Achol Anyieth
Digital Illustration, 84x 118 cm, South Sudan, 2020
Collaborating with photographer Giles Duley—ensuring people’s voices are heard.
Part of the exhibition “Resilience and Collaboration: Stronger Together” presented at 193 Gallery.
As Amer Anyieth, 42, talks to me about the war and life before she fled her home, her niece Achol, 14, prepares kisra, a thin bread made from fermented sorghum flour. Watching the preparation is hypnotic – she rhythmically pours a little ajin (batter) on a hot plate, scrapes it evenly across the surface, waits a moment, then peels off the wafer-thin, crêpe-like bread. She tells me this staple is the one food that unites South Sudan with Sudan.
However, it’s a different dish that Amer is teaching me this afternoon: a humble tomato salad made with a groundnut sauce. Groundnuts are similar to peanuts, and this sauce made from the nuts’ paste and oil is unique to South Sudan. It’s hard to explain how something so simple in terms of ingredients can be so unique and refreshing in flavour.
For Amer, cooking is far more than just survival. Both her and Achol were displaced from Bor in 2013 and arrived at the Mahad Camp in February 2014. “Giving yourself time to cook is important, it means you cook with joy – and when you cook with joy, it gives you pride because others can feel it when they eat,” she explains to me. “Food is not just for the stomach; it is also for how you feel.” Giles Duley
