Rags to ruin Market struggles to rebuild after blaze

Stallholders count the cost of a devastating fire that ripped through one of the world's biggest secondhand markets

- Sarah Johnson

It was a blaze that left two people dead and destroyed the fabric of one of the world's largest - secondhand clothes markets.

It also wiped out the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people in a matter of hours.

Two months on from the 1 January fire in Ghana's capital, Accra, the aluminium roofing has been replaced and wooden frames have been erected, but many stalls remain unfinished and empty. In the heart of the market, the sound of hammering and building work fills the air. Vendors mill around with little to sell. The narrow passageways once so rammed with customers there was a stampede two months ago - are easy to pass through.

Before the fire, Kantamanto was a complex of thousands of stalls crammed with clothes from brands including H&M, Levi Strauss, Primark and New Look. About 30,000 people depended on it to make a living.

The market is one of the biggest destinations in the world for secondhand garments - known locally as obroni wawu or "dead white person's clothes" - from countries in the global north.

"It has been tough for us since the fire. It's really crazy, it's very bad," said Richard Kwaku Kwakye, 37, standing in front of the area where he used to sell women's dresses. No clothing is in sight and the floor is rubble.

His stall, containing more than 100,000 Ghanaian cedis ($6,500) worth of goods, was burned to ashes in the fire, which started at about 10pm and destroyed two-thirds of the market. One person died as flames engulfed Kantamanto, and another died a few days afterwards of a heart attack. Despite rumours that it was arson, no cause has officially been identified.

"I couldn't retrieve a pin from the place. Nobody could," said Kwakye.

"That was how bad it was... it took 30 to 45 minutes to trace my spot."