The Sudan War series is a joint collaboration between the Center for Economic, Legal, and Social Studies and Documentation – Khartoum (CEDEJ-K), Sudan-Norway Academic Cooperation (SNAC) and African Arguments – Debating Ideas. Through a number of themes that explore the intersections of war, displacement, identities and capital, Sudanese researchers, many of whom are themselves displaced, highlight their own experiences, the unique dynamisms within the larger communities affected by war, and readings of their possible futures.
In the harsh realities of forced displacement, survival often necessitates an active, resourceful engagement with the informal economy–a phenomenon aptly captured by the concept of “the Hustle.” This analysis delves into the sophisticated yet precarious economic strategies deployed by Sudanese individuals in Cairo, with brokerage emerging not merely as a survival mechanism, but as the quintessential form of this urban “hustle.” Situated within contemporary understandings of survival economies, this piece argues that despite Sudanese individuals using different economic survival strategies ,it is brokerage in its diverse forms–from navigating the complex real estate market to facilitating bureaucratic processes–represents the core adaptive response to precarity. It also highlights how displaced individuals ingeniously leverage social capital, intricate local knowledge, and an acute understanding of market gaps to create avenues for income generation. While indispensable for meeting basic needs, this “hustle” inherently operates within an ethically ambiguous space, underscoring the delicate balance between resourcefulness and vulnerability in Cairo’s challenging informal landscape. This article offers a nuanced exploration of these often-overlooked economic practices, revealing the ingenuity and systemic challenges embedded within the Sudanese communities relentless pursuit of survival.
The genesis of the hustle: economic rupture
Forced displacement precipitates an immediate and profound economic rupture, fundamentally altering individuals’ capacity for livelihood and propelling them directly into the precarious realm of the survival economy. The violence and destruction of familiar surroundings are not just emotionally devastating; they systematically dismantle pre-existing economic lives, forcing an abrupt transition into a state of acute financial vulnerability upon arrival in host cities like Cairo.
Interviewee narratives powerfully illustrate this economic shock. One individual, who previously enjoyed financial stability as an accountant and driver in Khartoum, recounted how this security was “abruptly shattered by escalating violence.” His immediate recourse upon displacement–“generating income through street vending”–exemplifies the sudden and often humiliating shift from formal professions to informal, low-status survival strategies. This is a common trajectory within displacement, where prior occupational capital is rendered largely irrelevant, necessitating the rapid adoption of any available hustle.
The journey to safety further exacerbates this economic devastation through what is widely termed “asset stripping” (Crisp, 2000). The arduous and often illicit escape depletes crucial savings, a burden compounded by pre-war practices of storing wealth in non-bank assets like gold or foreign currency, which became highly susceptible to looting. As another interviewee shared, the journey was “not only physically demanding but also financially draining, requiring a significant portion of our savings.” This forced divestment leaves many individuals arriving in Cairo with minimal or no capital, severely limiting their options for formal economic engagement and pushing them immediately into the informal survival economy. The immediate and sustained need for income, coupled with this financial decimation, thus directly fuels the imperative for the “hustle,” forming the foundational condition for the prevalence of brokerage and other informal economic activities that characterizes the life in Cairo.
Stratified precarity and the pervasive imperative for survival (Cairo’s logic)
Survival strategies of displaced Sudanese in Cairo are not merely a function of their individual ingenuity, but are profoundly shaped by the intricate interplay of their legal statuses and the pervasive structural challenges within the host city. This analysis posits that while legal status introduces a critical stratification within the Sudanese community, sometimes even influencing the degree of precarity experienced, it does not fundamentally exempt any group from the compelling imperative to engage with the informal survival economy. Rather, it delineates a continuum of vulnerability where even those with legal standing face, albeit in a lesser form, the same systemic impediments that define the daily struggle for livelihood.
At the most acute end of this spectrum are undocumented migrants, entirely excluded from formal avenues and state protection. Their lack of legal recognition renders them exceptionally vulnerable, pushing them into the most precarious and often exploitative informal arrangements for mere subsistence . This forces them into a raw, immediate form of ‘hustle’ where any means of income generation, regardless of its ethical ambiguity or risk, becomes essential. UNHCR-recognized refugees, while benefiting from a modicum of legal protection, still confront significant barriers to formal employment within the Egyptian economy. Their status, though offering some stability, typically necessitates active engagement within informal spheres, where social capital within diasporic networks is leveraged as a primary resource for livelihood generation. For this group, the ‘hustle’ becomes a crucial adaptive strategy, often involving community-eccentric services or small-scale entrepreneurship.
Crucially, even the minority of formal residents–those holding valid Egyptian Residency Cards, often secured through substantial financial outlays–are not entirely immune to these dynamics. While their legal status theoretically grants greater access to formal opportunities, the realities of Cairo’s strained resources, highly competitive job market, and pervasive in-formalization mean that stable, formal employment remains elusive for many. Their engagement with the survival economy, while perhaps less driven by immediate desperation, is often a strategic decision to supplement incomes, secure financial stability, or navigate niches more effectively accessible through informal networks. They may encounter subtle forms of discrimination or face the same opaque, unregulated conditions within the informal sector that others do, albeit with potentially more capital or social leverage to mitigate the impact. This demonstrates that formal legal standing, rather than creating an entirely distinct economic reality, merely shifts the parameters of engagement within the overarching informal urban landscape.
