THE OR FOUNDATION
INTRODUCTION
The OR foundation focuses on research, education, and advocacy within the second-hand clothing industry in Accra, Ghana. For over 10 years the foundation has been at the forefront of challenging [and finding solutions] to the influx of textile waste that comes in through Accra’s largest market, Kantamanto market .
In conversation with Samuel Oteng [Sammy], Senior Community Engagement Manager at The Or, we focus on the waste of human energy that large scale fast fashion systems generate in Accra, Ghana. Ghana is one of the largest receptacles for second-hand clothing globally. We explore the depths, impact, and the innovative work of the OR in charting a way forward.
THE BACKGROUND
Most of the retailers working in markets are single mothers, some of them whose relationship, families, and husbands have literally crashed because they’ve [had to] invest so much money and time into this market. They come in as early as 4am. And if you’re a mother with kids, and you’re spending six days a week in the market, at these hours. When is the time for your family? What time are you spending with children?
In Kantomanto things have only gotten worse. We are talking and pushing for policies, but things have only gotten worse. The way that the work is, you literally cannot take a break, because the more you work, the more of a possible income or possible profit. So you don’t even want to lose the minutes to the work that you’re doing. That means you’ve literally enslaved your time to the work that you’re doing. And they have to perform everything on a daily basis.Every day, with nothing to show for it. Some of these people have worked here for 30 years. One of our friends who has been instrumental in our work, isn’t happy. She was talking about how she’s lost dignity, as a wife, and as a mother. And all of that surrounds the fact that she has lost dignity in the work that she does. In a space where you are constantly having to work, constantly having to do things that you know are not dignified, you don’t have the mind space to think of good possibilities. If you’re facing this on a daily basis, it will definitely condition you to think of yourself in a different way. So for me, I [previously] understood the human energy [necessary] from a very labour point of view. [But] As human beings we are so many things: we are emotional beings, we are social beings, and then all of these things are energies. And so even if you have the strength to pull through physically, if you have no strength within yourself [emotionally], or dignity within yourself … That is a waste of human energy.
- Open the bale
- Hang it
- Take it down
- Pack it
- Hang it
- Take it down
- Pack it
KAYAYEI, KAYAYEI!
You have girls as young as nine years old carrying these things! They don’t even look at you in the face, they’re constantly looking at the floor, they can’t speak to you now because they don’t even see themselves as a human beings anymore because people treat them as transport.
The pathways in Kantamanto market are too thin for any motorised vehicle to manoeuvre through. So the 55kg bales make their way through the market with approximately 5000 Kayayei. Kayayei are usually young women and teenagers from the north of Ghana, carrying their bodyweight in clothes for sale on behalf of vendors; but they arguably are the lowest paid in this already low-income-generating clothing supply chain.
The damage is physical, emotional and psychological.
They’re mainly seen as a means of transportation. Just like how you open your Google Map, and it tells you the route for a car – if there was one built in the market, there will be a route for a Kayayei [with an image of] a little girl. [Along] with our chiropractors, we looked at some of the damage that has been done to most of these girls, by the weight [of the bales], some of them have gotten so bad that it’s irreversible. [There is] this cartilage disc that sits in between our spines. And some of them [the girls], because of the way that they carry, the disk literally went away [and whats left is] the bones rubbing on each other. There is one lady – who’s been working for over 10 years – and the cartilage has gone away and the bones are now almost merging. Bones that are supposed to be separate, have now stuck together from being pressured so much. Now, they almost look like one piece. We are supposed to have a little curve within our spine. Some of them, because of the weight and how they have to posture themselves when they are carrying, their spines are literally straight. And according to the doctor [chiropractor], some of the girls spines are showing as if they are in their 60s, and these girls are in their teens. Think about the damage that it does to their bodies, think of that, but also the damage that it has done to the esteem [of their growing bodies and spirits]. Most of the retailers working in markets are single mothers, some of them whose relationship, families, and husbands have literally crashed because they’ve [had to] invest so much money and time into this market. They come in as early as 4am. And if you’re a mother with kids, and you’re spending six days a week in the market, at these hours. When is the time for your family? What time are you spending with children? If you think about the human energies, [it] is layers on layers. You think about it as the daily strength and them carrying back and forth. But if you look at what is doing to their self esteem, what it’s doing to who they are as a person. [But] they have to pay for everything. If they wake up and wash their feet, they have to pay for that water, if they have to use the toilet, they have to pay for the water, if they have to sleep, they have to pay for it. So literally every day they have to go and carry [bales] to pay for the next day’s life.
