The price of Black women's labor Theme: The racialized and gendered devaluation of Black women’s labor.

The exploitation of Black women’s labor—whether domestic, agricultural, care-based, or within the cultural and fashion industries—sits at the sharp intersection of race, gender, and class. Historically, colonial systems relied on cheap, feminized labor, constructing powerful ideologies to justify the economic extraction of Black women and girls.  

In this fourth episode of Disrupting the Colonial Script: Centering Black Women’s Voices—a key part of our Unfinished Freedom project—we examine how these historical patterns continue to persist. Produced in partnership with the Nawi Afrifem Collective, hosts Lavender Namdiero and Elizabeth Maina sit down with guest Wangari Kinoti. Together, they trace the direct line between colonial extraction and contemporary inequalities, discussing modern-day manifestations such as the recruitment of young refugee women into exploitative modeling circuits, pay disparities, and unequal access to workplace protections.  

This conversation moves beyond highlighting exploitation to center the transformative power of feminist organizing and the demand for genuine economic justice. 

Colonial legacies of labor: Understand how colonial labor systems historically shaped and continue to drive the contemporary exploitation of Black African women.  

Transnational patterns: Identify consistent, systemic patterns of exploitation across domestic, care-based, agricultural, and cultural industries.  

Grounded realities: Hear the lived experiences and stories of women directly affected by these exploitative labor structures.  

Feminist resistance: Learn about active feminist labor organizing and collective movements fighting for change across Africa and the diaspora.  

Transformative justice: Consider what truly reparative and transformative labor justice looks like for Black women globally.  

Production: African Futures Lab, NAWI Afrifem Collective and Matt Dann.

Recording and editing: Matt Dann.  

Music: "African Dreams," written and composed by Seun Anikulapo Kuti.  

Artwork: Florence Akyams. 

This episode was made possible through the generous support of our individual donors:

Nabeelah Shabbir, Carmen Ervin, A. Lorenceau, Taoufik, Anita Munyaneza, Amy Ngoc Dung Hong, Britta Redwood, Michel DeGraff, Deborah Ashimwe, Soline Laplanche-Servigne, Claire Bernard, Yasmine Abdillahi, Simon and Anita Hanukai Kirpalani, Maite Van Regemorter, Asdis Olafsdottir, S.F. du Toit, and Julie Frey.

We are deeply grateful for their generosity and for supporting efforts to amplify Black women's voices and advance decolonial feminist storytelling.