This nuanced stratification is then compounded by Cairo’s broader structural environment( from foreigners, especially those from less wealthy countries point of view), which acts as a pervasive impetus for reliance on informal survival strategies across all legal categories. The scarcity of formal employment avenues often compels a reliance on an ethnic enclave economy, where social capital within diasporic networks becomes the de facto infrastructure for accessing resources and generating income. Furthermore, the largely unregulated and often exploitative nature of Cairo’s informal sector, characterized by arbitrary demands and unofficial payments, renders all participants susceptible to precarity. Even for those with legal status, navigating these opaque systems requires resourcefulness and a willingness to operate outside formal protections. Finally, pervasive discrimination against Sudanese individuals–manifesting in social interactions, inflated prices, and limited fair market access–serves as a constant economic barrier, reinforcing the necessity of informal strategies where community ties might offer some buffering. Therefore, the daily lives of displaced Sudanese in Cairo are defined by a complex survival economy, shaped by the interaction of legal status and an urban environment that collectively compel continuous adaptation and the strategic pursuit of informal livelihoods across a graduated scale of vulnerability, yet confronted by these profound structural challenges and the varying degrees of legal precarity in Cairo, displaced Sudanese individuals are compelled to enact a range of dynamic and resourceful economic strategies to secure their livelihoods. These adaptive responses, characteristic of a robust survival economy, are often embodied in what can be termed as the “hustle”–a relentless pursuit of income through informal means. While this encompasses diverse activities such as micro-entrepreneurship and various forms of income diversification, it is through the complex and varied operations of brokerage that the ingenuity, risks, and ethical ambiguities of this urban hustle are most acutely observed and negotiated within Cairo’s informal markets
Everyday survival strategies for Sudanese in Cairo
In Cairo, the “hustle” for displaced Sudanese manifests as a dynamic array of economic activities, a testament to their adaptive capacity in a context of profound precarity. While the ethnic economy provides a vital initial sphere for some livelihoods, the imperative for survival often compels individuals to pursue opportunities across broader informal markets, engaging in diverse forms of income generation. This section argues that micro-entrepreneurship and strategic leveraging of social capital within community networks frequently serve as foundational ‘hustles,’ while the constant need for income diversification often extends beyond these ethnic boundaries, reflecting the relentless and fluid nature of urban survival.
Micro-entrepreneurship represents a common and accessible entry point into this informal economic landscape. From street vending to establishing small community-oriented shops, these ventures exemplify the resourcefulness born of necessity, providing crucial, albeit often meager, income when formal employment is elusive. The initial success and sustained operation of such micro-enterprises are deeply reliant on social capital and the ethnic economy, which provides a ready-made market and a degree of trust among co-ethnics. As one interviewee revealed, “all the opportunities that I got here in Cairo are somehow connected to the Sudanese community,” highlighting how shared identity facilitates customer bases, informal credit, and information exchange that bypass the barriers of the mainstream market. This ethnic economic sphere offers a crucial, albeit contained, refuge from the direct discrimination found in broader Egyptian markets.
However, despite its critical role as a launching pad and safety net, over-reliance on the ethnic economy presents significant limitations. My analysis suggests that while it supports initial survival, its inherent constraints–such as the finite purchasing power of a displaced community and often low profit margins–can impede scalability and foster a distinct form of internal precarity. Moreover, the very bonds of trust that underpin this economy can be exploited, leading to internal exploitation where some community members, leveraging their knowledge of others’ desperation, engage in unfair pricing or exploitative labor practices within the Sudanese economic niche. This reality underscores that the ethnic economy, while indispensable for its supportive function, is not a panacea for long-term stability and can itself perpetuate precarious conditions.
It is precisely these limitations of relying solely on community-bound ventures that necessitate income diversification as a central and often boundary-crossing hustle.
Individuals are compelled to engage in multiple economic activities simultaneously, not exclusively within Sudanese networks, but also by seeking opportunities in the broader Egyptian informal market. This might involve piecing together daily wage labor, engaging in petty trade that caters to a mixed clientele, or, as exemplified by my own experience balancing research work with managing a café, navigating disparate income streams across various sectors. This strategic diversification functions as a vital form of self-insurance against the volatility of any single ‘hustle’ and the general lack of social safety nets, allowing individuals to adapt to market fluctuations and mitigate the risks of exploitation. Thus, the Sudanese hustle in Cairo is a multi-layered phenomenon: often initialized and supported by the ethnic economy, yet driven by necessity to expand beyond it through diversification. It is within this dynamic and often fragmented economic landscape that brokerage emerges as a particularly prevalent and complex manifestation of the urban hustle, capitalizing on these very inter- and intra-community connections.
