African Insights Ezine – July 2004

“Dead White Man’s Clothing Get a Second Life in Africa”

Shopping for Clothes African Style at Owino Market:


In America they are called vintage clothing or consignment shops. There are also the second-hand retail places like the Salvation Army, Goodwill Stores, Thrift shops of all kinds, where even those who can afford to shop at department stores go in search of that exclusive designer dress for a mere pittance.

I have frequented such treasure troves in search of books and other things and often would peruse the clothing section. On one occasion I found a jacket that looked brand new, fit perfectly, and made me feel good. After having it cleaned, I put it on for the first time and the thought came to me, “What if this is a dead man’s jacket? What if the man died while wearing this jacket?” It was only a fleeting thought and I wore the jacket on many occasions.

Some years later, as I walked through Owino Market in Kampala, one of the traders looked at me from his clothing stall, holding up a suit and laughingly shouting, “Hey, Papa! How about buying a nice dead man’s suit?”

Up to that time I never paid attention to the whole business of clothing in Eastern Africa, but those words struck a chord within me. I looked at the people in the market and saw them holding up clothes that had been worn in places like New York, Toronto and Antwerp, but now being offered again to cover someone in East Africa. If clothes make a man or woman as some say, then these bales of clothes sent from afar sure had another day.

Africa used to be a most colorful place when it came to traditional clothing styles. You can still buy such innovative, African styles at trendy boutiques in Kampala, Nairobi and Kigali. The problem is that only the well-to-do and upper class can afford the traditional dresses, while the average person has to settle for what might well be “dead white man’s clothing.” (You will see the Busuuti or Gomesi dresses, the wraps (Kanga) but most people will usually buy clothes at Owino that came from afar.)

The reason is simple: When you have an income of a dollar per day, you cannot go down to Pioneer Shopping Mall in Kampala and buy a dress from a fashionable shop for 45 dollars, but you and 100,000 other shoppers wind up at Owino Market, Africa’s largest market with thousand and thousands of stalls featuring clothing from various parts of the world, waiting to grace a man or woman in Kampala. (100,000 shoppers per day, 200,000 during the holidays, this makes Owino the largest market in Africa)

Ugandans do wonders with the American and European castoffs that came across the sea in 40-foot containers to be sorted in some warehouse in Kampala just adjacent to the market. The best stuff goes to higher end traders and the low-end stuff goes up-country to the villages where the income is the lowest and people can afford only the smallest amount of money for clothing. There are also women who pre-select clothing for their clients. They work almost like “Avon Calling;” taking the clothing to the homes of clients, knowing their tastes and financial capabilities and so on. Mere words cannot describe the activities of the market, the energy one feels when going through there and the throngs of people looking for that special something from shoes to shirts.

However, this trade in “dead white man’s clothing” is causing some problems for Uganda and its textile industry, causing them to complain to the government. Legislation is being considered that would block the “Mitumba (baled) Clothing Trade.” Second-hand underwear is already banned in much of East Africa for hygienic reason.

As you look around in Africa, you will see that “dead white man’s clothing” is not the only cast-off found here. Africa has become the world’s dumping ground for used things, one giant Goodwill Thrift-Store. The roads of Africa are dotted with old Japanese cars (left-hand drive cars) in the old British colonies and European cars in the former French-speaking colonies.

Enter a government office and you see people working with used computers. Yes, many of Africa’s governments are running on used computers that were recycled by some company in the USA (receiving a tax write off for their donation).

Go to the pharmacy and drug shop and often the medicine will be outdated, cast off, or made by some fly-by-night outfit to look as if it was medicine but in reality is simply sugar. In East Africa, 30% of anti-malarial drugs are counterfeit.

There are the old refrigerators with Freon oozing out, the medical equipment in hospitals that was not good enough for Western patients with British, French, and US markings on them. There are the schools with libraries of donated books that are 50 years old and not relevant. And don’t forget some of the defective and substandard food items being dumped into Africa every day. So, one can quickly see that the second-hand clothing market is just one small part of a greater picture that needs changing.

Yes, Africa has become a huge dumping ground for the world. The intent, in many cases, is to be of help, but it is not moving Africa forward toward its place in the sun of economic success. In fact, Africa is the only continent that has receded in progress during the last 25 years. (In part this is due to corrupt leaders who perpetuate the colonial extraction process and keep its citizens disconnected from who they are.)

Africa needs more than castoffs. Africa needs more than a tin cup for another handout, another castoff, and another used clothing bale. Africa needs manufacturing jobs that will give men and women a living wage, a future, and hope. Companies that come to extract resources from Mother Africa also need to make sure that the raw-product is made into a finished product that is sold as such. If we do give something, it needs to be that which will help to make Africa independent, producing, and not dependent on Western hand-outs, and at the end of the day, I would miss the energy of the Owino Market, but then Owino with its African innovation there, could become something better.