’Dardaqh’ Develops from Handling Building Materials to Nuts Mobile Shop
31 March, 2016KHARTOUM (SUDANOW) - Many young people are seen around Khartoum pushing a small iron made container, locally named as dardaqh, full of indigenous nuts and other fruits.
Dardaqh has one front wheel and two iron hands fixed to its main structure. It moves by hand pushing process. The traditional use of Dardaqh in Sudan was for handling building materials at building site areas. Then in 1990s the Dardaqh was used to carry baggage and personal effects of passengers departing and arriving Khartoum through land terminal in Suq AL Shabi southward of Khartoum. Dardagh operators’ also used to pick vegetables and some other commodities bought by people on Dardaqh to town bus terminals charging few coins. The boys used to hire Dardaqh from a company contracted with locality council at Central Market in Khartoum for certain agreed upon amount of money. But now Dardaqh becomes flourishing business and it operates as mobile shop used for selling variety of nuts, and fruits.
Hawkers loaded Dardaqh with Sudanese produced nuts such as lupine, doum fruits, baobab fruits, nabk, and groundnuts ----besides other fruits like watermelon, apple, manjo and orange. Some of them display nuts on Dardaqh in an attractive way. They display nuts in transparent plastic bags to cover it from dust and to attract customers as well. Before expansion use of Dardaqh the selling of nuts was mainly manipulated by women whilst some few groups of male are found moving around selling nuts in baskets or plates made of doum leaves. Now The Dardaqh becomes a new displaying facility manipulated by men. Nuts sellers are found moving pushing Dardaqh forward from place to place and are present intensively at hospitals’ main gates, in front of schools, outside university campuses and ministries.
Although the nuts are locally produced from forests trees found abundantly in Sudan their fruits are sold expensively, one respondent told me after he bought some nuts. He said this little amount cost SDG35. It is very expensive, he complained. In the past he said ten times double of this amount may not costing more than few coins.
Attempting to find out reasons behind nuts high price requires examining the situation with nuts sellers who are all the time in a hurry pushing a Dardaqh forward hunting a customer or escaping away fearing confiscation of goods by municipality.
They are suspicious because they said are targeted by municipality for having no licence. And they are reluctant to talk to press because they believe they don’t benefit something from press. Haj Mohamed is a former farmer approximately at age seventy. The man still fit moving from place to place pushing his Dardaqh forwards fetching customers at complexes of ministries. In the beginning he was reluctant to talk. However after building confidence said he arrived in Khartoum seven years ago from Darfur. He started his business of selling nuts on Dardaqh some three years ago. He bought the Dardaqh from somebody for SDG 400. He could have bought it as new for SDG300. But he said his Dardaqh was modified with wooden surface built on top for displaying nuts and uses the iron made container as store beneath the wooden surface.
Haj Mohamed who lives in Haj Yousif suburb said he gets down for work after Morning prayer. After reaching downtown he starts work around 10 O‘clock in the morning until 4 to 5pm then delivers the Dardaqh for being kept until the next day morning in store in Khartoum for SDG3. On public complaints as regard the high nuts price, he said "nuts are expensive because we buy it expensive from wholesales shops in Al Sug Al Shabi in Omdurman. He explained that nuts are transported on trucks from production areas in western Sudan and Blue Nile hundreds of miles away from Khartoum. So he said transport expenses are added to the cost and that of course will be reflected on high prices of nuts comparable to previous days. Haj Mohamed says the profit he gains depend on public demand. However he says in average the sale operation may achieve a profit between SDG40 to SDG50. However he complains hawkers are always targeted by municipality.
Abakar who also has a Dardaqh prefers working at residential areas to keep away from municipality eyes. He uses special tone of whistle to advertise for his goods. He said children are the main customers at residential areas particularly during school holidays. If a Dardaqh is caught by municipality it will not be released unless the owner pays a fine Abakar said. The fine according to hawkers ranges betwenSDG100 to SDG200.
Different members of the society could be found engaged in selling nuts on Dardaqh. For instance Issa is student at a university and he owns a Dardaqh. He said his brother bought it for him to help in paying tuition fees.
Abd Allah from northern Kordofan left schooling earlier, got married and now a father to two children. He sells nuts using the Dardaqh. He could send SDG250 each week to his family from what he gains. But he says is looking for another job because he is bothered of being pursue by the municipality.
A group of young people also sell nuts at Khartoum downtown argued that they display good quality of nabk and Laloob (Laloob is local name given to fruits produced from B. Aegyptiaca tree). They said the quality goods they have is imported from South Sudan. They use small, medium and large standard scales for selling nabk and laloob. The prices of the three scales range between SDG10 to SDG 35. When asked why price is so high they said it deserves it because it is good quality imported nuts.
Anyhow, those who complain of the nuts high prices may find some consolation knowing the health benefits of nuts. Food experts posted numerous stories on Yahoo .com highlighting this fact. They say just a handful of edible nuts, or your choice of health seeds like sesame, a day and you will be doing more than good to keep yourself healthy and stay fit. Nuts are rich in energy, protein, packed with antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. Again Experts add that nuts are healthy in their raw unroasted form, because up to 15% of fats are destroyed during roasting process. People who consume nuts regularly are less likely to develop coronary heart disease, food experts have said.
The common complaints of Dardaqh operators are that they are all targeted by municipality. An official from local council at Central market southward of Khartoum told Sudanow on condition of anonymity that the council in the area contracted with a company and that the company hires Dardaqh to people in the area. But, he said, the area at Central market is under the monopoly of the company and those found operating without licenses in the area are subjected to a fine estimated to SDG 100.
The good news for Dardaqh operators is that Khartoum Bahri commissioner Hassan Idris has cancelled, this week, contracts with companies hiring Dardagh for children against payment of SDG15 per day to the locality. The commissioner pledges to offer Dardagh to children free of change on condition they join literacy classes. Official statistics show that nearly 6000 children are working on Dardagh owned by localities in Khartoum state. Khartoum Bahri commissioner said his locality decides to offer Dardagh free of charge to 500 children working on Dardagh at Shmbat central market and Khartoum Bahri terminal. He said it is unfair that the locality depends on SDG15 collected from each Dardagh a day paid by children who all of them are from poor family background.
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