Fashion in Africa, where the Indians won the Series

Here’s an interesting piece by Canadian journalist Sarah Petrescu, whom I bumped into in Kigali while she was here. It was the strangest of meetings–we have an old friend in common, and we shared a beer once, in New York, what feels like lifetimes ago: before either of us had a “real” job in journalism, before I’d been here, before, I venture to guess, Sarah herself thought she’d ever wind up here, too. We didn’t recognize each other, but she remembered my name when I said it out loud. Oh, the Kigali mini-mall, bringing together people who forgot each other existed.

Anyway, Sarah has a great piece on the Kimironko Market, an open-air-stall affair where you go to get all the things you need, from passion fruits to tailored pants. It’s a clever look at how donations to charity in the West turn into a hierarchical fashion market in the developing world, where…

“Each country has a different name for the cast-offs. In Rwanda, it is “Viety,” a reference to U.S. philanthropy reaching overseas after the Vietnam War. In Zambia, they call it salaula — which means to “rummage and pick.” In Zimbabwe, it is mupedzanhamo (where all problems end). And in Kenya and Tanzania, they’re called kafa ulaya (dead man’s clothes) or mitumba (bundles).”

Some of this is SalVal stuff, others the marginal cost, embodied, of operating big industries, like Major League Baseball:

Major-league sports teams print thousands of T-shirts and ball caps anticipating a winning season. Their leagues ban the loser’s swag on American soil and Ebay. Thus, the Cleveland Indians won last year’s World Series — at least in Ghana they did.”

You can read the story I just quoted from here, and a news story that explains how this all works here.

Meanwhile, I’m taking bids on “World Series Champions Cleveland Indians” caps.