The West African country of Uganda has stopped importing second-hand clothing with immediate effect. President Yoweri Museveni wants to use it to promote his own textile industry. Those who offer new clothes in Uganda do not get a chance in the market, Museveni said at the opening of a Ugandan-Chinese business park in Mbale, according to Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant.
Most of the second-hand clothing on the Ugandan market is discarded clothing from Europe and the United States. President Museveni himself is said to have described the discarded clothes as “the clothes of dead westerners”.
“When a white man dies, you collect his clothes and send them to Africa,” said De Volkskrant at the inauguration. The Ugandan President did not come up with this theory himself, because it comes from neighboring Nigeria, where used clothing is called “kafa ulaya”. That means “clothes of dead white people”.
According to Oxfam, at least 70 percent of the textiles in European and US used clothing collections end up in Africa. How much clothing comes from the deceased is difficult to estimate.
Uganda’s textile industry is very large, but most of the production is exported as semi-finished products. As a result, the added value for the Ugandan economy is low, writes De Volkskrant. In recent years, the annual value of cotton exports has ranged from 22 to 76 million US dollars (between 20 and 70 million euros).
It is not the first time that a ban on the import of second-hand clothing has been brought up. The East African community, which includes Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi and South Sudan, called for an import ban back in 2016. At that time it was only put into practice by Rwanda. This is because imports also create a lot of jobs and are therefore good for the local economy.
Second-hand clothes are causing problems in Africa
That used clothing causes problems in Africa is nothing new. For example, the amount of used textiles exported from the European Union has tripled in 20 years, as announced by the EU Environment Agency EEA. Textile exports from the EU increased from just over 55,000 tonnes to almost 1.7 million tonnes between 2000 and 2019. That is an average of 3.8 kilograms of textiles per person and year.
The European Environment Agency also noted that the destination of used textiles has shifted from mainly African destinations to both Africa and Asia. “Consumers’ idea that donated, used clothing will always be useful in these regions does not correspond to reality,” write the environmental experts in the analysis. “Once exported, the fate of the used textiles is uncertain. What is unsuitable for reuse tends to end up in open landfills and informal waste streams.”
In 2019, the European Union exported 46 percent of used textiles to Africa. There, the textiles are mainly reused locally, as there is a demand for cheap, used clothing from Europe. What cannot be reused ends up in open landfills and informal waste streams. Second-hand clothing is also very popular in Uganda because of its low prices. Not only the poor, but also the middle class finds this market interesting.
This translated post previously appeared on FashionUnited.nl