Understanding West Africa’s informal workers as working class

ABSTRACT

Informal workers in Africa are very often portrayed as primarily self-employed entrepreneurs and unemployed individuals largely excluded from capitalism, and thus insulated from class analysis and class dynamics. Drawing on a case study of informal workers in Sierra Leone, the article challenges this dominant understanding, arguing that informal workers experience the reality of class relations and that their material lives are shaped by, and help to shape, broader dynamics of capital accumulation. The research applies a holistic class analysis rooted in Marxist and feminist thought, arguing for an understanding of informal workers, including even small-scale ‘self-employed’ individuals, as workers exploited by, and opposed to the interests of, capital. In so doing, it challenges the simple understandings of working class as existing only and exclusively through formalised wage work, in favour of a more complex and inductive understanding of the reality of global capitalism, highlighting the relevance of class, value and exploitation to the lived reality of informal workers in Africa.

RÉSUMÉ

Les travailleurs informels en Afrique sont très souvent dépeints comme étant principalement des entrepreneurs indépendants et des particuliers sans emploi largement exclus du capitalisme, et donc isolés de l’analyse et de la dynamique de classe. S’appuyant sur une étude de cas de travailleurs informels en Sierra Leone, l’article remet en question cette conception dominante, en soutenant que les travailleurs informels vivent de plein fouet la réalité des relations de classe et que leurs vies matérielles sont façonnées par, et contribuent à façonner, des dynamiques plus larges d’accumulation du capital. La recherche applique une analyse de classe holistique enracinée dans la pensée marxiste et féministe, plaidant pour une compréhension des travailleurs informels, y compris les travailleurs indépendants à petite échelle, comme des travailleurs exploités par le capital et opposés à ses intérêts. Ce faisant, l’article remet en question la conception simple de la classe ouvrière comme existant uniquement et exclusivement à travers le travail salarié formalisé, en faveur d’une compréhension plus complexe et inductive de la réalité du capitalisme mondial, soulignant la pertinence de la classe sociale, de la valeur et de l’exploitation au regard de la réalité vécue par les travailleurs informels en Afrique.

KEYWORDS:

• Class
• West Africa
• informal workers
• Sierra Leone
• politics
• value

MOTS-CLÉS:

• Classe
• Afrique de l’Ouest
• travailleurs informels
• Sierra Leone
• politique
• valeur

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Sahr Kpundeh, Gibrilla Kamara, Isatu Bah, Chernoh Bah, Hawa Kangbai, Augustine Belewa, Abubakar Kamara, and the people of Sierra Leone for their hospitality in making this research possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 This article largely accepts and utilises the ILO’s latest definitions and methodologies for measuring informal employment and informality. See ILO (2018).

2 The latest ILO methodology takes into consideration the ‘final destination of production’, i.e. their figures ‘exclude from the scope of informal sector persons working in a farm or [informal] private business … where the main intended destination of the production is wholly for own final use’ (ILO 2018, 8). In other words, even when discussing informal workers in the agricultural sector, these figures do not consider wholly subsistence farmers. For a full explanation of the criteria for defining informal workers, see ILO (2018, 7–11).

3 Following the ILO’s definition, a worker is informal if in their work they are not ‘in law or in practice, subject to national labour legislation, income taxation, social protection or entitlement to certain employment benefits (advance notice of dismissal, severance pay, paid annual or sick leave, etc.)’ (ILO 2018, 27).

Additional information

Funding

The author gratefully acknowledges the support of the University of Pittsburgh through an Andrew Mellon Dissertation Research Fellowship.

Notes on contributors

Joshua Lew McDermott

Joshua McDermott is a visiting assistant professor of sociology at Utah State University. He will receive his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh. He is originally from Idaho.