The journey begins on the streets of a western city, where clothes are dropped off in charity bins by people have very little idea that their former wardrobes end up in Africa. Then, moves to a distributor who tells that the Salvation Army doesn't even unpack the donated clothing but sells it to companies for export to third-world countries. The trail continues to Zambia where an importer then sells clothes to individuals. You may ask, why didn't the Zambian clothing manufacturers do something? Actually when Zambia opened to free trade in 1991, loads of used clothing began to arrive Zambia container after container, undercutting the cost of the domestic manufacturers and putting them out of business. The entire clothing and textile industry in Zambia is now virtually extinct, with not a single clothing manufacturer left in the country today.
Having followed the t-shirts on their travels, the documentary raises more questions than it answers. Meanwhile, the twin problems of debt and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa remain as acute as they were when this film was made.
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