagenic, toxic for reproduction) properties. 

Greenpeace researchers monitored three bath houses in Old Fadam; hazardous chemicals were found in alarming scales in all three. Chemicals exceeding the German Ministry guide values for air include styrene (toxic to human reproduction), several PAHs (carcinogens), and benzene (a carcinogenic substance). In one wash house the levels of benzene were 200 times over the recommended safety level. Regular exposure to benzene can cause anemia, cancer, blood disorders and irreparable damage to the immune system. The toxic material not only leaches into the air but the soil, and nearby bodies of water, contaminating streams, rivers and coastal areas. 

Korle Lagoon, a place locals once depended on for fishing and livelihood, is now one of the most polluted bodies of water in the world. The Black Lagoon is overflowing with excrement and clothing waste. This lagoon leads to the ocean where waste is expelled to the sea before it ends up on the beaches of Accra. The city floods due to the lighter materials that float, get tangled with mounds of plastic waste and wash back onshore. This chokes the drainage system and consequently, mosquitoes breed and diseases prosper.

The current crisis is threatening the viability of local textile industries. The markets in the past were dominated by locally produced fabrics, such as Kente and Batik, carrying heavy cultural significance. The rapid production and consumption cycle of clothing in the global north has devastated this, as many Ghanaians lament the erasure of self-reliance and cultural identity, and unfortunately having to place undue dependence on the waste of wealthier nations. 

‘Most people abroad go to bed thinking they have done something good for Africans by discarding their unwanted clothing but the truth is-it is harming the economy. Local manufacturers cannot compete with the cheap prices and most of the clothing sent is not wanted by Africans. They end up as waste in landfills like this all over the country,’ says Ernest Ijawan, a manager of the Kpone landfill in Ghana.

When the well-intentioned but misdirected donations from the Global North are lying discarded in mountains of rubbish, trenches and beaches in Ghana -it is costing the people, their cultural identity, economy and environment.