Digital Postcolonialism in Africa and Class Debates: Protoproletariat or Pooriat?

This study explores the concept of digital postcolonialism, analyzing how digital economies perpetuate colonial dynamics and deepen global inequalities. Digital colonialism, much like historical colonialism, exerts control over developing regions through monopolistic ownership of digital infrastructure, data, and platforms by tech giants primarily located in the global North. By examining the labour conditions of digital workers, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, this study highlights the emergence of a “digital blue-collar” workforce facing precarious, low-wage conditions dictated by platform algorithms. Through the introduction of the concept “pooriat,” the study underscores the severe poverty and dependency that characterize this workforce, reflecting a new form of economic subjugation in the digital age. These conditions reinforce a digital hierarchy, where peripheral regions provide labour and data without fair compensation or control, paralleling colonial resource extraction. The study also discusses the potential of alternative frameworks, such as platform socialism, to challenge these power imbalances by democratizing control over digital infrastructures. This research contributes to the discourse on global inequality, digital dependency, and socio-economic restructuring, emphasizing the need for a more equitable digital economy.