These are the markets that sell used Western clothing. Basically, the local Goodwill. Clothes that are given away to charity are boxed up and shipped here. Vendors buy them by the kilo off the trucks and then take them to market. Sometimes they are sorted for speciality vendors, mostly jeans and button down men's shirts.
Again, if I haven't mentioned it before, toubab is a general slang term for white person. Ian and I disagree on weather or not dead toubab is a term used by Peace Corps volunteers alone or Malian's alike. Regardless, the markets are called "dead toubab" markets because, here, they think that the clothes must come from dead white people, otherwise, why would they be given away, they are in perfectly fine condition. How's that for a little perspective...
Anyway, a funny side effect of these markets tends to be found in the t-shirts you see around here. I don't know about you, but most of the things I find myself giving to Goodwill are t-shirts of all kinds. Ones I bought for charity, got for free, the works. I collect them and purge them annually, it seems. Well, many of those shirts end up here. I've seen corporate t-shirts, fun run shirts, high school track team shirts, and on and on...Oftentimes, they are totally out of context as in a couple I've seen recently. I have to share these two...
A slim and very tone 20 year old man in a turquoise and pink Curves t-shirt. You know, the woman's work out chain...
A young Muslim man, going to pray wearing a t-shirt that read in very large print, "Catholics Rock!"
