Navigating labour's labyrinth: Developing a typology of platform work in Sub-Saharan Africa

Platform-mediated labour is rapidly transforming African economies, expanding opportunities yet exacerbating precarity. This paper develops an empirical typology of heterogeneous platform worker experiences in Sub-Saharan Africa, grounded in interviews with 55 labourers across transportation, domestic services, IT and creative sectors in Rwanda, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Integrating neo-Marxist concepts of dispossession with postcolonial perspectives on enduring North-South domination reveals nuanced differences in autonomy constraints, income volatility, rating dependence and peripheral exclusion across five worker segments: high-skilled independents, low-skilled dependents, aspiring entrepreneurials, established entrepreneurials and discouraged peripherals. Findings show that high-skilled independents navigate autonomy and instability on global freelancing platforms while facing discrimination. Low-skilled dependents experience exploitative algorithms dictating terms of participation. Aspiring entrepreneurials leverage platforms strategically to launch startups. Established entrepreneurials transition from precarious work to launch equitable local platforms. Meanwhile, discouraged peripherals are denied access by opaque vetting. This typology provides traction to tailor protections addressing decent work deficits concentrated among particular groups.