Hipping the hop of Sudan

Studio Emad El-Deen, downtown, was where he chose to meet. ‘It's a good place to talk, and you can meet my female trainees.’ Amin Jalloh, a Sierra Leonean who has lived in Egypt since 2003, spoke fondly of starting up the A-441 rap band last year. ‘Rap is a tool for consistency and for a never-give-up sort of attitude, not a tool for violence,’ he said, trying to convey a message to young people taken in by ‘the negative aspects of the commercial rap’. It's been a few months now since, together with other rappers – including Egyptians – Jalloh joined a pilot project of the, as yet unregistered, Egyptian Refugee Multicultural Council (Tadamon), the first phase of which targets young female rap fans from the Sudanese refugee community. The idea is to counter the ‘gangsta’ culture that has developed among refugees, with two gangs – the Lost Boys and the Outlaws – not only rapping but literally killing each other, notably outside the American University in Cairo (AUC) main campus on a recent occasion. Jalloh concedes that, for these young people as much as for him, hip hop is not only a way of life but an identity; a means to self-assertion against all manner of economic and social despair, but he rejects the model of the ‘tough, undefeated and violent TV rapper’. It is partly ignorance, he says: ‘they do not know that this is not the everyday life of the famous hip hop stars, and it's part of what we're trying to teach them – that hip hop is not a life style, that it's a tool – a form of entertainment and also self-expression’.

Hakron Jacob, the founding director of the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS) at AUS, has been particularly concerned with Sudanese refugees in Egypt. Research conducted at the centre indicates that gangsters are mostly men in the 15-35 age bracket, with the majority in their early 20s; most are unmarried though ‘elders’ have stable partners with children. Tribal and religious affiliation play little part in gang constitution, and females – excluded from ‘official’ meetings and decision making as well as the delinquent acts themselves – play the role of gang trophies. But because they can float among different groups, it is the women who act as informers and double agents. And it is in the hip hop-isation of identity that gang culture is most visible: Tupac Shakur is the best known role model, and gangsters dress differently from the rest of the community. According to Mohamed Yousri, Tadamon coordinator, ‘part of the problem is the lack of integration of those young people into Egyptian society. Affiliation with a gang, for them, has replaced the normal sense of communal belonging’. Tadamon, he went on to explain, is in the process of establishing a space for Egyptian and Sudanese young people to meet and interact. ‘Rap in this case is a common aspect. In our rap class there are around nine Sudanese girls but the trainers are volunteers of different nationalities including Egyptians. This is only a start. We intend to extend the classes to include Egyptian trainees as well, for example.’

An as yet unpublished feasibility study conducted by the centre in June 2006 found that the Sudanese refugee community suffers from a whole chain of obstacles with no access to education or work, inadequate housing and healthcare, and other symptoms of marginalisation. The problems may be endemic among large groups of Egyptians too, but the Sudanese have an even harder time facing them because they have no real sense of community. Divorced from tribal culture, they are brought up to think they will manage to emmigrate to the West – only to end up without a future even there. Research team member, Akram Abdu, says hip hop is being used as a tool to connect with these people: ‘We organised several rap classes and English courses in which many gang members participated. But all they get is two hours a week; the rest of the time they are back in their world. What these young people need is rehabilitation. Abdu even goes further to suggest the establishment of rehabilitation residencies whereby violent members of the community might learn to lead an alternative, healthy life – learning science, art and sport. However, one street vendor from Darfur blames it less on the lack of rehabilitation and integration than on the Egyptian police choosing to turn a blind eye: ‘there are streets in Al-Hay Al-Ashir and Ain Shams where I can't even pass without getting in trouble. The Egyptian security know about it, but what do they do to protect people?’

And yet a handful of young men, including three of those responsible for the AUC incident, have been arrested and convicted. Abdu agrees that, ‘security should be effective and visible in marginalised areas where such incidents are more likely to happen’. Indeed according to Essam, an elderly Egyptian living in Ain Shams, an iron fist is required: ‘those young people should be sent back to their country! Historically speaking, Egyptians and Sudanese are brothers. We had them here for decades and vice versa, without any problems. We used to respect each other. But the new generation is different. They do not even show respect to their own people. Why don't they go back where they came from?’ Though eliciting accusations of racism, this view is actually shared by some Sudanese political leaders to whom repatriation is the best answer to the problem; those young people are needed to rebuild southern Sudan. But others contend that repatriation will only replicate the problem elsewhere. The question is clearly not easily resolved.

According to Jacob’s research, the refugee gangs in Cairo are concentrated in Abassiya and Ain Shams – exclusive territories for the two dominant groups, but the phenomenon can also be seen in Al-Hay Al-Ashir and Maadi. It is difficult to make accurate estimates of numbers, but the two main gangs – the Lost Boys and the Outlaws – can mobilise up to 200 members each. Smaller gangs include Steel Dog, Five Girls, California, Notorious B.I.G, P2K and the Big Twelve. ‘It can be said with some confidence’, the research papers read, ‘that there are hundreds of gang affiliates in Cairo, representing a substantial number of southern Sudanese refugee youth’. Gang behaviour involves rather more than aggression, too: ‘there are important 'positive' values such as solidarity, generosity and compassion, which are inherent in gang behaviour in Cairo; for example, they arrange field trips, football tournaments and other social gatherings, and collect money for peers that need medical treatment.’ Integration, rehabilitation, repatriation, security – all are perspectives on the same intractable issue, but it seems each will have a part to play in tackling the problems of these young people who manage to be simultaneously victims and culprits.

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* This article was originally published by Al-Ahram Weekly in 2007, and recently received and reprinted by Pambazuka News in light of a recent Egyptian government initiative to support migrants in Egypt and Egyptians abroad: the Migration Information System, funded in part by the Italian government and the International Organization for Migration.
* Nahed Nassr is an Egyptian journalist and co-founder of the South Center for Human Rights.
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at Pambazuka News.