A STUDYGUIDE by Katy Marriner

A STUDYGUIDE by Katy Marriner www.metromagazine.com.au www.theeducationshop.com.au Introduction This study guide to accompany Ayen’s Cooking School ...
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A STUDYGUIDE by Katy Marriner www.metromagazine.com.au www.theeducationshop.com.au

Introduction This study guide to accompany Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men, a documentary by Vida Films, has been written for secondary students. It provides information and suggestions for learning activities in English, Geography, Health, Food and Technology, VCE VET Community Services and Media. Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men was produced in association with SBS Independent and supported by the South Australian Film Corporation. The documentary was made possible with the co-operation of The Survivors of Torture and Trauma Assistance and Rehabilitation Service (STTARS).

About Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men Over two thousand Dinka people from Southern Sudan are making a new life here in Adelaide, Australia. And although plenty of things are different, some things have not changed. (Narrator)

When Sudanese refugees resettle in Australia, their problems are not over. The contrast between life in Sudan and Australia can be overwhelming for Sudanese refugees. Many have never lived beyond the boundaries of a refugee camp. The refugees face the day to day challenges of differences in language, culture and social infrastructure.

Whilst Australia, like many western nations, has spent much of the last century immersed in a struggle for gender equality, many African countries have been immersed in a struggle for survival. For the Sudanese men and women who arrive in Australia as refugees, they find the clearly defined gender roles of their culture are out of step with the values of their new country. In Sudanese culture, culinary traditions and responsibilities fall within the realm of the women. In Australia, Sudanese women are also burdened with other duties such as paid work and study, placing tension on their culture’s customary gendered division of labour. Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men provides an insight into the difficulties of blending two vastly different cultures.

Background A significant number of refugees who have recently settled in Australia are from the south of Sudan.

During the unrest an estimated two million people died and another four million were forced to leave their homes. Many sought refuge in other countries. Over 24,000 Sudanese people now live in Australia.

SCREEN EDUCATION

On 9 January 2005, the Government of Sudan and the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement after twenty-one years of civil war. Despite the signing of the peace agreement, persecution still remains a reality in southern Sudan.



Synopsis

One day I just want to see women and boys, women and men, you know in one of our occasions with everyone passing plates and pans and knives and tomatoes and potatoes. Don’t you think it would sound good? (Ayen)

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n Sudan it is taboo for men to cook but when a group of refugee Sudanese men in Adelaide is found starving because they don’t know what to do with a fridge full of groceries, something has to change. Ayen Kuol, a Sudanese health worker decides to challenge culture and custom and start a cooking school for African men. At home, Ayen has four children and a very traditional husband. She has a full time job and studies part time. Ayen believes that if young boys watch their fathers relaxing while the women complete all the domestic chores then they will not be well served. The women of Sudan do not allow their men into the kitchen. The older women in particular, need to be convinced that it is a good idea for men to share the domestic duties. Ayen discovers that changing their opinion is as difficult as getting the men to attend her cooking school.

Ayen decides to visit the young men and argue her case. Pager and his three brothers are content to let their sister, who also works and attends school, cook, clean and take care of them. While Ayen is encouraging, Pager sees no reason to learn how to look after himself. Ayen realizes she must find a man who will set an example. When the younger boys hear that Alier their youth leader is going to attend cooking class, they are willing to follow his example. Jabilli, an African man who is a chef in an Italian restaurant, agrees to give Ayen’s students a lesson and Ayen hopes he will provide a role model for the young men to emulate. As the men’s skills in the kitchen improve, Ayen challenges them to cook a feast for the Sudanese women, to prove that men can cook and that it does not make them any less manly. The story ends in a celebration of music and dancing. The young girls tell the boys that they will ‘sell like hotcakes’, now that they can cook. Ayen is one step closer to her dream that one day she will see, ‘men and women, together at one of our gatherings, passing forks and knives and potatoes and tomatoes’.

SCREEN EDUCATION

While Alier, a young Sudanese refugee believes ‘cooking, cleaning, washing the dishes, it’s the duty of your sister’, he admits that his own efforts in the kitchen taste terrible. Alier is one of the lost boys of Sudan. Many of the young men have grown up in refugee camps and in some cases have never seen Sudan. They have come to Australia without fathers or mothers, and are now living in houses on their own and there are no women to cook for them. Ayen wants to help these men rebuild their lives.

