WOVEN FATES

© Natalija Gormalova - Image from the WOVEN FATES photography project © Natalija Gormalova - Image from the WOVEN FATES photography project © Natalija Gormalova - Image from the WOVEN FATES photography project View all images ↓
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Woven Fates explores the impact of textile waste in Ghana, driven by fast fashion from the Global North, focusing on kayayei women who bear the burden while highlighting their resilience and fight for dignity amid hardship.

Woven Fates is an ongoing multimedia documentary project exploring the devastating impact of textile waste pollution in Ghana. Driven by fast fashion overconsumption in the Global North, Ghana has become a major importer of second-hand clothing, known locally as obroni wawu or "dead white man's clothes." This influx is a direct legacy of fashion colonialism—where Western overproduction and consumer waste are offloaded onto the Global South under the guise of charity and trade. While Kantamanto market sustains thousands of traders, transporters, and tailors, the environmental toll is immense—low-quality garments quickly become waste, overwhelming landfills and polluting coastal ecosystems.

Many young women, known as kayayei, migrate to Accra due to climate change and economic hardship in northern Ghana, earning meager wages by carrying heavy bales of second-hand clothes. These loads, sometimes exceeding 55 kg, lead to severe spinal injuries, symbolizing their broader struggles with poverty, gender inequality, and urban hardship.

Kayayei live in Agbogbloshie, Accra’s largest slum and one of the world’s biggest e-waste dumping sites, where textile and plastic waste compound pollution. Burning e-waste releases toxic chemicals, contaminating air, soil, and water, and causing severe health conditions.

In early 2025, a devastating fire destroyed much of Kantamanto market, leaving over 10,000 businesses in ruins and countless livelihoods at risk. For the kayayei, this tragedy means losing their ability to support themselves and their families, adding to an already uncertain future.

Through layered portraits of kayayei women, polluted landscapes of Accra’s beaches, and burned remains of Kantamanto market, Woven Fates exposes the intersection of fast fashion, capitalism, colonial legacies, and environmental injustice, revealing how Western consumption patterns continue to exploit and burden the Global South.

© Natalija Gormalova - Image from the WOVEN FATES photography project
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A kayayei is carrying a heavy load through the busy streets of Kantamanto, Accra's largest second-hand market earning only a few cedis (a few dollars) a day.

© Natalija Gormalova - Image from the WOVEN FATES photography project
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The Kantamanto Market, situated in the central business district of Accra, is Ghana’s largest second-hand clothes market with around 30,000 traders. Every week, Kantamanto Market in Accra receives approximately 15 million pieces of second-hand clothing from the Global North.

© Natalija Gormalova - Image from the WOVEN FATES photography project
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This is heavily polluted Jamestown Beach in Accra.The textile waste, often originating from the nearby market Kantamanto, accumulates alongside plastic trash contaminating the sand and water. The relentless tide brings in more waste each day, further exacerbating the pollution.

© Natalija Gormalova - Image from the WOVEN FATES photography project
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Kids are walking on the heavily polluted Jamestown Beach in Accra, littered with textile waste and plastic debris. Local fishing communities are struggling as the polluted waters affect fish populations, and the hazardous conditions threaten their health and livelihoods.

© Natalija Gormalova - Image from the WOVEN FATES photography project
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Rahina, a kayayei, takes a brief moment to rest after carrying a heavy bale under the intense heat of Accra. Once forced to sleep in the market, she now shares a cramped room with ten other kayayei girls in Agbogbloshie, one of the city’s most overcrowded and impoverished slums.

© Natalija Gormalova - Image from the WOVEN FATES photography project
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Saida, a kayayei at Kantamanto market, carries heavy loads that strain her neck and spine, leaving her in constant pain. Despite the physical toll, she endures the hardship to support her family and send money to her child in the North, driven by the need to provide a better future.

© Natalija Gormalova - Image from the WOVEN FATES photography project
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In the cramped space of a single room in Agbogbloshie slum, Rahina braids her friend's hair, one of ten kayayei girls sharing the tiny quarters.

© Natalija Gormalova - Image from the WOVEN FATES photography project
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A cow rests atop a man-made mountain of waste in the heart of Agbogbloshie, a densely populated slum, home to an estimated 80,000 residents.

© Natalija Gormalova - Image from the WOVEN FATES photography project
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A rubbish collector carries trash to the top of a sprawling man-made mountain of waste in the center of the densely populated Agbogbloshie slum.

© Natalija Gormalova - Image from the WOVEN FATES photography project
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In early 2025, a devastating fire destroyed much of Kantamanto market, leaving over 10,000 businesses in ruins and countless livelihoods at risk

© Natalija Gormalova - Image from the WOVEN FATES photography project
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Traders and kayayei at Kantamanto market sift through the ashes, searching for anything they can salvage after a devastating fire ravaged the market earlier this year, leaving over 10,000 businesses in ruins.

© Natalija Gormalova - Image from the WOVEN FATES photography project
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Kayayei watch the fire burning Kantamanto market, balancing empty bowls on their heads, a poignant symbol of the uncertainty and hardship they now face.

© Natalija Gormalova - Image from the WOVEN FATES photography project
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Amina, a kayayei at Kantamanto market in Accra, faces an uncertain future after a devastating fire tore through the market, destroying many businesses and leaving countless livelihoods at risk, including her own.

© Natalija Gormalova - Image from the WOVEN FATES photography project
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Hardworking hands of kayayei and the burnt remnants of bookkeeping—personal prayers, sales records, and dreams of a better future—reduced to ashes by the devastating fire. Despite the destruction, the Kantamanto community stands united, determined to rebuild and rise again.