Vendors who line the sidewalks and streets of the old neighborhoods of Cairo create an astonishing local scene that can hardly be ignored. In some small, peripheral cities, these markets are the only public spaces in which members of the middle and lower classes can spend their free time, interact socially, and earn money.
These markets, such as the Tuesday market in the Mounib area of Giza, the Tunisian market in the Sayeda Aisha area in Cairo, the Ezbet Abu Hashish market in the Ghamra area in Cairo, and the Sunday market in the Al-Wekala area, are set up weekly. Some of them are built in the middle of cemeteries, yet most of them take place in residential neighborhoods and in backstreet allies.
The Class Composition of Street Markets
Street markets are characterized by religious and political fluidity. Street vendors, merchants, and buyers cannot be described as having a uniform religious or political ideology, or as belonging to the same social class. Most street vendors belong to the lower classes and live hand to mouth while merchants belong to the middle and upper middle classes, which are usually more financially stable.
As for the buyers, they belong either to the lower classes, which frequent traditional markets to look for cheap secondhand goods, or to the upper middle classes, which visit these markets looking for “designer finds” among the secondhand merchandise. There are also merchant buyers—usually from the middle classes—who come to buy raw materials for their clothing factories or handicraft projects.
Market Narratives, Public Sphere, and Power Relations
Street markets can be seen as a microcosm of the power practices at play between state and society on the one hand, and between members of society on the other. They supply a multitude of narratives that demonstrate how power relations within the public sphere are formed.
Market Guards: Influence and Domination
A guard at one of the markets in the Sayeda Aisha area says that vending spots are allocated according to prior agreement between the seller and the market guards. He says that each area of the market has a group of guards who are tasked with overseeing the renting of the vending spots, the display stands, and straw mats.
A.H is one of the guards of the Tunisian market in the Sayeda Aisha area.1 He inherited this profession from his father who had inherited it from A.H.’s grandfather. A.H. has four children who are currently in different stages of education, and he holds intermediate-level academic qualifications. He lives in the area and has a vending spot in the Friday market.
Speaking about the guards’ relationship with the municipality, he says: “Sometimes the municipality informally appoints guards to monitor the interactions between the sellers and buyers in the market, and sometimes people just make a profession out of it.” A.H. says that in exchange for rent, the guards and the market leaders help the vendors by allocating the vending spots and ensuring that trespassing does not take place. He roams the market to regulate movement, protect goods from thieves, and prevent daily quarrels among sellers and between sellers and buyers.
The Story of Alternative Spaces
The Egyptian Cabinet recently approved a draft law that is set to amend the railway regulatory law No. 277 of 1959, which criminalizes unlicensed vending in railway facilities. Officials saw the draft amendment as an opportunity to call for a law that would criminalize street vending in main squares and streets to alleviate traffic congestion in the Cairo metropolitan area and maintain the “civilized image” of the city. It is anticipated that this law, or a similar one, will be passed soon.
Concerned that this law could be passed soon, and anxious to secure their fragile sources of sustenance and escape the continuous crackdown campaigns, most street vendors resort to one-day markets. These are usually located in remote slum areas far from the main squares and thoroughfares.
Tales of Power and Counter-Power
Although most of Egypt’s street markets are characterized by the absence of state supervision, official state employees appear monthly to collect fees from vendors who display their goods at state-built kiosks.
To evade payment of these fees and to circumvent the law and display their goods without the appropriate municipal license, some vendors set up their stalls in alleys and hidden nooks. In doing so, they feel they are exercising some form of counter-power and resisting the influence of the authorities.
In the Tuesday market in one of the slums of the Giza governorate, street vendors who sell small goods do not pay fees to the state, but they pay what are known as “protection racket” fees to market guards. Although these payments could be seen as a form of extortion, vendors see them as the price of their security and protection, and analysts consider them to be a form of self-administration beyond the reach of the state.
Observing the dynamics of street markets, a picture of the informally shaped public sphere clearly emerges. This is a sphere in which influential traders are able to choose the vital and attractive market spots and claim them as their own, while less influential merchants are left to fend for themselves in the marginal areas of the market.
In fact, power relations in street markets can be described as complex and intertwined, as formal types of power overlap with the informal. In these spaces, the economic, political, and social aspects of the community are all interconnected. However, informal relations prevail; they regulate the market movement and its daily interactions. Furthermore, the informal exercise of power also contributes to an increasing “informalization” of the Egyptian economy and the public sphere.
Marwa Montaser holds a PhD in political science. She specializes in the political sociology of the Middle East and migration and refugee studies.
Note:
1. The author conducted an interview with A.H. on November 25, 2022.