At first, no one turns up to Ayen’s class. Ayen and her friends wait in the kitchen, cooking porridge and gossiping about what is going on in their community. The men are too proud to be found anywhere near a pot. They fear that their manhood will be diminished if they cross the threshold of Ayen’s kitchen and that they will never find a wife if they can cook.

 L-R: The food prepared; Alier cooking; CU Chopping tomatoes

About the Filmmakers

Writer/Producer/Mentor Director – Cathy Beitz

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athy Beitz began her career in film as executive producer/producer of the telemovie Madness of Two. Beitz moved to the United States in 1985, where she directed retail commercials and corporate videos, before directing the award winning documentary, They Called Me Kathy, the story of Katharine Hepburn’s childhood. For the past decade Beitz has lived in Adelaide and has been busy making documentaries for television, including two 1-hour films for Channel 4 in the UK about the trial of British nurses in Saudi Arabia and a seven part series on great Australian train journeys for the PBS Network in the US. She has also co-written, produced and directed over thirty educational films that are distributed to sixty countries, translated into thirteen languages and used by organizations such as NASA, The Mormon Church, the US Senate and The San Diego Zoo. Beitz has two documentaries in development, Confessions of a Tax Evader and Bang Bang You’re Dead, What if it was Legal for Women to Shoot Men?

Director – Sieh Mchawala (pictured right)

Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men is Mchawala’s debut documentary.

Top L-R: Alier and the class shopping; Sieh deep in thought; Ayen; Ayen in market ;

Using Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men in the classroom > Teachers may select from the following activities to support students’ viewing and close analysis of Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men.

SCREEN EDUCATION

Sieh Mchawala was born in Adelaide, Australia. His father is from the Makua tribe from South Tanzania and the family moved to Tanzania when Mchawala was eighteen months old. He returned to Australia when he was nine to complete his schooling. After finishing high school, Mchawala lived in Tanzania, and travelled internationally. When he returned to Australia, an introductory course in filmmaking grabbed Mchawala’s attention.



Before viewing ‘Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men’

• What can you cook? • Who cooks at your house? • Do cultural traditions influence the organization of your family and the roles and responsibilities of family members? Are these traditions accepted without question? • Does gender play a part in determining who completes domestic duties in your family? • Ask students to share their knowledge of how different cultures define gender roles. • Locate Sudan on a map of the world. Use the Internet and print texts to find out more about Sudan and its people, Sudanese culture and Sudanese refugees in Aus-

tralia. • The participants of Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men: - Ayen Kuol - Nyiel Jok - Alier Ateny - Malual Wal - Koko Nyanpiot - Koko Agot - Apajok Kur - Preskilla Abeny - Adhieu Akech - Sarah Malet - Anyieth Anyiwei - Elizabeth Ayak - Amel Manyuon - Athok Ajang - Dr Robert Deng

- Jabili Mchawala - Leek ‘Degal’ Kuol - Kon Chol - Pager Kur - Chol Biar - Malueth Ajak - Martin Deng - Emanuel Kuirot Deng • The idea of Sudanese men becoming knowledgeable about food and cooking is described as taboo. Define taboo. • The term Dinka is used throughout Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men. The Dinka people are the largest tribe in Sudan.

SCREEN EDUCATION

 top L-R: Alier and Degaul; Degaul and classmate cooking; Class in progress; Boys shopping. above: WS class

After viewing ‘Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men’

• Given the opposition from both Sudanese men and women, why do you think Ayen challenges the cultural taboo of men cooking? • Does Ayen’s Cooking School make a difference? • Allow students to share their personal impressions of Ayen, the young men who participate in Ayen’s cooking classes and the Sudanese women who question Ayen’s actions. • Is Ayen’s Cooking School for Afri-

can Men entertaining? • Do you think Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men is educational? • Were you surprised that cooking classes could generate personal and cultural change? • What are the central concerns of the documentary? • Why make such a documentary? • A press release for the documentary uses the tagline: ‘Lost Boys of Sudan found in an Aussie Kitchen’.

Her life changed forever in 1983. She had married Dr Robert Deng shortly before war broke out in her hometown. The newly married couple moved to Kenya; and Ayen was separated from her family. In 1998 they were reunited in various refugee camps throughout Africa.

Close Analysis Ayen Kuol yen Kuol was born in 1965 in the small town of Bor in central southern Sudan. She refers to it as the ‘deep south’ a rich and fertile land on the upper reaches of the White Nile. Her father was a medical worker and landowner. He also had nine wives and twenty-six children. Ayen went to primary school in the local town and then to the provincial town of Malakal to complete her secondary studies.

