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

Labour markets in Sub-Saharan Africa are characterised by a gendered division into formal and informal segments. The article argues that this originates from rationality introduced racist colonial legal segmentation produced variety of regimes beyond employment law. market postcolonial settings can hardly be understood nor overcome without analysis the specific institutional origins commodification labour. In Africa, “colonial exploitative standard” commodifying labour meant focusing on black African male employees for European employers, excluding or marginalising women domestic relations.