How Okra is challenging 'Dinka men don’t cook’ belief

Listen to Josep Manoon Athian and how he turned his small backyard into a productive garden with Okra and Cumin. A great story out of Queensland in Dinka.

Joseph Manon Athian in his garden Source: Ajak Deng Chiengkou

Full interview translation in English here

Excerpt from the interview:

In South Sudan it was the role of women to cultivate, but now things have changed in the urban areas. 

Journalist: "Knowing that Dinka men don’t cook, how do you feel when doing this?"

Josep Manoon Athian: "Dinka’s culture? Seeing me doing, they think that I am dumb. They said: 'Look at this dumb, he kept doing this.'

I always tell them I am not dumb but rather you are the ones who are dumb. You can’t just hold your hands and go hungry just because you are waiting for a woman to cook for you. Even hunger can kill you as a human being.

So I am not dumb or stupid. I am doing what is mine and the food that I will be able to eat. Dumb is to sit without doing anything.

A person working to produce what he can eat, can't be called dumb or stupid.

If you don’t have a wife, you must work hard to help yourself. Not everything is to be done by a woman".