Ayen’s four children were born in Africa and the family came to Australia in 2000. Many family members have now joined Ayen in Australia, while others have settled in America and Canada. • Compile a list of adjectives to describe Ayen. Link these adjectives to moments in Ayen’s Cooking School for

above: Ayen and Nyiel at the bus stop

SCREEN EDUCATION

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What tagline would you use to promote Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men? • The documentary was originally titled Fare Dinka. What do you think of this alternative title? • Write a brief synopsis of Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men for publication in a television guide.



African Men. • What does Ayen want to achieve? • Is Ayen a changed person because of her experience? • She has been very, very supportive you know because I’m good at using my hands but she’s good at talking. I teach the boys mostly the recipes and how to do it but she also talk about social life. (Ayen) Nyiel is Ayen’s friend. Discuss her contribution to the cooking school. • Use these comments to structure a discussion of the work of Ayen and Nyiel. - ‘My main concern is that they first be healthy and be independent.’ (Ayen) - ‘How do they feel, in their mind, you know. Being a man, what does that mean, I don’t know.’ (Ayen) - ‘We cannot change all of them, but in themselves, few they will change and they will change others.’ (Nyiel) - ‘To hold a pot is something very embarrassing I can imagine, you know. A man in his mind picturing himself being seen holding a pot.’ (Ayen) - Our goal is to work bit by bit, you know until maybe one day, you know, it might not be here, maybe hundred years after we die something will happen. That is our goal – not to give up but to try bit by bit. (Ayen)

The Lost Boys of Sudan These are the boys they call the lost boys of Sudan. They were born in the war. Some lost their parents. They didn’t know where the parents were. So they just grew up on their own. Unfortunately, they didn’t know very many things about our land because they didn’t grow up there. They were not born there. (Ayen)

• What aspects of life in Australia do the young men find challenging? Why? • ‘My life story is not very interesting. Telling it to other

left: Alier/Degaul in class. right: Degaul.

SCREEN EDUCATION

Let us not allow our children to roam the streets and also let us not neglect the responsibility of raising those children who have come with no fathers or mothers. (Priscilla)

people. There is no fun in it cause it’s all about missing parents, facing hardship.’ (Alier) - The war separated Alier from his parents as an 8-year-old boy. He spent the next fourteen years in East African refugee camps before settling in Australia. - How do the filmmakers portray Alier? Why does Alier attend Ayen’s Cooking School? • Malual was a primary school history teacher at the Kakuma camp in Kenya. Like many new arrival Dinka boys, he’s living in a house with only men. There is no woman to cook for him. (Narrator) - Unlike Alier, Malual is willing to tell his story. What does his account reveal about his attitude to life and his sense of self? • I’m quite confused about whether I go or not go. If you give up to go to cooking class you may end up not getting a woman to marry in the community. (Alier) In fact you can never compete with any other man if you can cook. They will take you as if you are a weak person, not man enough. So that’s why it’s very, very hard for us. They will take you as if you are a weak person, not man enough. (Alier) - Draw on these claims to discuss why the young men are reluctant to disregard tradition and attend Ayen’s cooking school. • What do the participants in Ayen’s class learn about



their culture and self?

Old Habits Die Hard Women cooking started long ago. Whether it started with Adam or someone else I don’t know. When we were born and we grew up we found our great grandmothers, grandmothers and our mothers cooking. We don’t know how the whole thing started. (Koko) She’s been telling me that what you are doing is against the law, and if it’s in Sudan you’d be charged for what you are doing. I’m ready, you know, to be charged. You should know that we are in a country where there is women’s freedom. (Ayen)

Let’s Cook • Were you surprised that the young men had to be taught how to make a packed lunch? • Why take the young men shopping? • As Ayen and Nyiel teach the men to shop, cook and clean up what do you notice? • Jabilli has been cooking since he was a teenager and works as a chef in a local restaurant. Ayen believes he will provide a role model for the men who attend her cooking school. Is she right? • What do the young men gain from the experience? • Ayen’s cooking school is not just about cooking but about passing on Sudanese culture. What moments during the cooking classes prove this claim to be true?

