Mapping Data Labour Supply Chain in Africa in an Era of Digital Apartheid: a Struggle for Recognition
For researchers and activists studying global digital labour exploitation, this paper offers a foundational map and participatory methodology, though it is incremental in applying recognition theory to a known problem.
The paper maps Africa's data labour supply chain, revealing 43 of 55 countries involved, 17 major firms serving Global North clients, and workers facing short-term contracts, psychological stress, and economic instability. It provides the first comprehensive map of the industry and a methodology centered on workers' collective actions.
Content moderation and data annotation work has shifted to the Global South, particularly Africa, where workers at business process outsourcing (BPO) companies operate under precarity to serve Global North needs. We address the invisibility of this data labour supply chain and the underdocumented working conditions of its workforce. Drawing on a participatory collaboration between academics, an NGO, and a union, we conducted desk research and deployed a questionnaire (n=81) attuned to unions' organising goals. Our findings show that data labour spans 43 out of 55 African countries, involving 17 major firms serving predominantly North-American and European clients, with workers employed on short-term contracts, under psychological stress and economic instability - conditions that obscure the competences, i.e. adaptability and resilience, that their work demands. We contribute the first comprehensive map of Africa's data labour industry and demonstrate a methodology that centers workers' collective actions in documenting their conditions, drawing on Honneth's "struggle for recognition" to capture workers' demands for professional and social acknowledgement.