Stefano Bellucci & Andreas Eckert 
General Labour History of Africa 
Workers, Employers and Governments, 20th-21st Centuries

The first comprehensive and authoritative history of work and labour in Africa; a key text for all working on African Studies and Labour History worldwide.






Co-published with the International Labour Organization on the centenary of its founding in 1919, the General Labour History of Africa is a landmark in the study of labour history. It brings, for the first time, an African perspective within a global context to the study of labour and labour relations. The volume analyses key developments in the 20th century, such as the emergence of free wage labour; the transformation in labour relations; the role of capital and employers; labour agency and movements; the growing diversity of formal and informal or precarious labour; the meaning of work; and the impact of gender and age on the workplace.

The contributors – eminent historians, anthropologists and social scientists from Africa, Europe and the United States – examine African labour in the context of labour and social issues worldwide: mobility and colonial and postcolonial migration, forced labour, security, the growth of entrepreneurial labour, the informal sector and self-employment, and the impact of trade unionism, welfare and state relations. The book discusses key sectors such as mining, agriculture, industry, transport, domestic work, and sport, tourism and entertainment, as well as the international dimension and the history and impact of the International Labour Organization itself. This authoritative and comprehensive work will be an invaluableresource for historians of labour, social relations and African history.


In association with the ILO Regional Office for Africa


Stefano Bellucci is senior researcher at the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, and lecturer in African History and Economy at Leiden University, the Netherlands; Andreas Eckert is Director of the International Research Centre for Work and the Human Life Cycle in Global History and professor of African history at Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.

Table of Content

Foreword by Cynthia Samuel-Olonjuwon, ILO Assistant Director General and Regional Director for Africa

Introduction: The ‘Labour Question’ in Africanist Historiography – Stefano Bellucci and Andreas Eckert

Part I: Free and Unfree Labour

Wage labour – Andreas Eckert

Precarious and Informal Labour – Franco Barchiesi

Forced Labour – Babacar Fall and Richard L. Roberts

Part II: Key Sectors

Agriculture – Julia Tischler

Mining – Carolyn A. Brown

Industry and Manufacturing – Patrick Neveling

Transport – Stefano Bellucci

Part III: International Dimensions and Mobility

The International Labour Organization – Luca Puddu and Daniel Roger Maul and Hakeem Ibikunle Tijani

Labour Migration – Helena Pérez-Niño

Part IV Varieties of Work

Domestic Work – Deborah Fahy Bryceson

Military and Pollice – Michelle R. Moyd and Joël Glasman

Crime and Illegal Work – Laurent Fourchard

White-Collar Workers – Dmitri van den Bersselaar

Entertainment, Sport and Tourism – Andreas Admasie

Part V: Entrepreneurs and Self-Employment

Capitalists and Labour in Africa – Gareth Austin

Entrepreneurial Labour – Sara S. Berry

Professionals and Executives – Rory Pilossof

Part VI: The State, Unions and Welfare

Labour and the State – Akua O. Britwum and Leyla Dakhli

Trade Unions – Bill Freund

Social Welfare – Ben Scully and Rana Jawad

Mutualism and Cooperative Work – Samuel A. Nyanchoga

Part VII: Conclusions

The Labour Question in Africa and the World – Frederick Cooper