Enchanting the worn-out: the craft of selling second-hand things at Milnerton Market, Cape Town

Abstract

This paper considers the trade in second-hand things at Milnerton Market, Cape Town. We describe the labour of traders in making these worn-out objects into saleable products, detailing the displays and discussions which are integral to their valorisation. We show that Milnerton becomes imagined by traders and customers as an alternative to routine shopping at malls and boutique stores. The critical work of protecting and maintaining this alternative form of sociality is enabled by the policing of what can be sold of the market. This work of demarcation is intimately bound to racialised notions of value. In our conclusion, we bring international research on flea markets together with recent South African writings on consumption to consider how alternative trade may assert racial identity in post-apartheid South Africa.