Ghana’s Kantamanto Market Fights to Rebuild After Fire as Fast-Fashion Waste Piles Up

Six weeks after a massive fire tore through Accra’s sprawling Kantamanto Market — one of the world’s largest hubs for secondhand clothing — thousands of traders are still struggling to get back on their feet.

The blaze, which killed two people and destroyed an estimated two-thirds of the market, wiped out the livelihoods of tens of thousands within hours.

This story is based on reporting by The Guardian.

Once packed with tightly lined stalls selling “obroni wawu” — “dead white person’s clothes,” as secondhand garments are known locally — Kantamanto now hums with the noise of reconstruction.

Aluminum roofs are back up, skeletal wooden structures are rising, but many vendors’ spaces remain empty, generating little to no income in a market that previously supported an estimated 30,000 workers.

For traders like Richard Kwaku Kwakye, who lost more than 100,000 cedis’ worth of clothing, rebuilding has been overwhelming.

“I couldn’t retrieve a pin,” he told The Guardian, describing how the fire reduced his inventory to ashes.

With his stall still unfinished, he has no place to store goods — and no income for his family.

The market’s crisis exposes a larger global problem: the relentless surge of fast-fashion waste. Ghana imported $121 million worth of used clothing in 2023 alone, much of it low-quality, discarded fashion from the UK, China, and the US. According to research cited by The Guardian, Kantamanto sends 26.5 tonnes of unsellable clothing to dumps every week. Some ends up in informal landfills around Accra before being washed out to sea, later returning as soggy heaps on city beaches.

The ecosystem around Kantamanto — from tailors to food sellers to kayayei porters — has also been hit hard. Many, like 18-year-old porter Aisha Mohammed, have seen their daily income plunge from about 50 cedis to as little as 10. Others have left the city entirely, unable to start over.

Relief efforts are underway. Local leaders and nonprofits, including the Or Foundation, are raising funds to support affected traders and plan long-term upgrades to prevent future disasters. But business remains painfully slow, and many vendors can’t afford to import new bales of clothing while the market rebuilds.

Despite the hardship, trucks continue to unload hundreds of bales of secondhand garments each week — a sign that Kantamanto’s future still hinges on the world’s fashion waste.