Unemployment? Aláiníṣẹ́? Where did that come from?

To the Yoruba of old, the term aláiníṣẹ́ (unemployed) was never in their lexicon.

Obviously, for an agrarian society where most people were their own boss, aláiníṣẹ́ had no place in the vocabulary. Everyone was gainfully occupied in one profession or the other - farmer, hunter, blacksmith, trader, carpenter, Babalawo (Ifá Priest), wine tapper, tanner, dyer etc. And for people who were indebted and could not pay, the Ìwọ̀fà System (I will write more on this system in future posts) was in place as a safe guard.

So when did the term enter the Yoruba lexicon? Well, the British brought it. The etymology of the word "umemployed" (adj) - i.e. "at leisure, not occupied" confirmed that it first appeared in English language in 1660. However, in 1782, it became the noun for "collective unemployed persons". It came about as a by product of the Industrial Revolution that started in England in 1760!

Industrialisation is synonymous to economies of scale. It prevents people from having the required capital to create their own jobs and be their own boss. When a person cannot join an enterprise or become self employed, the person ends up becoming unemployed. As individual farmers, dyers, traders etc are organised into big enterprises, people who cannot join or compete end up as unemployed.

With widespread automation and Artificial Intelligence now, what does the future old?
Only social, creative and complex jobs that are harder to automate will survive.
Driving as a job will become extinct very soon because self driving cars and lorries are being trialled in developed countries now.
Delivery service will be done by drones and household robots doing chores are now popular in Japan.

Do you know that before 1945, the word "Computer" meant "a person who calculates"! It was a job title like today's "Accountant". Now, it is a machine!
So if "Computer" (the machine) ate "Computer" (the person), what's the hope for other professions?

Get creative, get social and get into complex things that are very difficult to automate. Better still, be the one programming these machines....