The Boom of Urban ‘Informal’ Labour in Postcolonial Africa: Insights from Kinshasa, DRC

2024-25 Fung Global Fellow Kleoniki Alexopoulou examines the transformation of post-independence African societies into “petty markets,” especially since the onset of neoliberal policies (1980s-1990s), focusing on the case of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

It begins by analyzing the colonial legacy that continues to shape labor dynamics, before exploring the rapid expansion of urban precarity and the rise of the “informal labor” or alternatively “petty production,” in the aftermath of the Structural Adjustment Programs imposed by International Organizations such as the IMF and the World Bank. Drawing on empirical evidence from interviews with informal workers in various sectors, the study highlights the lived experiences of workers and the ways in which informal labor functions, on the one hand, as a space of exercised agency, and on the other hand, as a reproduction mechanism of the global economic order. However, the study also demonstrates how informal institutions of collective action, exemplified by the so-called Tontine system, have reshaped the market into a network of not just individuals, but also local communities and social groups forming solidarity bonds. Ultimately, it argues that informal labor represents a survival strategy, between agency and structure in the face of both historical and contemporary socio-economic pressures.