Working to Survive: Africans Coping and Organizing in Crumbling Economies

Abstract

Deborah Fahy Bryceson, ed. How Africa Works: Occupational Change, Identity and Morality. Bourton on Dunsmore, U.K.: Practical Action Publishing, 2010. v+ 299 pp. Bibliography by Chapter. Index. $39.95. Paper. Ilda Lindell, ed. Africa's Informal Workers: Collective Agency, Alliances and Transnational Organizing in Urban Africa. London: Zed Books & Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2010. viii +238 pp. Bibliography. Index. No price reported. Paper. These two collections address the travails of working in Africa, and both depict die difficult circumstances in which is conducted - especially the corrupt, uninformed, indifferent, or destructive effects of neocolonialism, neoliberalism, and the activities of individual states. As Deborah Bryceson states, households necessitate, communities motivate, markets incentivize and states regulate occupational pursuits of individuals (22), and her compilation considers issues of from a number of points of view and in several country settings. Lindell 's collection is much more focused, and is integrated by its center of attention upon the organization of workers in die informal economy of African cities. My reading of the two books led to somewhat different assessments. I reacted to Bryceson's collection with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the case studies included are all first-rate; with one or two exceptions, they are thoughtful and thorough. At the same time, I felt as if I were in a time warp, in that the chapters related to a period over a decade in die past. It's as if they had been on a shelf gathering dust for ten years. In many ways the economic devastation, the neoliberal programs of the IFIs (though now with a new and soothing vocabulary), and the largely corrupt states continue. However, conditions affecting the case studies from Nigeria, Kenya, Guinea-Bissau, Cameroon, Tanzania, South Africa, DRC, and the continent in general have altered. For example, China has entered the scene, neoliberalism has advanced, globalization is growing, urbanward migration is mounting, and so on; the datedness matters, because the surrounding context has changed. Bryceson has produced numerous vital publications, but this, unfortunately, is not one of them. There is very litde that is novel here in the discussions of SAPs, migration to African cities, economic difficulty, and interfering governments. The empirical investigations are set in the 1990s, and the references (with very few exceptions) are to publications up to the same period. The underlying theme is that relates to social identity, empathy, and trust. As Bryceson writes, people seek self-esteem and a sense of social worth through work (5). Yes, but that's not innovative, it's well known. Even the conceptual basis for the organization of the studies into tiiree groups is not explained, nor is it evident to this reader. However, several individual studies, though dated, are worthy ventures. In chapter 8 Ilda Lindell queries the linkages among work, social networks, and identity formation among die disadvantaged workers in the informal economy of Bissau (the capital of Guinea-Bissau). She concludes that urban informal workers invest in a variety of social networks and make use of multiple identities in order to survive in the contemporary environment (161). In a study that is neady contextualized within the literature on unions in Africa and the history of plantation labor in Ndu, Piet Konings (chapter 12) considers trade union identity among plantation workers in Cameroon and the effects of structural adjustment at a subnational level. The corporation running the plantation eventually became bankrupt, aided by the weak national economy, cheap imports, and massive embezzlement. In Sweet and Sour (chapter 9), Marjorie Mbilinyi investigates how women have gained in economic power through increased labor force participation and innovative earning ventures. …