Mitumba – a woman’s best friend?

Some call it the leftovers of the dead white people, kafa Ulaya, and others refer to it simply as the big, plastic bundles that it arrives in, the mitumba. When you rip the plastic bales apart; second-hand skirts, dresses, shirts and bras in all styles and sizes sprawl to a new life after having been abandoned in places like Canada, South Korea and the UK. The second-hand clothes are more than just a few old rags; they are a source of a fashionable life and a means of income. To many women the mitumba are not simply leftovers of a Western shopaholic, but a way to spice up a wardrobe and dress in quality.

“Every woman likes to change her clothes maybe two or three times a day, but in an economy like ours you can’t afford to go to the new shops, so instead you can buy mitumba when you want to change your wardrobe. And mitumba is of good quality. Even though it might be a bit old, you can find the latest fashion – especially as former times’ fashion is coming back,” says Shamim, who lives in Upanga, Dar es Salaam. When the mitumba trade was still little known in the 90s she used to buy quality clothes in Manzese, pass them by a dry cleaner and then sell them at offices in town. The people in the offices loved the clothes. Today she likes to combine mitumba with new clothes she buys on her travels to Europe or India. Among the used clothes she has found clothes and shoes of high-end brands like Chanel and Gucci.

“In Europe they sell clothes for 20 to 40 dollars for something that looks very cheap. Compared to that, you find mitumba clothes here that look very new and are very long-lasting,” Shamim says.

Tanzania is among African countries that import the most used garments. In 2013 Tanzania imported clothes worth 23 million US dollars from the US alone, according to figures from the United Nations.

The used garments is an entire industry cutting across borders and continents with containers full of used clothes being traded from Western countries to the African markets and into the everyday wardrobes of millions of people. However, the cheap second-hand clothes come with a price. Critics point out that they contribute to a circle of poverty, since second-hand clothes soak up the market and ruin opportunities for African textile industries. Last month the East African Community members discussed to phase out import of clothes during the coming three years, while at the same time increasing local production of textile. But will it be able to replace mitumba?

The three houses built on used clothes

At the market in Ilala, Dar es Salaam, Lucy Joseph, 46, sits in her stall surrounded by a wall of skirts in simple dark colours, far from the vivid patterns on African textiles. Most of them are from South Korea. She has been selling different kinds of second-hand clothes from this very spot since 1993. She leaves her home in Mbezi Beach at five in the morning and passes by Mnazi Mmoja to pick her clothes from a warehouse before she brings it with the bus to Ilala. For Shs200,000 she can buy a bundle of 45 kilograms with mixed skirts, while for Shs900,000 she can buy 100 kilograms of silk skirts. With the money she has earned from selling clothes, she has built three houses around Dar es Salaam and sent her four children to school.

If imports of used clothes is banned she will leave her stall and sell new clothes from a shop, but mitumba have actual qualities, she explains.

“I believe that Tanzania is able to produce its own clothes, but the quality of mitumba is good and all people can afford to wear it,” Lucy says.

She sells her skirts for Shs1,000 to Shs2,000 per piece, or Shs500 when it is wholesale, and it is bought by people of different social realms. A customer stops by her stall and inspects a black pencil skirt. “It is a size 12 in UK measurements,” Lucy explains to the customer, “so it is quite wide”.

On the skirt a white tag indicates that it once cost “$ 4,99” and with pink ink it says “Savers”. But it does not mean that the cloth is new. Lucy explains that the clothes are used but middlemen put the tags on the skirts. “If you buy a new piece of cloth, you would always remove the tag. These clothes are not all new,” she says.

From charity to trade

The second-hand clothes often originate from Western charity shops and containers for used garments. According to research by the lecturer in development geography Andrew Brooks from King’s College in London, only 10 to 30 per cent of the clothes that people donate to the charity shops are actually sold in the shop. The rest of the clothes are bought by firms who sort, grade and pack the clothes in bundles for export. Many of those bundles end up in Tanzania.

To Lucy life as a mitumba trader has seen better days. She looks around her stall at the others who trade used clothes and draws the conclusion: “There are too many people who sell mitumba now compared to before. And these days it is hard to find the grade A clothes. They go to Kenya and Zimbabwe instead,” she says.

Pendo Hansy, 26, also sells second-hand skirts at the market in Ilala. She has done so for two years, and she is very satisfied with her business. She buys bales of clothes in Temeke every week and sells the clothes as whole sale in the morning hours to smaller clothes vendors for Shs5,000 to Shs10,000 per piece. She also prefers to wear mitumba herself.

“It is of nice quality and it lasts long, and it is not like the new Chinese clothes that you see everyone wearing,” she says.

In Makumbusho, Dar es Salaam, Winnie Joseph, 25, sits and waits for customers outside her shop with second-hand children’s clothes. She opened the small shop with glass windows and tiled floors two years ago, and in it hang girls’ dresses with flowers on and striped shirts for boys. She grew up with mitumba. Both her mother and father traded the clothes and she decided to continue in their footsteps. The last couple of months business has been low and when she opens the bundles of clothes she buys in Kariakoo, there is a risk of an unpleasant surprise.

“Buying a bundle is a risk. Because it might say ‘pants’ on the outside, but when you open it you find that it is something completely different,” she says.

She has heard of the proposed ban on imports of used garments, but she almost can’t imagine her life without mitumba.

“My life, my family depend on mitumba. What will we do if they decide to close it down? With mitumba you can survive even if you are at the bottom, because you can buy little, sell it and still survive. You can’t do that with factories,” Winnie says.

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