In hard times, when "looking within" just isn't working, it's easy to look around you for little things that make you happy. While food (via cooking and self-taught nutrition lessons) has captivated my attention lately, I was recently reminded of one of my first loves: shopping!
Many of the Malawians I've spoken to buy clothing at a second-hand market, where they have every item (in every brand) that you can imagine. And so after weeks of trying to convince someone to take me, I decided to dive in head first, and explore the second-hand market. This past Saturday, my friend Eric and I walked through our favorite vegetable market across a tiny bridge to get the infamous "kawunjika" of Lilongwe. I watched groups of women sifting through piles of clothes, trying to grab the latest fashion before then next woman would. I tried on countless pairs of really skinny jeans and after negotiating down from an initial price of 1500 Malawian kwacha, I settled on a slightly looser pair at Mk500 (just over US$3). I left three hours later feeling very accomplished, and very tired...
As I reflected on my exhaustion, and how I wouldn't have the energy to regularly haggle at the kawunjika, I remembered a very different form of shopping I was recently introduced to.
From time to time, a saleswoman comes by the office selling something: jewelry, homemade spicy mango something-or-other, office supplies...Two weeks ago, a woman came by selling just what I needed: brand new clothes.
To my surprise, I learned that Malawi has a textile industry. Companies particularly in South Africa and Canada contract with a factory in Blantyre and have their clothing mass produced. I was surprised to learn this, given the hundreds of clothes "Made in Mexico" or "Made in Tawain" or "Made in [insert non-African country]" I've purchased over the years. Malawi's textile industry, I discovered upon inquiry, exists, but is not on the mass scale that other countries have been able to capitalize on.
Could it be, as Sema-Banda wrote a few years ago, that the dwindling cotton industry is the root of low textile export? Or is the "Made in Malawi" brand so little known because exports have been stunted due to competition from the second-hand market? I bought a brand new "Made in Malawi" blouse at Mk1000 (US$6), though I'm told I could negotiate down to Mk300 or less (<US$3) for the same shirt in the market.
Or maybe, as Pereira eloquently blogged about, it's much more complicated than that. There's a history of the textile industry here that must be considered from the 1994 structural adjustment policies (SAPs) that introduced a liberal trade policy, to Malawi's importing of fabric (despite being a cotton producer), to two key elements "private investment and the political will to entice that investment."
My recent shopping adventures have stimulated my curiosity on Malawi's textile industry while reminding me of Dr. Edozie's undergraduate course where we read and discussed "T-Shirt Travels," a story on how the clothes we give away "to charity" in the U.S. actually have significant impacts on developing country's economies. I won't bore you with jargon, but needless to say, I've discovered two exciting forms of shopping that I just wouldn't be able to do in the U.S. My pocketbook needs to take a break but I'm sure I'll have plenty of updates (and several new clothing items) over the coming weeks.
Many of the Malawians I've spoken to buy clothing at a second-hand market, where they have every item (in every brand) that you can imagine. And so after weeks of trying to convince someone to take me, I decided to dive in head first, and explore the second-hand market. This past Saturday, my friend Eric and I walked through our favorite vegetable market across a tiny bridge to get the infamous "kawunjika" of Lilongwe. I watched groups of women sifting through piles of clothes, trying to grab the latest fashion before then next woman would. I tried on countless pairs of really skinny jeans and after negotiating down from an initial price of 1500 Malawian kwacha, I settled on a slightly looser pair at Mk500 (just over US$3). I left three hours later feeling very accomplished, and very tired...
As I reflected on my exhaustion, and how I wouldn't have the energy to regularly haggle at the kawunjika, I remembered a very different form of shopping I was recently introduced to.
From time to time, a saleswoman comes by the office selling something: jewelry, homemade spicy mango something-or-other, office supplies...Two weeks ago, a woman came by selling just what I needed: brand new clothes.
To my surprise, I learned that Malawi has a textile industry. Companies particularly in South Africa and Canada contract with a factory in Blantyre and have their clothing mass produced. I was surprised to learn this, given the hundreds of clothes "Made in Mexico" or "Made in Tawain" or "Made in [insert non-African country]" I've purchased over the years. Malawi's textile industry, I discovered upon inquiry, exists, but is not on the mass scale that other countries have been able to capitalize on.
Could it be, as Sema-Banda wrote a few years ago, that the dwindling cotton industry is the root of low textile export? Or is the "Made in Malawi" brand so little known because exports have been stunted due to competition from the second-hand market? I bought a brand new "Made in Malawi" blouse at Mk1000 (US$6), though I'm told I could negotiate down to Mk300 or less (<US$3) for the same shirt in the market.
Or maybe, as Pereira eloquently blogged about, it's much more complicated than that. There's a history of the textile industry here that must be considered from the 1994 structural adjustment policies (SAPs) that introduced a liberal trade policy, to Malawi's importing of fabric (despite being a cotton producer), to two key elements "private investment and the political will to entice that investment."
My recent shopping adventures have stimulated my curiosity on Malawi's textile industry while reminding me of Dr. Edozie's undergraduate course where we read and discussed "T-Shirt Travels," a story on how the clothes we give away "to charity" in the U.S. actually have significant impacts on developing country's economies. I won't bore you with jargon, but needless to say, I've discovered two exciting forms of shopping that I just wouldn't be able to do in the U.S. My pocketbook needs to take a break but I'm sure I'll have plenty of updates (and several new clothing items) over the coming weeks.
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| A small-scale version of market shopping: piles of clothes are left for the buyer to sort through and select. |
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| The shirt I bought. |
Very cute shirt! I personally don't like the bargaining process and sifting through clothes. I like the idea of the person bringing the clothes to me though!
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