Greetings from GHANA #2

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CURRENT LOCATION: My apartment in Paris, France

LOCAL TIME: 21h32 (Paris time)

LOCAL TEMPERATURE: 8 degrees

CURRENTLY READING: As Long as Grass Grows - Dina Gilio-Whitaker

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Hi there,

It has been less than a week since I sent my first newsletter on my Ghana trip. I arrived in Paris on Sunday and spent the past few days in an environment that could not be more different from what I saw, felt and experienced in Accra. Let me tell you why. 

Our final days in Ghana - What we did
During our final two days with the Foundation, we continued our conversations with different market players. On Friday, we met with Patricia and Janet, who are both retailers. They buy bales (remember, these weigh 50 kg, and contain 200 - 250 garments each) and then try to resell them to other retailers or final customers. Patricia specialises in colourful dresses and buys bales from China, while Janet mainly sells blouses coming from the UK. 

Left: the incredible Patricia Boatenmaa, Right: the incredible Janet Kyerewaa, credits to the Or Foundation. Click the picture for more info on the campaign.

On Saturday, we joined Patricia when she opened a bale she had purchased earlier that week for around €500. The Or Foundation estimates that per garment in that bale, they have an average debt of €1,50. One that most often cannot be covered by the revenues they make. They then have to take on a loan, increasing their debt even further. And so the vicious circle keeps turning round and round and round. Not exactly the kind of circularity we aim for. 

Left: me trying to grasp how many clothes are in this bale, Right: the bale Patricia purchased from China

Sorting happens at such a rapid speed it is hard to keep up. Patricia is like a machine. A floral dress with green and blue to the left (1st selection), a long dress in black to the right (Patricia doesn’t like black so she keeps them aside), a dirty unwashed skirt ends up on the ground as it cannot be sold, while an outdated style ends up behind (2nd selection). And this process goes on and on, taking no longer than a few seconds per garment. Yes. No. Maybe. No. Yes. On and on and on. One hour later, Patricia went through the whole bale and sorted the garments into different piles. Hoping that by the time she buys a new bale, what she was able to sort got sold. Or at least a part of it. 

Testimonies that stuck
Throughout the many held conversations, different statements have stuck with me. I have anonymised them out of respect, but I will also remember who said it, where and when. 

“I don’t understand why people in the Global North (like in Europe or the USA) think that we need clothes in Africa. Have you seen anyone walking around naked? We have plenty of clothes. Stop sending yours.”

“I just wanted to tell you that after you asked me those questions yesterday about my upcycling work, I realised how generous you are. Thank you for listening to me.”

“I work 6 days a week, 12 hours a day. And still, I don’t manage to provide for my family and myself. Is it me who is not doing enough?”

“The quality of clothes has only gone down over the past years. Before, being in secondhand clothing meant earning good money, but today it feels like a curse.”

“A kayayei of around 18 years old and weighs only 44 kg carries a bale of clothing of 50 kg on her head and does this 10 times a day. She might earn €0,30 per trip. Doing this work for more than two months deforms her spine irreversibly.”

“If you have privileges and don’t use them to change something for good, you cannot be considered a human being.”

Upon my return to Paris - How is that going?

Walking through Accra, Ghana.

While Accra-Paris is a seven hour-flight, the journey hasn't ended to this day. It has been mentally rough. It all is very confronting, questioning and heartbreaking. Knowing that I got off easy with a one-week trip, thousands of people are exposed to and live in these circumstances every day. 

I think I can say that I am an energetic, optimistic person that always goes 150% for everything I do. And as am extremely passionate I am about sustainability, social justice and the intersection with many other topics, it can be very overwhelming. You always dig deeper and deeper, only discovering more disturbing truths that keep me up at night. I can find myself in moments of extreme stress, where the fear of doing something wrong almost paralyses me from doing something at all. Who am I as a privileged white, able, cisgender woman with a good socio-economic background to do this work, to take the space of someone who does not have these privileges and needs to work much harder to have access to the same resources as me?

This has been going through my mind on repeat for the past few months, building up guilt feelings inside. But upon having conversations about this with others, and learning about how I can be a better ally, I realise that I can only try. And if I make mistakes, I should take a step back, take the time to listen, learn and try to do it better and differently the next time. 

So yes, I have many privileges, but if I would not even try to use them for good, I would not be a human being. 

This trip has had such a profound impact on me, and will forever change the way I approach what I do. If I would ever doubt why I choose this path, I only have to return to a memory of Ghana for a split second and I will be convinced: humanity gives hope, community connects and together we can all move forward. 

Once again I wish for a world full of hope, we need more of it. 

Lots of love, 

Hester -x-