A Conversation About Gig Work, in the African Context

So what exactly is this “Gig Work” everyone is suddenly raving about?

“Gig work” typically refers to any short-term or part-time work carried out by temporary workers or employees; the term originates from the American word gig, which was used to refer to bookings and engagements by musical performers, and that concept of a time-limited engagement has carried over into this “second life” for the phrase. In practical terms, a gig worker is your bus or lorry driver that parks somewhere and waits for passengers. A gig worker is also your caterer that packs all her utensils onto one of those buses or lorries, and travels to the home of a family celebrating the naming ceremony of a new child, as well as the midwife hired to safely deliver the child. In essence, gig work has always been a key part of our social and economic arrangements, because it arises from the simple logic that we don’t need all the things we need all the time. There are just some needs and desires we have, as people and as consumers, that are designed and/or intended to be ephemeral or fleeting, and gig workers fill those inconsistent yet necessary spaces.

So if this “gig work” has always been here, why am I suddenly hearing so much about it now?

While gig work and economies have always existed, our increasing ability to connect with each other on a one-to-one basis, powered by the rise of Internet and social media, is making gig work more plausible and accessible for a much wider range of individuals and activities than previously obtainable. On the flip side of that, the rise in automation is making the labor-intensive “9-5” model of working less viable for a lot of employers, which reduces their personnel requirements in terms of both workforce and work hours. This translates into a reality for workers where there are fewer jobs available in general, as well as one where a smaller proportion of available work is full time employment. This mix of opportunity and expediency is fueling a sharp jump in how many of us are engaged in gig work, either as the primary mode of income generation or as a supplement.

Okay, so what does this mean for African countries?

Africa, and Africans, seem to have embraced gig work, with new and existing “gig work” platforms making footprints on the continent and near-invariably finding both a curious and accepting market as well as a glut of able and qualified workers in the urban and suburban areas; however, many African nations have significant amounts of rural areas where the efficiency of such work remains untested and, in many cases, currently untestable from a logistical perspective. As many of the top-down factors driving the rise of gig work and economies are not significantly affected by rural-urban divisions, the need for such work, or the lack of alternatives, will afflict rural areas similarly to more urbanized areas, so it is important that such areas are given the infrastructure to be able to support such work, so as not to worsen current rural-urban inequities.

Wow! So what does it mean for me specifically, as an African worker in an urban area?

As individuals, most of us will come to engage with gig work, either as consumers or as providers, if we have not already done so. For the individual, gig work can mean opportunity: there are now chances to gain employment from the comfort and safety of your phone screen, without the hassle of sending in a wordy cover letter or sitting through hours of interviews. For an increasing variety of jobs, you can even do either part or sometimes all of your work over the phone or internet, which completely changes everything about how you work, from your schedule to your budget, even to your personality or sense of fashion. But there are also a few drawbacks. Gig work is notoriously fleeting, and something as little as a very bad customer review or a stolen phone can leave you completely without your source of income. Most times, it also doesn’t yet pay as well as full time work, and the temporary nature of the work means you can never take your income for granted. And it is more risky, both in the sense that gig jobs tend to more often put people in direct contact with customers, which comes with an element of risk; there are also often less insurances or other protections from the gig employers, so much of that risk is borne solely by the gig worker. The African context is not much different, with the high levels of rural-urban migration experienced by major cities in African countries supercharging both the opportunity and the risk of gig work, so the African worker needs to both be open-minded as well as cautious. Basically, chase your hustle but shine your eye.