Most of Accra dresses from the second-hand trade, and it is not a poor relation of buying new. The clothes come largely from Europe and North America, the quality at the top end is far better than anything new at the same price, and the whole city knows it.
The Akan name is obroni wawu - “the dead white man’s clothes” - from the assumption that nobody would give away clothing this good while alive.
— Kantamanto, in the glossary — Where to shop in Accra
Where
Kantamanto, in Accra Central, is the centre of the trade and one of the largest second-hand clothing markets anywhere. Thousands of stalls, sorted roughly by type: shirts, jeans, dresses, shoes, bags, children’s clothes, bedding, curtains.
Beyond it:
- Every neighbourhood market has a second-hand section: smaller, calmer, prices a little higher, and a much shorter trip.
- Roadside and evening sellers, which is where a great deal of ordinary buying happens.
- Instagram and WhatsApp thrift sellers, who buy at Kantamanto, photograph the good pieces and deliver. You are paying somebody to sort, and it is often worth it.
How the trade works, and why it matters to you
Clothing arrives in bales: compressed bundles bought unseen by retailers, graded by type and quality. A retailer pays for the bale, opens it, and finds out what they have.
Two consequences for a buyer:
- The best pieces go within hours of a bale being opened. Ask a seller you like when their bales come in, and come back that morning.
- A retailer who has had a bad bale prices hard, because they have already lost money on it. That is where bargaining meets reality.
Judging a garment in a busy market
You will not have a fitting room, good light or time.
- Seams, zip and buttons first. These are what make a garment unwearable, and what a tailor charges most to put right.
- Hold it up to the light for thinning fabric, and check the armpits and the crotch, which go first.
- Look for stains in daylight, out of the stall’s shade.
- Read the label. Natural fibres and well-made brands last, and here they cost the same as everything else.
- Sizes mean nothing. They come from a dozen countries and several decades. Hold the garment against yourself.
- Shoes: check where the sole joins the upper, and flex it. A worn insole is fine; a splitting sole is not.
Bargaining
Expect to. The first price is an opening position, and it is higher for anyone who looks new to the market - which, if you are, you do.
- Ask the price of two or three similar things before showing interest in the one you want.
- Name a price you would genuinely pay. The trade is somebody’s living.
- Buy several things from one seller rather than one thing from several.
- Walking away works, and being called back is ordinary, not a victory.
Then find a tailor
Second-hand works so well in Accra because alterations are cheap and everywhere. A jacket that fits across the shoulders can be taken in, trousers shortened, a dress remade completely. Buy for what cannot be altered - shoulders, hips, shoe length - and have the rest adjusted.
Going in with your eyes open
Kantamanto is also where a great deal of clothing the world has finished with ends up, and a significant share of every bale is unsellable the day it arrives. What cannot be sold becomes waste, and Accra carries that cost: in its drains, on its beaches and at its dump sites. The trade clothes the city cheaply and it leaves a mess. Both are true.
Buying well - choosing things that will last, altering rather than replacing - is the part of it you control.
— Waste collection in Accra — Accra’s markets — What a month in Accra costs