Abdoulie Kurang shares original insights into the practice known as “Bumsing” in Gambia, whereby youngster receives material gains from western tourists in exchange of sexual favours. He argues that this practice is a function of the rising precarity among Gambian workers in the tourism industry following successive socio-economic crises in the last decade. Although tourism is one of Gambia’s important industries, it has failed to alleviate poverty, leaving low-skilled workers to scrap for crumbs.

In this latest contribution to the Capitalism in Africa debate series, Benjamin Rubbers presents the main ideas of the recently published book Inside Mining Capitalism: The Micropolitics of Work on the Congolese and Zambian Copperbelts. The book chapters examine how labour practices have been mediated, negotiated, or resisted by mineworkers, unionists, and human resources managers. This exploration into the micropolitics of work allows not only to highlight variations among mining projects, but also to understand the social dynamics they contribute to generate in new ways.