Minga comes from the Quechua minka or mink’a, a verb meaning “to request help by promising something in return,” which came to designate “trabajo comunitario por el bien común” (communal work for the common good) across much of the Andean region. It is pre-Hispanic in origin and is still practiced today in countries such as Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile and Argentina.
Minga (also spelled minka or minga comunitaria) is an ancient Andean organization of collective work in which community members voluntarily come together to carry out a task that benefits the whole group or a particular household—building houses or communal infrastructure, harvesting crops, repairing paths, etc.—usually framed by strong norms of reciprocity, solidarity, and celebration (food, drink, and festivity often accompany the work).