With this programme, one thing that we realise is that some of the girls need to be immediately put off this Kayayei business. Part of our programme is a project that places the girls in apprentices programmes [with designers, artists and business professionals]. With this apprenticeship programme, they are not only the employees in the programme, they are supported with supplies that they may need for training. They are also paid a living wage, so they don’t have to think about ‘what do we eat’ on a daily basis. It will probably take a year for them to make any money out of it. We try to place them in a very compatible apprenticeship that they are interested in and then have monthly meetings where we try to share the experiences as they’re doing the apprenticeship; how they see things differently since they got in.
OUR ROLE
I had been going to Kantomanto way before I even knew about the Or Foundation. But even then, I went there mostly as a shopper, as a consumer. But then when I started really immersing myself and engaging with them, sitting in their stalls the whole day, listening to their stories, being there continually and surrounded by all of these clothes: that is literally waste that is literally putting you in death. So on many levels, it makes you look at things in so many different ways. It makes you really face your own privileges.
For us, it really starts with being conscious with yourself – understanding and reflecting upon yourself. How are we being a part of this problem? We [must] reflect and then think through the problems; and then where we stand within a problem [and] narrative. It is an all of us problem. One thing that you should know is that you do not centre anything around yourself. The more we [THE OR] do our work; the more we do our research; the more we have our findings: the more we understand layers, the more we work together as a team to find pathways to this work. And I mean, the name of our foundation is the OR foundation ‘or’ as in alternative, ‘or’ as in the other. That is what our work has been about. So [we have] a multi disciplinary approach to most of the projects and programmes that we run within our work. For us, research is nothing if it’s just research, [we need to] act on it.
THE CLEAN UP
In 2022 The Or Foundation brokered a complex deal. They got one of the largest players in fast fashion – Shein, to admit that their clothes may be flowing into Kantomanto and fueling vulnerable labour, environmental damage and unsafe market conditions. Together, The OR and SHEIN have created an Extended Producer Responsibility fund of 50 million dollars, based off EPR policy instituted in France. As the OR writes ‘the financial commitment (though not representative of the value of Kantamanto and other communities around the world working to clean up fashion’s waste crisis) is a vital tool to begin delivering the tangible change that [the] community within the Kantamanto ecosystem has been calling for’. To date, no other major fast fashion brand has admitted to the possible negative impacts of their dumping in the global south, or developed a similarly meaningful program with grassroots organisations to address it. It a groundbreaking move as this the first admission of its kind from a global fast fashion producer. It is a challenging task to ensure that these funds don’t become yet an other outlet for greenwashing.
It’s not like Shien, offered it [the money] – we actually asked for it. [We said] That this is what you need to pay back to clean up your mess. Because this is the first time that any of these fast fashion brands have actually admitted that their clothes might be ending up in Kantomanto. They have to take responsibility for the mess that has been created in that space. Shien people have no solutions, but they trust that people [in Ghana] have been working around solutions like this for a very long time. So this is to clean up the mess that they’ve already created in space. For anything to happen for any change to happen, it needs funding, it needs resources. So all of these brands, H&M, Zara, Nike, Adidas, they could have done the same. Admitting that there is a problem [is the first step]; the next step is to admit you are part of a problem. And step three is understanding from where you are, how you start taking action, real action. Real action involves education. Real action involves, lifestyle changes, Real action involves reflections Action involves all the things that we talk about, being conscious about your clothing, being conscious about so many things around you.
THE WAY FORWARD
Key to resolving social justice issues is understanding the approach of people who are already doing the work. And in this case, it is Kantamanto Market which the Or Foundation has been working with and in for over a decade. Kantomanto has effectively self-organised; managed the upcycling and/or disposal of billions of items of clothing; and provided employment, refuge and identity for many. In global conversations of circularity and sustainability, Kantomanto is an exemplary case study, but rarely spoken about or to on international platforms.
Real community values knowing that [they] have a support system. We are all followers and leaders and our own rights. And so nobody’s like really overstepping or thinking less of the other. That’s how it should really should exist. [For example] The way that Kantamanto exists – the retailer’s buy the stuff [bales]. If they’re not good, they’re menders in there, who they can send it to. The menders need it to be pressed, if it has stains or they have become washed out and they have to print over it, they have a space for that. So in that space, nobody sort of is ahead of each other. We need each other to survive in an economy. For us it’s really understanding that the problem is not the material waste level, there’s so many layers to it; human energy, human emotions, time…And that in itself makes you think of other solutions with this layer. If you’re looking at it as material waste, then how do you find solutions to that? If you’re thinking of it as human energy waste, what solutions are we looking [at]? And for us, that’s where it starts. “Most of the retailers working in markets are single mothers, some of them whose relationship, families, and husbands have literally crashed because they’ve [had to] invest so much money and time into this market. They come in as early as 4am. And if you’re a mother with kids, and you’re spending six days a week in the market, at these hours. When is the time for your family? What time are you spending with children?