Hey, this is Sham, your very own news curator. I’m in Milan right now, during fashion week, and all I can think about is slow fashion and why we’re so not there yet.
Issue #397 is therefore about the grave consequences of fast fashion on the world, specifically on African countries, and a high-profile case in the DRC that also includes a lot of foreign citizens. Plus, a YouTuber’s fun self-experiment in said slow fashion, why the Toyota Land Cruiser has become some sort of a power symbol in many African countries, a conversation about Gazan art, Digital Media Africa 2024, and so much more.
That's it from me. Catch you in your inbox next week!
Sham
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🔍 Estimated reading time: 10 min 🔍
You have access to all of my sources by clicking on what's underlined.
Big shout-out to Wikimedia Commons for the helpful maps.
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The global fashion industry is hurting African countries — new report
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What happened
A new report from Greenpeace Africa and Greenpeace Germany is shedding light on the massive environmental and public health issues caused by the global secondhand clothing trade, especially in Ghana.
Why this matters: The fast fashion industry is wreaking havoc on the environment, especially in Africa. Brands are producing more clothing than the world can handle, and once the trend is over, the clothes are discarded. Unfortunately, a lot of this waste ends up in poorer countries. Activists are saying it’s time to rethink our approach to fashion—prioritizing quality over quantity and tackling the throwaway culture that’s fueling this crisis.
Tell me more
The report highlights how discarded clothes from wealthier nations (mostly fast fashion) are severely impacting Ghana’s environment and communities. Millions of items are shipped there every week, but almost half are unusable. These clothes often end up in informal dumpsites or are burned in public areas, causing serious air, soil, and water pollution, which threatens the health of local people.
Zoom out: Ghana isn’t alone in this. The secondhand clothing trade is widespread across Africa, including in countries like Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, and Uganda.
Why do they burn them?
The quality of secondhand clothes has dropped significantly. In Kenya, for instance, about 458 million of the 900 million used clothes imported in 2021 were essentially worthless. Traders often discard 20–50% of the clothes they buy because they’re in such bad condition.
Did you know? African activists are taking on fast fashion. Mamba Online‘s Angelo C Louw introduces four of them. For example, Joseph Obel (Kenya) creates costumes using recycled materials (after realizing how much the film and theatre industry contributes to fast fashion by designing new costumes with every production which pile up in a corner afterwards). Sammy Oteng (Ghana) also repurposes secondhand clothing while exploring issues of neo-colonialism, sexuality and gender fluidity. Craig Jacobs (South Africa) built a sustainability brand, Fundudzi by Craig Jacobs. Chemitei Janet (Kenya) is a slow fashion educator on social media, encouraging mindful clothing habits.
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37 people have been sentenced to death in the DRC in a high-profile case
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What happened
37 people, including citizens from the US, UK, Belgium, and Canada, have been sentenced to death in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for attempting to overthrow the president. BBC’s Wedaeli Chibelushi reports on this high-profile case.
Why this matters: Although the DRC hasn’t carried out a death sentence in about 20 years, the government ended its moratorium on capital punishment in March, citing the need to purge “traitors” from the military. So far, no death penalties have been enforced under this new policy.
Refresher: President Félix Tshisekedi, re-elected in a disputed election last December with 78% of the vote, has faced growing unrest. An attempted coup began on May 19, when armed men, dressed in military uniforms, attacked both the home of Vital Kamerhe (the parliamentary speaker) and the presidential residence in Kinshasa.
Tell me more
Fifty-one people were tried in a military court, with the trial aired on national TV and radio. Fourteen individuals were acquitted, while the remaining 37 were found guilty of taking part in the attack. The plot’s alleged leader, Christian Malanga, a US national of Congolese descent, was killed during the coup attempt, along with five others.
Who were the foreign citizens?
- Marcel Malanga, one of the US citizens sentenced to death, is Christian Malanga’s son. He testified that his father had threatened to kill him if he didn’t join the coup.
- Tyler Thompson, a friend of Marcel’s and also sentenced to death, grew up playing football with him in Utah. His family expressed shock, saying they had no idea how Tyler had ended up in the DRC.
- Benjamin Zalman-Polun, another U.S. citizen sentenced to death, had business ties to Christian Malanga.
- Jean-Jacques Wondo, a dual Belgian-Congolese citizen, is a political researcher. Human Rights Watch described the evidence against him as weak.
- The court also sentenced a British national, Youssouf Ezangi, and a Canadian of Congolese descent to death. Ezangi was said to have helped recruit participants for the coup.
