The second-hand clothing trade and moral economic contestations over (re)distribution in Tanzania

Abstract

ABSTRACT Most clothing consumed in Tanzania is second-hand. The long-established trade in such clothes – locally known as mitumba – has proliferated since the 1980s and has sparked much debate. Critics consider the country's dependency on the import of discarded clothes an expression of the country's disadvantaged position in the global distribution of wealth. But mitumba also give consumers the opportunity to dress fashionably and provide small-scale traders a livelihood. This article, based on ethnographic observations and interviews combined with an analysis of archival sources, describes these debates in Tanzania, which resonate with contestations over the second-hand clothing trade in other countries in the Global South. However, a description of traders' and consumers' motivations shows that the mitumba debate is also based in country-specific contestations over nation-building and citizenship in relation to questions of distribution, redistribution, and economic justice. The debate therewith is an expression of wider moral-economic contestations in Tanzania.