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‘We do our bit in our own space’: DAL Group and the development of a curiously Sudanese enclave economy*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2013

Laura Mann
Laura Mann*
Affiliation:
Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, 1 St Giles’, Oxford OX1 3JS, United Kingdom
*
Email: laura.mann@oii.ox.ac.uk
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Abstract

The family firm, DAL Group, is Sudan's largest and most diversified company. Its growth has concentrated on consumer goods, rather than on state concessions or exports. It has developed its own training programmes, construction units, transportation networks and market research departments to manage the unstable environment outside its business walls. This paper focuses on the company's recruitment policies, demonstrating how the firm relies on its own internal family structure and a transnational network of Sudanese professionals in order to grow and prosper. Such self-reliance contributes to growing political frustration among young unemployed people. Graduates from ‘marginal’ areas rely more heavily on public advertisements and on information obtained from state bodies, not the private channels of wasta (personal intermediation) that cut through contemporary business. The paper concludes by comparing DAL with similar business networks in Ethiopia and Rwanda, arguing that DAL is a unique and interesting form of ‘enclave economy’, shaped by a displaced transnational elite operating in a hostile political environment. Within the wider political context of Sudan, there is a limit to what similar businesses can achieve.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , June 2013 , pp. 279 - 303
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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Footnotes

*

This paper is based on a chapter from my PhD thesis: The Retreat of the State and the Market: Liberalisation and Education Expansion in Sudan under the NCP. I must extend the warmest thanks to my Edinburgh supervisors, Sara Rich Dorman and Donald MacKenzie, in addition to Francesca Locatelli and the late Charles Jedrej. I must also thank Thomas Molony and Cherry Leonardi for their helpful comments during my viva/defence. Lastly, I must thank all the people who gave me their time during my fieldwork, and most importantly, Motasim Daoud and the rest of DAL.

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Interviews

With the rare exception of some individuals whose names I have used in the text (and whose identities are clearly discerned from context), I have used pseudonyms of all my research participants to protect their anonymity. In total, I conducted 159 interviews during fieldwork. Here, I have only listed relevant and quoted sources:

1. Motasim Daoud, Managing Director of DAL Motor Company Limited, Khartoum, 2010.

2. DAL (Head Office), HR Manager 1, Khartoum, 2009.

3. DAL (Head Office), HR Manager 2, Khartoum, 2010.

4. DAL (Head Office), HR Manager 3, Khartoum, 2010.

5. Hani Hassan, Al Sunut (DAL), General Manager, Khartoum, 2010.

6. ‘Ashraf’, Sayga (DAL), HR Manager, Khartoum, 2009.

7. ‘Heba’, Coca Cola (DAL), Former HR Manager, Khartoum, 2010.

8. Liquid Gas (DAL), Manager, Khartoum, 2009.

9. HR Manager, Sudan Airways, Khartoum, 2010.

10. Graduate entrepreneur, Khartoum, 2010.

11. UNDP Employee, Khartoum, 2010.