A ban on used clothing imports isn’t the answer – Uganda must find homegrown solutions | Bobby Kolade

Secondhand fashion supports many livelihoods, but by nurturing local resources the country can wean itself off the used rag trade

“Stop buying secondhand clothes, these clothes are for dead people.” At the opening ceremony of the Sino-Uganda Mbale industrial park in late August, our president announced an unexpected ban on imported secondhand clothes. The audience responded to Yoweri Museveni’s rhetoric with laughter. A dead white person’s clothes being packed and shipped to Uganda is a compelling image with which to galvanise the masses.

But secondhand clothes don’t come from the dead. That’s not how fast-fashion systems work. People don’t die quickly enough for fast fashion, only trends do.