middle: Hero publicity shot. Hero shot right: Degaul and Alier looking at stove

SCREEN EDUCATION

• Why do the women disagree with Ayen’s decision to teach the young men how to cook? Make a list of their objections. • The boys don’t see the benefit of learning to be independent and to be able to help their sister. It’s very sad. They would be in big trouble if she was not there! (Ayen) ‘Cooking is not a big deal’ (Pager) - Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men tells the story of Apajok, a Sudanese girl who lives with her four brothers. Apajok’s brothers are true Dinka boys. They refuse to help around the house. Apajok does everything; the cooking, cleaning and washing, as well as studying and working. As a class, discuss the significance of this scene, considering in particular the way Apajok, her brothers and Ayen respond to the situation. • ‘It’s easy to blame the men, but for generations women have ridiculed husbands who go into the kitchen.’ (Narrator) A man who always stays home when the wife is cooking will anger the wife because men should not be around cooking. That’s why she made a song. ‘My husband you should start going out. Husband, why you home, why you home all day? Go to the neighbours’ or you’ll burn your penis in the cooking fire!’ (Koko) ‘Boys will never learn how to cook until there is a clear line that Dinka women have allowed men to cook.’

(Ayen) ‘The boys say if they cook you will make fun of them.’ (Ayen) ‘Daughter in law, my son Hakim is never going to cook.’ (Koko) Everyone is jumping, this woman on one side and the woman on the other side – when it comes to someone close to me, then no you shouldn’t cook. So it’s a big problem. (Ayen) - View those scenes that show the women discussing Ayen’s project. Do you agree with Ayen that the women’s attitudes only make matters worse? • ‘The men are still opposing. They don’t see the point. Why should girls be treated equal to men? It’s a world wide issue but it’s worse in our culture.’ (Ayen) Ayen’s husband Robert is a respected community elder, university lecturer and a very traditional husband. From the comfort of the couch, Robert endorses tradition as he watches his wife and daughter cook dinner: If you constantly go to the kitchen, you will be in trouble, a taboo you see. You not supposed to get into the kitchen and see the ladies cooking, yeah. Because you are really getting into territory which is not yours. - Are you surprised by Robert’s view? How does Ayen respond to his opinion? Is there any evidence to suggest that Ayen is educating her son to think differently?



The Feast While it is difficult to change the minds of an older generation who have become set in their ways, Ayen has a plan: I’ve got some announcement guys, do you know what? Women don’t believe that you can cook, not even to make tea. So we want to surprise them, I am planning that. You know, one of these days, maybe in the next two, three weeks, we going to cook for women. I want them to taste that you can cook. I want them to taste your food. What do you think? • How do Ayen’s students respond to her suggestion? Are their arguments valid? It becomes clear that while the men are prepared to cook for themselves, they are not willing to cook for a woman or in public. While this attitude is problematic, it does reveal that the men have accepted that knowing how to cook is a necessity.

Production Values • Use a table to record details about the production val-

Analytic Responses • ‘Sudanese men don’t cook. Ayen challenges such a perception.’ Discuss. • ‘Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men acknowledges that traditions must be challenged.’ Discuss. • ‘While Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men is primarily the story of young Sudanese men learning to cook, it is also an important account of the complexities of multicultural identity.’ Do you agree? • ‘Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men highlights how

L-R: Alier and Degaul at Feast; Alier and Degaul at feast – nearly done; Ayen looking in pot; celebrating

SCREEN EDUCATION

• How does Ayen manage to change their minds? • View the scenes that document the trial run and planning for the feast. What do you notice? • Watch the men at work in the kitchen as they prepare the feast. What do the images reveal about the men’s attitude to cooking; the impact of Ayen’s cooking classes and the women’s opinions of the men’s efforts? • If the food doesn’t taste nice, please forgive us. Our aim is not to show you how good we can cook, we want to eliminate the taboo of men not cooking because its not benefiting us men. (Alier) What you have started today seems like a joke, but it’s very important. Change always starts with one person, then two, until it reaches everybody. (Anyieth) - What does the closing segment tell you about the impact of Ayen’s cooking school?

ues of Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men. • Examine the opening and closing sequence of the documentary. Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men begins with the Sudanese women gathering in a backyard and using traditional methods of cooking to prepare a meal. The men remain inside, watching television. The documentary ends with a celebratory feast that unites the Sudanese women and men as they cook, eat, dance and do the dishes. What are the filmmakers’ intentions and how are these intentions achieved? • Sieh Mchawala narrates the documentary. Discuss the role of the narrator in Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men. • What part does music play in Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men? Given the chance, what music would you use to narrate the story? • As a class discuss the challenge of achieving an honest portrayal of the project. Do you think the presence of a film crew influenced the behaviour of the participants? Do the re-enacted scenes offer an authentic telling of the story? • Consider those images that work in a symbolic way, such as the Sudanese child swinging on the hills hoist; the poster advertising the cooking classes and the ‘No women allowed’ sign that the men pin to the door of the kitchen on the day of the feast. How do these images and others inform your understanding of the story and the participants? • Ayen’s Cooking School for African Men makes frequent use of montage and split screens. Discuss the advantages and effectiveness of these techniques.



culture shapes our identity.’ Discuss.

