For the last 3–4 years, the Western media has been flooded with reports about the devastating impact that second-hand clothing exports from the West have been having on the environment in African countries. However, the squalor and the filth seen in the images that go viral every time they are published do not present the full picture, or the "bigger picture" if that's the term you prefer.
Many of the stories that have appeared in recent times evolve from the same contrived formula and are engineered around the same patronising perspectives. Together, they drive the same lop-sided narrative: that fast fashion brands of the West are drowning African nations in waste. And that beyond waste there is nothing worth the discussion in Africa. For some reason the damning portrayal seems to be only about fast fashion, and there are never any credible numbers to bolster that argument. It is as if the term "fast fashion" is bandied around only because it generates heat and dust in activist circles. That too activist circles of the privileged and entitled in the West.
You can Google this up. Over the years, there have been numerous studies and papers on the second-hand clothing sector in African countries. But the focus of most of the earlier studies/papers seems to have been about livelihoods. But in the last 3–4 years it's been all about the dumping of textile waste. This radical shift in discourse is very much in tune with the negative sentiments that hover fast fashion in the West. The two have gone almost in tandem. No, there is no conspiracy theory here. You can check the similarity in graphs on Google Trends.
You bet, the drive against fast fashion is justified, for all the reasons that have been meticulously documented. But then, the problem with the current Western narrative about textile waste in Africa is that it is a one-sided presentation of an issue that is way too complicated, to say the least. The side that we get to hear from is the West. It's the assessment of Western activists, it is the opinion of Western activists, and it is the verdict of Western activists. But, this ought to have been about Africa, innit?
What is textile waste generated by fast fashion for the West is second-hand clothing for millions of Africans. It is affordable, and the sheer expanse of the sector provides employment to tens of thousands of people. Probably, millions here too. Thousands of small businesses are involved in the second-hand clothing sector. They are all human beings, and they have an opinion too. It is this opinion that is glaringly missing from the narrative that is being peddled in the media.
Whether you agree with what the second-hand clothing traders and retailers in the dozens of African countries say about the issue is another matter. Nevertheless, what's important is to take their opinion, and more importantly their understanding of the ground situation, into account. Without doing as much, all you have is a Western account of everything.
