Legal segmentation and early colonialism in sub-Saharan Africa: Informality and the colonial exploitative legal employment standard

Abstract

Labour markets in sub-Saharan Africa are characterized by a gendered division between formal and informal sectors. This article argues that this division originates from a rationality introduced by racist and gendered colonial legal segmentation, produced by a variety of legal regimes in and beyond employment law. Labour market segmentation in postcolonial settings cannot be understood or overcome without analysing the specific colonial institutional origins of the commodification of labour. In sub-Saharan Africa, the “colonial exploitative legal employment standard” that commodified labour focused on black African male employees for European employers, excluding or marginalizing women and domestic labour relations.