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Bad
Zimbabwe: Two men have been arrested on sodomy charges after seeking police assistance to resolve a domestic dispute. (PinkNews)
Ethiopia: Only 5.4% of the country’s high school students passed this year’s university entrance exams. It’s a bit better than last year though (3.3%).
Tunisia: The government jailed a leading opposition figure ahead of next month’s election. Ayachi Zammel is one of two candidates approved to run against President Kais Saied. (Middle East Monitor)
Taiwan: The Constitutional Court in Taiwan upholds the legality of the death penalty in the country, but limits its use to the "most serious crimes". (Time)
Mali: The death toll from the JNIM's attacks days ago against a military camp in Bamako and Modibo Keita International Airport is confirmed to be at least 77 people killed and around 200 others injured. (Al Jazeera)
Israel/Gaza: The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child accused Israel of severe violations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child through its military's actions in the Gaza Strip. (Reuters)
New Caledonia: Two New Caledonian independence activists were killed by police during an operation in Saint-Louis over their alleged involvement in the ongoing riots. (AP)
Syria: Three children are killed and a fourth child from the same family is injured, when a land mine in a plastic bag exploded near a park in Manbij, Aleppo Governorate, Syria. (SOHR)
Mexico: Mexican Secretary of Defense Luis Cresencio Sandoval announced that at least 30 people have been killed since September 9 during shootouts between rival factions of the Sinaloa Cartel in Sinaloa. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obradorpartially blamed the United States for the surge in violence. (AP)
Russia: Doctors Without Borders halted its operations in Russia after its government removed the organization from its roster of approved foreign charities. (Al Jazeera)
Myanmar: At least 226 people have been confirmed dead after Typhoon Yagi caused severe flooding in several regions of Myanmar. Some 77 people remain missing, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported on Tuesday, citing official figures. (Al Jazeera)
Interesting...
Venezuela: The European Parliament recognizes Venezuelan exiled presidential candidate Edmundo González as the country's president. (Politico.eu)
Sri Lanka: People in Sri Lanka voted in the country’s presidential elections last weekend. They voted to elect the South Asian nation’s 10th president. (LiveMint)
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Read… "Toyota Land Cruiser, and the rise and fall of the 21st-century African state" (link to article) by Charles Onyango-Obbo for The Pan African Review. Charles Onyango-Obbo dives into how Toyotas became the go-to ride in Africa, thanks to big shifts after independence, the 1987 Chadian-Libyan War, and now the Sudan conflict. He highlights how the brand became a power move for the elite, overshadowing Land Rovers and Peugeots. But it's not just about looking “cool”—Toyotas are tough, and their ruggedness makes them the perfect choice for both leaders and warzones alike.
Check out... Digital Media Africa 2024 ( website). The conference took place last week at The Aga Khan University in Nairobi, Kenya, bringing together over 150 media professionals and experts from Africa and Europe. The conference focused on accelerating digital transformation in African newsrooms, with discussions on securing digital revenue, the role of AI in journalism, and strategies to engage younger audiences.
Listen to... "Gaza: Art History & Lost Monuments" ( link to podcast), a podcast interview between Barakat and Leena Ghannam about Gazan art and architecture. Leena is Assistant Curator for the AlMadar galleries in the Islamic Arts Biennale 2025. In this episode, she talks about a side of Gaza that I rarely get to hear about—its art, architecture, and rich history. Leena dives into the incredible cultural heritage of the region, from ancient temples of Aphrodite to modern art, sharing stories about Gaza's monuments, like the Saint Porphydias Church, the oldest active church in the city, which stood for centuries before its recent destruction.
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Milan made me watch this | In this longer YouTube video, the creator Bekah Sun shares their journey of quitting fast fashion. They talk about strategies that helped them break free from the fast fashion cycle, and some common critiques they encountered, like whether slow fashion is too expensive or size-inclusive. They also recommend two thought-provoking articles and talk about their favorite wardrobe staples. Toward the end, they also discuss the concept of “fast beauty” and how it parallels fast fashion.
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In an unexpected proposal to boost Russia’s declining birthrate, President Vladimir Putin has suggested that workers take their lunch and coffee breaks to, well, get busy and have… sex.
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Hey, I'm Sham, the person behind this newsletter. Since 2014, I email a bunch of strangers once a week, curating news headlines from Asia, Africa and the Americas. I work under the assumption that, here in the West (I live in Berlin, Germany), we don't read or know much about the global majority, aka the rest of the world.
My goal is to help you burst your Western-centric bubble.
If you want to know more about me, visit my website or follow me on Twitter or Instagram.
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