Ghanaians are calling on fashion brands to step up after a fire destroyed the world’s largest used clothing market

Yayra Agbofah has barely slept since a fire destroyed the world’s largest used clothing market just over a week ago.

A fire that broke out on January 2 at the Kantamanto market in Ghana’s capital, Accra, reduced huge parts of the market to ashes, destroying millions of used clothes and threatening the livelihoods of more than 30,000 people.

Agbofah runs The Revival, an organization that creates art and fashion using materials that market vendors cannot sell. His company’s warehouse was destroyed in the fire, but his studio was not affected.

Many of his friends and family, he says, were not so lucky.

“I couldn’t sleep well because of the state of emergency and I have to see my people, family and friends crying because their livelihoods have been destroyed and you have to start from scratch,” he told As it happens host Nil Köksal.

Agbofah is raising money to help rebuild the market, which he says plays a key role in Accra’s economy and helps keep millions of tonnes of clothing in circulation that would otherwise end up in oceans and landfills.

He and others are also calling on fast fashion brands like Shein, H&M and Zara — none of which responded to CBC’s request for comment — to contribute financially to clean up and rebuild the markets.

“We’re trying to clean up their mess,” he said. “It’s the least they can do to take responsibility.”

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

From Canadian donation bins to the oceans of Ghana

According to the Or Foundation, an American-Ghanaian charity that works to find sustainable solutions to the waste of fast fashion, Kantamanto Market’s vendors put around 15 million pieces of used clothing back into circulation every month through resale, reuse, repair and re-production.

The charity estimates the fire has reduced more than 8,000 stalls to dust and directly affected 10,000 workers.

The items sold there mostly come from Canada, the US and England, Agbofah said, and arrive almost daily in massive containers at the docks in Accra.

People in rich countries donate used clothes to charities and thrift stores, which take what they need and discard the rest. What remains is exported to countries with lower incomes.

But what sellers in those countries can’t sell is thrown away, ending up in landfills or in the ocean, where it clogs beaches and destroys the marine environment.

“Whatever you do in the US and Canada, it will affect us here. If you consume so much, we have to deal with so much because it ends up here,” Agbofah said.

“I’m sure a lot of people think by donating to charity I’m helping or doing something, but it puts a burden on us.”

The Or Foundation says it is contributing US$1 million to aid and rebuild after the fire. But he is calling on clothing companies to contribute.

“For too long the fashion industry has used places like Kantamanto as a destination for its excesses, but not enough attention has been given to Kantamanto’s work to process the result of a linear economy,” fashion designer Nutifafa Mensah, the charity’s head of peer education, said in a statement sent to e – by mail.

“This is truly a circular model lost in the ashes, and as Kantamanto Market strives to rebuild itself in all its tenacity and resilience, we ask for the support of the fashion industry in its recovery.”

The Ghana Secondhand Clothing Dealers Association (GUCDA), which represents secondhand importers in the country, is also invited charities, companies and the country’s government help.

The CBC has sought comment from Ghana’s Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The renovation is already underway

Tens of thousands of Ghanaians depend on the market for their livelihood, says Agbofah. That is why they are already in the process of restoration.

“People are working day and night to get the market back on its feet, and it’s an amazing thing to see,” he said.

“It restores hope and also shows the resilience of the Kantamanto community, that no level of destruction or fire will take away the unity and love we have for the market.”

Agbofah says he fell in love with Kantamant the first time he saw him as a child.

“That’s where I found things that I see in the media, things that I see in magazines that we didn’t have access to brand new,” he said.

He also saw an economic opportunity. Not only does she create clothes from textile scraps, she also works as a stylist, mixing and matching what she calls “rare gems” she sources from Kantamant’s stalls.

Despite his affection for the market, he says it cannot keep up with the glut of items arriving on Ghana’s shores, making it harder than ever to turn a profit.

“If you’re donating to charity, you should think: This product I’m donating, is it something that someone could use? Why would you donate torn clothes, heavily stained items, items in poor condition, to charity?” he said.

“Do we deserve torn clothes? Do we deserve things in really bad conditions? Ghana is not a dumping ground.”