Brokerage as the apex of the hustle
Within Cairo’s complex urban landscape, brokerage emerges as a defining and indispensable form of the ‘hustle,’ serving as a primary mechanism through which displaced Sudanese individuals secure their economic survival. This section argues that brokers, by capitalizing on critical information asymmetries and systemic institutional gaps, transform community needs and bureaucratic dysfunctions into viable income streams. This form of intermediation is not merely an opportunistic venture but a direct and often strategic response to the exclusion from formal markets, leveraging social capital to create livelihoods in a precarious environment. Below are a few examples of the type of brokering activities at the center of livelihood for displaced communities in Cairo:
Real estate brokerage (leveraging demand)
A pervasive manifestation of the brokerage ‘hustle’ is the facilitation of real estate transactions, primarily for newly arrived Sudanese seeking housing. Brokers, intimately familiar with Cairo’s diverse neighborhoods and possessing networks among both Sudanese clients and Egyptian landlords, become indispensable navigators of the housing market. They translate housing needs into available properties, negotiate terms, and guide often disoriented newcomers through unfamiliar urban terrain. For the broker, this activity directly translates social capital into economic gain: by leveraging trust within the ethnic economy and managing information asymmetry, they secure commissions (typically one month’s rent) that are crucial for their own economic survival. My analysis contends that while this brokerage provides an essential service for a vulnerable population–securing immediate shelter in a challenging foreign city–it simultaneously highlights a pervasive form of rent-seeking within the survival economy. Brokers, by virtue of controlling access and information, can inflate rental prices for their Sudanese clients compared to local rates, transforming a necessary service into a significant financial burden on those least able to afford it, thereby sustaining the broker’s livelihood at the community’s expense .
Government document brokerage ( a bureaucratic labyrinth)
Another critical form of the brokerage ‘hustle’ is the facilitation of government document processes, a direct economic response to the labyrinthine and often corrupt bureaucracies of both Sudanese and Egyptian state apparatuses. These brokers specialize in expediting the acquisition or renewal of essential legal documents such as passports, visas, or residency cards–services that are vital for legal status, movement, and even access to other basic rights. For individuals facing protracted delays, opaque procedures, or outright rejection through official channels, a broker with established connections within these systems offers a seemingly indispensable solution. For the broker, this translates into substantial, often exorbitant, fees that are a direct function of their ability to circumvent official inefficiencies and exploit their insider access. For instance, obtaining a Sudanese passport, which officially costs 8000 EGP (about 150 USD) and takes three months, can be accelerated to two weeks for 16-18 thousand EGP ( 300 to 350 USD) through a broker. My argument is that this form of brokerage directly monetizes institutional dysfunction and lack of transparency. While it offers a pragmatic pathway for clients to obtain crucial legal standing, it simultaneously reinforces systemic corruption and imposes a disproportionate financial burden on the most vulnerable, creating a highly lucrative niche for brokers within the informal governance of displacement.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
These forms of brokerage, therefore, represent more than mere informal economic activities; they are complex survival strategies forged at the intersection of acute need, structural exclusion, and opportunistic inter-mediation. They underscore the profound adaptive capacity of individuals within the “hustle” to transform societal and governmental failings into personal livelihoods, even as they navigate the inherent ethical dilemmas of profiting from the very vulnerabilities they are attempting to alleviate.
Conclusion
However, these findings underscore that while these multi-faceted ‘hustles’ demonstrate remarkable agency and resourcefulness, they simultaneously expose profound vulnerabilities. The reliance on an ethnic economy, though providing a vital initial refuge, is often characterized by low scalability, internal precarity, and the potential for exploitation, pushing individuals to diversify beyond communal boundaries. Crucially, forms of brokerage–from real estate intermediation to navigating bureaucratic labyrinths–while essential for addressing critical needs, highlight how brokers monetize institutional dysfunctions and information asymmetries. These ‘hustles’, while sustaining livelihoods, often do so by extracting significant, sometimes exploitative, rents from a vulnerable client base, perpetuating cycles of financial strain within the very community they serve.
Ultimately, the enduring ‘hustle’ in Cairo signifies more than just individual ingenuity; it reflects a broader phenomenon of displaced populations adapting to conditions of structural exclusion and pervasive precarity. The pervasive role of brokerage, in particular, reveals the complex, often ethically ambiguous, spaces where survival is negotiated. Understanding these nuanced informal livelihoods–their functions, their limitations, and their ethical landscapes–is paramount for grasping the realities of urban displacement and for informing interventions that move beyond mere emergency aid to address the deep-seated vulnerabilities that compel such relentless striving for economic survival.
Debating Ideas reflects the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing engaged, often radical, scholarship, original and activist writing from within the African continent and beyond. It offers debates and engagements, contexts and controversies, and reviews and responses flowing from the African Arguments books. It is edited and managed by the International African Institute, hosted at SOAS University of London, the owners of the book series of the same name.
Mohamed Jamal is a young scholar and early career researcher, his work focuses on the dynamics of political and social economy in Sudan. With a postgraduate background in development he is particularly interested in understanding the profound shifts Sudan has experienced since revolution, through to the 2023 devastating war. His work traces the complex interplay between political structures, economic realities, and societal impacts in Sudan, hoping to contribute meaningful insights to discussions about its development and stability.