For decades, the community at the market has washed, repaired and refashioned clothing to sell on, but according to research from Giz Ghana carried out in 2023-24, 26.5 tonnes – millions of items of clothing – now leave the market as waste every week.
“The reality is that there are definitely people who have gone hungry, who are struggling to live,” says Yayra Agbofah, founder of the Revival, a community organisation based in Kantamanto market creating awareness, art and jobs.
Aisha Mohammed, 18, sits surrounded by heaps of clothes in a section of the market known as borla su (waste zone), the last stop for items to be rescued before they are discarded for ever.
The market is an entire ecosystem with people carrying out a variety of roles, including food vendors, cleaners and kayayei – female porters who carry bales around the maze of passageways.
Six weeks after a devastating blaze in Accra ripped through one of the world’s biggest secondhand markets, many stalls remain unfinished and thousands still have no income.
