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Strapped and packed in bales like hay, the companies who export the goods sell them to commercial dealers in Africa, who mark up the bales of clothing a whopping three to four hundred percent. These dealers in turn sell to Africans like Luka Mafo, a 19-year-old Zambian who sells secondhand clothing to support his mother, brothers, sisters and cousins, hoping he can help them to stay in school and graduate. But Bloemen still wondered: Was it always this way? What happened to all of the Zambian clothing manufacturers? Mark O'Donnell, spokesperson for Zambian Manufacturers, explains that in 1991, when the country's markets were opened to free trade, container load after container load of used clothing began to arrive in Zambia, undercutting the cost of the domestic manufacturers and putting them out of business. The skills, the infrastructure and the capital of an entire industry are now virtually extinct, with not a single clothing manufacturer left in the country today. Many Zambians feel that the stringent economic policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, or the IMF, are to blame for their country’s insurmountable debt. Sophi Phiri, a corporate investment banker, says: "We don't have a political colonialism in Zambia, we have an economic colonialism. "If they [the World Bank] can control the shots that far then are we an independent state?" "What hope do Africa's creditors have of ever recouping their loans if Africa's workforce is hungry and sick and uneducated?" Bloemen asks. "If we continue to bend the economic lives of poorer nations to suit our purposes and only make things worse in the process, whom will be left to make good on the debt? Do we want to live in a world where one sixth of the population has no chance to even see their children grow up healthy?" The end of the film, having followed the T-shirts on their travels, leaves Bloemen with more questions than ever before. The film ends in 2001. In February 2004, filmmaker Shantha Bloemen reported: “Luka is doing well and may even be getting married sometime this year. Anna Backer, the film’s director of photography, and other viewers have helped to support the family. At the moment, the family is working on finishing a house they have build with brick and glass windows. It has taken a couple of years, but they have used the support we have sent to build as well as ensure that the kids stay in school. The sad news is that Maureen, Luka’s younger sister who appears in the documentary, tragically died in 2002. I am still not completely sure about the circumstances surrounding her death. On a more positive note though, Chiwesa, Luka’s brother is planning to complete his high school diploma next year.” Watch interviews with the people featured in T-SHIRT TRAVELS >> Learn more about Zambia, its history and the impact of debt >> Track the journey of a T-shirt from New York to Zambia >> top