Creative Responses • Draw on the narrative, action, dialogue and images to write a feature article about Ayen’s Cooking School and the lost boys of Sudan. Before you begin writing, decide on the publication that will feature your article. Will your article appear in a publication for the Sudanese community of Adelaide? Will you write for a broadsheet newspaper that tackles news in a serious and intelligent way or for a local newspaper that may want to generate community support for Ayen’s endeavours. When you have made your decision, think about your likely audience and the format of your article. Use vocabulary and adopt a tone that best suits the publication that you have chosen. Download appropriate images from the Internet to include in your article. Ask your teacher to act as your editor and don’t forget to devise an attention demanding headline. • Writing as Ayen, prepare a report that documents her scheme to teach young Sudanese men how to cook. Divide the report into appropriate sections and ensure you use language appropriate to the task.

Going Further

L-R: Malual arrives; The boys giving speeches; Koko waiting in anticipation; Koko happy after the feast.

SCREEN EDUCATION

• Invite a spokesperson from an organization providing support for refugee communities to speak to the class. • Refugees are not always able to return safely home or to remain in the country where they received asylum. There are situations in which resettlement to a third country is the only safe and viable solution. Learn more about Australia’s role as a refugee resettlement country by accessing the Refugee Council of Australia’s website at http://www.refugee.council.org • Research a country’s history of migration to Australia as refugees. Prepare a multimedia presentation that presents your findings. • Visit Melbourne’s Immigration Museum in person or online at http://immigration.museum.vic.gov.au to view exhibitions about refugee migration to Australia and

learn more about the cultures that are now part of Australia’s social fabric. • Find out more about Australia’s acceptance and support of Sudanese refugees and Sudanese communities in Australia. Use your research to compile a short history of the Sudanese in Australia. The following organizations and associated websites offer information to assist you complete this task: - The Tomorrow Foundation works with the Southern Sudanese community living in Melbourne. Their program creates links and understanding between the new arrivals and the Australian community: http://www.tomorrow.org.au - The Survivors of Torture and Trauma Assistance and Rehabilitation Service. (STTARS) is a non-government, not-for-profit organization with no political or religious affiliations. STTARS assists people from a refugee and migrant background who have experienced torture or been traumatized as a result of persecution, violence, war or unlawful imprisonment prior to arrival in Australia: http://www.sttars.org.au - The Sudanese Online Research Association: http:// www.sora.akm.net.au - Anna Grace and Matthew Albert have established an organization called SAIL – Sudanese Australian Integrated Learning. SAIL is a non-profit, volunteer-run, secular education, recreation and welfare program run for the Sudanese refugee community in Melbourne: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~sail/index. htm • Visit http://www.sudan.net and other Internet sites to learn more about Sudanese Food and Cooking. Use the information and recipes to plan, prepare and present a Sudanese feast. • In December 2006, the NSW town of Tamworth made headlines for its less than welcoming attitude towards five Sudanese refugee families who were to be resettled there. On 15 December, Tamworth Regional Council voted against resettling the Sudanese families under a program organized and partly funded by the Department of Immigration. Mayor James Treloar led the opposition, telling the media that having more Sudanese in the town could lead to ‘a Cronulla riots type situation’.

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Refugee-rights and church groups protested, and many Tamworth residents disagreed with the decision. On 16 January 2007, the Tamworth Regional Council voted to overturn the earlier decision to reject the refugee families. It decided to accept them for a trial period. The Refugee Council of Australia has criticized comments by a Greater Dandenong councillor that Sudanese settlers are bringing their country’s problems to Australian shores. In a letter to The Age on 9 January 2007, Councillor Peter Brown used a brawl outside Springers Leisure Centre in Keysborough South as the basis for his criticism of the Sudanese community. He also blamed the Sudanese community for violence at Noble Park railway station. Councillor Brown called

on the Federal Government to provide more funds for refugee settlement programs. - Working in small teams, use online news services and newspapers to locate these and other news stories about Sudanese communities in Australia. Read the articles and discuss the dimensions of each story. Draw conclusions about the role of the media in influencing community perceptions about Sudanese refugees. Katy Marriner



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